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Solar keeps me farming

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April 3, 2026

My family and I live on a small farm in Erie, Pennsylvania. Although our primary business is publishing, we also raise goats, ducks, and chickens as well as harvest hay and fruit. Our extended family has three homes on our land, and I’m proud to say that all three are now powered by solar. 

We care about the environment and consider ourselves stewards of the land. With that in mind, we have always been interested in solar. We went solar with the Erie County Solar Co-op after hearing about it from a friend. I went to a Solar 101 hosted by SUN at the Erie County library and learned all about the solar co-op process.

Going solar made financial sense for our family. Our electric bills at the farm are around $30,000 a year, which is nothing to sneeze at. The rise in electric rates and then the news that the tax credit might go away got us to finally pull the trigger. Our installation is a little bigger than average, but we decided to energize the entire farm. We think it’ll pay off, and we are very happy with the results

Working with the installer, EIS [Energy Independent Solutions], was a very positive experience. The whole team was so helpful throughout the process, and always responded immediately if I had any questions. We had a complicated system with three separate arrays, and they worked closely with us on the system design. We expect to be cash positive within about six years! It just made sense.

As farmers, we consider ourselves responsible for protecting the land we are on. We think in terms of generations. Solar development is sustainable and temporary; it does not ruin the land in the ways that other, permanent development can. Instead, it preserves the land’s integrity for the future. Going solar allowed us to keep our farm as a farm.

It’s a hard time to be a farmer, and solar can be a great option to generate profit from our land and build equity for future generations. Beyond rooftop solar, farmers should be allowed to use their own land for community solar and rural solar farms. Our family travels frequently to Buffalo, New York and we frequently see solar farms dotting the landscape as we drive. 

I hope that one day Pennsylvania will catch up with the rest of the country and let farmers host community solar projects. Community solar lets people buy or lease a share of a solar array. They earn a credit on their bill from the electricity it generates just as they’d earn credit if they had solar on their own home. Community solar projects also provide payment to the host. It’s essentially another crop farmers can grow. Other states have it but Pennsylvania doesn’t, yet. Join me in contacting Pennsylvania lawmakers to ask them to make community solar available!

— Tim Larson