CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas A&M University Kingsville is working with farmers here in South Texas to promote more modern sources of energy through the use of a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
TAMU-K Professor & Industrial Engineering Graduate Coordinator Hua Li said the program is seeing low sign-up numbers here in South Texas even though we have plenty of solar and wind power to spare.
"A lot of that information requires technical support, so as a regular agriculture producers, they may not have that capability or background to provide that technical information," he said.
Li is also the point person for the $250,000 Solar and Wind Energy Promotion in South Texas (SWEPT) Grant. He said while the process to apply may seem scary, it's actually easy and financially beneficial.
"If you want to apply the grant asking for money for solar panel installation they will ask you about what is the solar energy potential in your area," Li said.
While the prospect of solar energy could help some farmers, Co-owner of Mengers and Sons Farm, Thomas Mengers said he and other famers have concerns about signing up.
"The solar -- putting them on top of the houses is pretty impractical," he said. "It all pays as long as everything works perfect. First time there's a glitch, you're gonna be upside down and you're gonna wish you had just bought energy to begin with."
Li said that on top of providing farmers with assessments, he also points them in the right direction to make sure the heavy costs associated with solar and wind energy can be covered.
"We try to help the business owner of agriculture producer find contracts that help with installation and maintenance," Li said.
However, Mengers said that there are more concerns that farmers may consider.
"You got land owners who are switching their land from farm, food production, to solar energy production," Mengers said.
Li said that in the end, the goal is to help farmers on a small scale.
"It's not for them to build a large commercial wind farm or solar farm to sell the energy," Li said.
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