{"id":26021,"date":"2024-08-23T19:32:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T19:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-businesses-use-grant-money-to-cover-half-the-cost-of-installing-solar\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:31:40","slug":"montezuma-businesses-use-grant-money-to-cover-half-the-cost-of-installing-solar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-businesses-use-grant-money-to-cover-half-the-cost-of-installing-solar\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma businesses use grant money to cover half the cost of installing solar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shaw
Shaw Solar\u2019s installation at the Cortez Elks lodge. (Photo courtesy of Shaw Solar)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Solar energy is an environmental \u2013 and budget \u2013 friendly option to curb energy bills, which is now more feasible for small businesses via grant funding available through Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great possible solution for our appetite for energy,\u201d said Gregg Dubit, a solar sales consultant at Shaw Solar<\/a>, a Durango-based solar company that serves Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s cost effective, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of farms are experiencing rising utility costs and \u2026 we\u2019ve been pretty immune, for the most part, to that rising power cost,\u201d said Sam Perry, a farmer and co-founder of Fenceline Cider<\/a> in Mancos, a business where Shaw Solar installed panels.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of that is thanks to the investment we made in solar at the farm and at the cidery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Solar
Solar array on the roof of Fenceline Cider in Mancos, installed by Shaw Solar. (Photo courtesy of Shaw Solar)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The 52.44 kW array on the cidery\u2019s roof generates about 87,000 kWh a year, which is nearly 100% of what they use.<\/p>\n

Though they still get a monthly base charge bill, solar helps reduce said bill by about $7,000 a year, based on Empire Electric\u2019s general service rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, none of our solar projects have displaced agricultural land. It\u2019s only helped offset operational costs for their operation,\u201d said Dubit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing it in small ways \u2026 in little increments to offset the power usage on sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaw Solar doesn\u2019t install utility \u2013 or industrial \u2013 scale solar arrays, which is often where people are at odds with the renewable energy source. They say projects of this scale forever destroy the land by removing trees, degrading the soil and taking over wildlife habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a different business model than what ours is,\u201d said Dubit.<\/p>\n

Shaw Solar is working with small-scale producers and business owners, connecting them to grants made available by the USDA\u2019s Rural Energy for America Program<\/a>. The grants are available through next month and covers half the cost of solar installation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have grant writers on staff, and I\u2019m proud to say that our team has a 100% batting average in successfully bringing grants to our area,\u201d Dubit said.<\/p>\n

So far, Shaw Solar has landed Kokopelli Bike and Board, Southwest Ag Inc., Fenceline Cider, Southwest Seed Inc. and Alpacka Raft grant funding for solar, to name a few.<\/p>\n

\"Solar
Solar array on the roof of what was Alpacka Raft and is now the Mancos Brewing Co. (Photo courtesy of Shaw Solar.)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Plus, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, extended through 2033, there\u2019s a 30% tax credit and bonus depreciation that further reduces installation costs.<\/p>\n

These tax credit solar projects are newly available to nonprofits \u2013 churches, schools, fire stations and the like \u2013 with something called direct pay. Essentially, nonprofits can get money back as a direct payment or rebate from the federal government if they install solar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s kind of a national, very strong incentive, for people to put solar on their homes and their businesses to offset their energy costs. The proposition is better than it\u2019s ever been for businesses,\u201d said Dubit. \u201cIt\u2019s a very, shall we say, bright period for solar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though there will be more opportunities for grant funding after Sept. 30, it might not stay at 50% of project costs.<\/p>\n

If our region doesn\u2019t use the money, it will go to other rural areas across America. The money is already out there, Dubit said. People just need to apply for it.<\/p>\n

As far as the array at Fenceline Cider goes, Perry said he\u2019s happy to have aligned their values and lessened their carbon footprint via solar. So are the customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a cider producer, a lot of our customers are gluten free, they\u2019re conscientious about what they eat and where it comes from and tend to focus on organic and sustainably raised products,\u201d said Perry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey love knowing that the process of making our cider isn\u2019t creating a big carbon footprint or requiring additional fossil fuel generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perry said he\u2019s noticed cooler temperatures inside Fenceline Cider, an ancillary benefit he didn\u2019t see coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge benefit, not only just for working in there, but for the cider itself because one of the things we have to do to control the yeast and the microbial growth is to control the temperature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On what was unproductive, sun-bleached land, Perry has noticed grass growing where it didn\u2019t used to grow, under and around the 10kW array at his ranch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we approach it (solar) intelligently and don\u2019t put solar in prime ag land, it could be a really good thing for our community,\u201d said Perry. \u201cI believe that agriculture and photovoltaics have a very bright future together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

is encouraging small business owners and producers to take part of the federal funds <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[281,431,1587,28,29,1425],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-agriculture","tag-business-general","tag-farms","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-solar-energy"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79190,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26021\/revisions\/79190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26021"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}