MJBiz - July/August 2024 - 38

SUSTAINABLE IS ATTAINABLE
HIGH-TECH
SUN SEEKERS
Modern solar panels offer greater efficiency to cannabis cultivators
By Omar Sacirbey
A
small number of
marijuana businesses
have sought to reduce
their electricity costs by harnessing
the energy of the sun using solar
panels.
For example, Long Beach,
California-based Glass House
Farms has a solar panel array at
its Ventura County cultivation
site that covers about 3 acres and
provides 1 megawatt of power.
That's enough energy to supply
two of Glass House's 20-acre
greenhouses-one used as a
nursery and the other for flowering
plants. Altogether, the Glass House
site has six greenhouses, three of
which are dedicated to cannabis.
SOLAR GOES HIGH TECH
Glass House's solar array, which
came with the farm when the
company bought the property in
2021, has a few state-of-the art
features that make it even more
efficient.
For example, the system has
a photo tracker that allows the
panels to follow the sun from
sunrise to sunset.
Furthermore, the panels are
laid over a rainwater-retention
pond that collects rainwater from
the greenhouse roofs. The panels
keep the pond shaded and cool,
reducing evaporation and the need
to cool water when it recirculates
through irrigation systems and
aquifers.
The panels also are " bifacial, "
meaning they have solar cells on
the front and back sides. When the
solar panels are lined up and tilted,
the backsides often catch light
reflecting off the panels behind
them, thereby amplifying the
amount of solar that can generate
energy.
" It's the fish-scale setup. The
light bounces off the panel, and it
reflects into the one in front of it
on the back, " explained Graham
Farrar, Glass House co-founder
and president.
Using bifacial panels can increase
efficiency by 3%-4%, he said.
SOLAR STUDIES
Other marijuana operators that
use solar panel arrays include
StateHouse Holdings and Stone
Road Farms in California, Big Island
Grown in Hawaii and Freedom
Cannabis in Alberta, Canada.
Business owners who are
seriously considering installing a
solar array should conduct a solar
study, Farrar said.
" Make sure you do your solar
Glass House Farms plans to expand the solar array that came with the farm it bought
in 2021. Photos courtesy of Glass House
38 July-August 2024 | MJBizMagazine

MJBiz - July/August 2024

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