New 'farm-to-fleet' electric vehicle model grows revenue for solar-powered ag producers
Aug. 26—A Bay Area company's purchase of renewable-energy credits from solar power-equipped ag producers in the Central Valley may point to a new business opportunity for Kern County growers seeking alternative revenue streams.
This spring, San Francisco-based Cruise started buying the credits as an indirect way of powering its fleet of autonomous, all-electric delivery vehicles. It calls the arrangement "farm to fleet."
The two companies it buys the credits from are not in Kern but their situation is similar to those of some growers and ag processors within the county, in that they get their energy from photovoltaic solar arrays built on their own property.
One of the two, fruit grower Moonlight, is located outside Fresno. It has a 3.9-megawatt solar array with two battery storage systems. The other, Sundale Vineyards, operates a 2-megawatt solar array it uses for cold storage of its grapes.
The electrons generated by the two companies don't actually flow to Cruise's centralized vehicle-charging facilities. But the more miles the company's cars drive, the more money it pays to Moonlight and Sundale.
California allows companies to generate and sell renewable energy credits, within certain limitations, as long as they're not required to use renewable energy and they don't themselves cash in the resulting credits.
RECs, as the credits are known with in the industry, can come from a variety of renewable-energy sources, not just solar. Lately RECs have been offered for uses including carbon offsets for air travelers looking to make up for the greenhouse gas emissions released during their flights.
The executive director of the Large-scale Solar Association industry group, Shannon Eddy, said by email it was unclear to her how much of a market there is for SECs that don't also come with actual electricity. But for companies looking to increase their sustainability credentials without the need to serve the state's rigorous renewable power portfolio standard, she wrote, "it makes sense."
Cruise said in 2019 it became the first autonomous-vehicle company to commit to using all electric cars, as well as 100-percent renewable energy.
Because it owns and operates its own electric vehicle chargers, it was able to set its own policies for sourcing energy and renewable-energy credits.
Central Valley ag became a good target, the company says, because of how much renewable energy is generated in the region. It estimates 28 percent of California's wind power and 32 percent of its solar generation comes from counties that are part of the valley.
A recent blog post by the company predicted all its power will be generated by the two Central Valley farm operations by next year.
It went on to say the arrangement will help growers diversify their revenues to help make up for when weather conditions and crops don't live up to expectations.
"As California faces increasingly harsh droughts and water shortages exacerbated by climate change," it wrote, "Farm to Fleet provides an avenue for rural communities to create sustainable new revenue streams that are not dependent on crop yields or market price benchmarks"
