Taylor Farms is close to making its San Juan Bautista facility energy independent.

Sixteen years ago, Taylor Farms began installing rooftop solar panels at its largest facilities. Back then, they saw an opportunity to showcase a commitment to sustainability, but also to cut energy costs and reduce reliance on the grid.

Now, at the company’s production facility in San Juan Bautista, they’ve built their first parking structure solar project with the aim of being fully energy independent. While many farms offset energy costs using solar, Wyatt Maysey, director of sustainability with Taylor Fresh Foods, says it’s rare for specialty crop operations to build full microgrids.

Taylor Farms has entered Phase 2 of the project, planning to “cut the cord” with a year-long test to see if they can efficiently manage the facility’s energy needs in real time.

“Rooftop [solar] is becoming more challenging because of installation processes, insurance, or how your roof warranty is managed,” Maysey says. “Parking structures turned out to be a pretty great installation concept, and employees like it, especially in hot weather.”

The parking structure functions as a raised canopy supporting 4,500 panels and generating 1.3 megawatts of power. In order to support the baseline amount of power needed for operations that run 24/7 – like refrigeration and extrusion – the solar panels are used in conjunction with roughly 200 fuel cells generating 6 megawatts of power, and 1,300 ground-mounted solar panels which generate 0.6 megawatts of power.

“The major play here was primarily energy resiliency and understanding the long term,” Maysey says. “How do we plan for the next 20 years when we know energy prices are escalating and the grid becomes less reliable?”