Based in Browerville, Minnesota, Snowy Pines Reforestation is a family-owned and operated business with the mission “to create meaningful, rewarding work for our family and friends that improves the natural environment.” Greg Nolan and his family manage a 40-acre forest and have planted over three million trees. They specialize in tree planting, salvage logging, and wood flooring. We caught up with Greg recently to hear more about Snowy Pines Reforestation and the way they have incorporated solar into their home and business one system at a time over the last 25 years.
Joel Haskard: How did you first get into the forestry business?
Greg Nolan: My wife and I started our family business in 1976 doing tree planting in the spring and timber stand improvement (thinning) in the fall on US Forest Service land in Oregon. We had a friend who got the work in large contracts then sub-contracted smaller acreages to us. During the fire season I would work as an employee for the Forest Service fighting forest fires, during the spring and fall we were independent contractors. Both jobs taught me good things. The forest service taught me a can-do attitude, the contracting taught me to pay attention. I worked for seven seasons with the Forest Service including one as a smoke jumper and one as wilderness guard in New Mexico. The remaining years I was on 20-man hotshot crews based in the Pacific Northwest. Moving to Minnesota really changed our attitude about tree planting and thinning—as all of a sudden we were working for our friends and neighbors—and quality became much more important than quantity.
Joel: What do you like the most about the work? The least?
Greg: We started planting trees thinking we were going to save the world—it was very empowering. I still feel that way at times. It is good to feel like you can make a difference with what you do to make a living. I call it enlightened self-interest. I am pretty happy with what I do. If I had a complaint it would be that others don’t see the value of well-managed forests for the long-term benefit of the planet. Politics are so frustrating at times, but it’s also what keeps us from killing each other…
Joel: Why did you decide to add solar?
Greg: It made so much sense. Solar-powered feedstock (well managed forests) delivered to solar-powered milling operations (Snowy Pines sawmill and lumber) is the direction all seven billion of us need to turn. We had the technology in the 80s to go in a different direction, so we did. We need a paradigm shift in our thinking. Solar PV prices have come down. For the price of a used SUV you can buy a solar electric system that will provide power for the rest of your life.
Joel: When did you have the solar panels installed?
Greg: We have installed panels and improved our systems several times since 1980 when we moved to central Minnesota. We started with one 50 watt panel and one 12 volt battery in our home/office. This taught our small family the power of conservation. Our home is still a stand-alone battery-based system. It is 900 watts (12 75-watt Kyocera panels) that was improved last around 5 years ago. We have an older 2,500 watt Heart inverter in our home which is transformer-based. It is a heavy thing and has held up very well. Our business (on the other end of our property) has a 3.5 kilowatt grid-tied system. Up until last year we were producing all the power we needed at our mill with this system. With net metering we trade one for one (kW for kW) with our power company, Todd-Wadena Electric. They have been good to work with and actually paid a portion of the cost of the solar panels. Our original grid-tied system cost $5 a watt for the PV panels and the last pallet of PV panels we ordered cost $1.48 a watt. The incentive from the power company made sense on the original purchase. I feel like the power company and I partnered to move PV solar ahead when it wasn’t quite cost effective.
We acquired two electric golf carts which we love to use for all kinds of stuff and this has created a deficit on our side so we just recently purchased 24 235-watt panels from a company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and plan to add to our grid tied system next year. We hope to produce enough power to pay for some electrical transportation. We are hoping an affordable electric car with good cold-weather battery life will hit the marketplace soon. Hopefully we can buy the car locally. We have two large (2.5 kW) Xantrex inverters on our grid-tied system. I think we will try microinverters on the installation of the 24 235-watt panels we just purchased. Great Northern Solar out of Port Wing, Wisconsin has been most helpful with our systems. Chris LaForge and Amy Wilson are good friends. They have done a lot to promote solar and renewable energy in general. The Midwest Renewable Energy Fair has been very inspirational through the years and is where I met Chris and Amy. I highly recommend a trip to Custer, Wisconsin to attend the fair in June. We also received help from Levin Electric out of Long Prairie with permits and the installation of the grid-tied system.
Joel: How is the solar hot water used?
Greg: We have three hot water panels plugged into the heating system on our warm room kiln. This system puts solar-heated water into the in-floor heating system in the kiln. We are looking to expand this system. We really need the heat in our kiln in the summer when the humidity is at its highest. This is also when solar hot water is at its most productive. It is a good match.
Joel: How have the systems performed so far?
Greg: So far so good. I like solar more and more each day. It is the peaceful energy. The first rule of economic development is to plug the leaks ($). Not having an electric bill has enabled us to invest in our local community.
Joel: Do you have any advice you’d like to share with others thinking about installing solar on their farm or small business?
Greg: Our biggest road block in central Minnesota is that we need local installers. The average consumer will not purchase solar electric or solar thermal without maintenance. Maintenance contracts with each install would probably bust things wide open for a small start up PV install business. Anyone applying for grants out there ought to look long and hard at raising money to train the existing AC electricians with existing businesses that are already up and running to install PV. It is the quickest way to get systems installed for the many people who are sitting on the sidelines waiting. With the new microinverters that attach to the panels (guaranteed for 25 years like most panels are today), solar electric is getting to be plug and play (with AC power coming off the panels and wired directly to the home through a breaker box). Younger baby boomers should know the return on investment is getting close to 10 years on grid-tied solar electric system which means you get your money back in time to retire with free electricity for the rest of your life as a bonus. It’s the least we can do for the generations that follow. In the meantime, plant a tree—better yet, take really good care of the trees you have, especially the “working” shade and windbreak trees in your yard.
To read a couple of articles written by and about Greg and his solar-powered home and business, click here. Greg was also featured in an MPR story about a home made from his timber.
