Gardnerville seed company reaches out for the sun

A Gardnerville seed company is now relying on the sun to power its business.

In November, Comstock Seed installed a 9,000-watt photovoltaic solar panel system to generate the energy needed to power its 43-acre farm, which sits off Highway 88 between Centerville and Kimmerling lanes.

The more than $80,000 project was funded through a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, NV Energy and Wells Fargo.

Comstock owner Ed Kleiner said his was the first installation in Nevada to receive a rural development grant, approximately $20,000, from the USDA.

Included with the grant was a federally-backed loan from Wells Fargo for roughly the same amount. Another $25,000 came from NV Energy's Solar Generations rebate program.

"We spent about $19,000 out of pocket," Kleiner said. "Unless you're rich, or a philanthropist, you couldn't do it without the grants."

Kleiner said his company will also receive more than $20,000 in tax write-offs for the project. He said the panels will pay for themselves in about five years.

"They have a 25 to 30 year warranty," he said. "They're locked down in deep concrete because the winds do what they do out here."

Comstock Seed, which entails a 1920s barn, a 1950s converted milk parlor and several sheds all compounded in the middle of a pasture, will remain hooked up to the electrical grid.

"The solar system was made for exactly the size of our annual consumption," Kleiner said. "Right now, in winter, we're running about a 14-cent deficit. From about March to fall, we'll begin running a surplus."

Kleiner said he's been meticulously recording the meter readings for his new system.

"I want good records because I want to see what our absolute production equals," he said.

The meters on his two indoor inverter boxes also provide data about carbon dioxide output.

"We've saved about 6,700 pounds of carbon dioxide since November," Kleiner said. "That's less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and also less money we're sending to Saudi Arabia."

Kleiner said recent developments in the solar industry will make the technology more affordable in the future.

"In the 1970s, after the oil embargo, Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House," he said. "Reagan took the panels off after the embargo had ended, and we all went back to oil. But all that is coming to an end now. The message is out there."

Comstock Seed specializes in native shrubs, grasses and flowers for drought-tolerant landscaping and reclamation areas. Kleiner said the company has fared well in the economic recession.

"We provide for mom-and-pop landscaping all the time, but we do a lot of business with the utility industry," he said.

A large portion of Comstock's business comes from the reclamation of new utility corridors. Other customers include transportation companies, mines, ski areas and urban developers.

Kleiner said three acres of his farm are cultivated for experimental crops such as sulfur buckwheat, Great Basin wild rye and pensternon. He said ranches throughout the Valley contain often overlooked but valuable plant species.

"The seed industry could really keep agriculture alive in the Valley," he said, "and keep our open spaces open."

A ribbon cutting ceremony for the new solar installation will be 1 p.m. Saturday at Comstock Seed, 917 Highway 88. Around noon, Dan Kaffer of Western Nevada Resource Conservation & Development will be serving food produced within 100 miles of Carson Valley, including local beef, smoked trout from Markleeville, plum jam from Reno and Kleiner's own homemade beer.

For more information, call 265-0090.