A Decision Support System to Evaluate the Economic Feasibility of Solar Technology on Dairy Farms

In 2020, the U.S. dairy industry launched its Net Zero Initiative (NZI) to encourage voluntary on-farm efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of dairy farming. Implementing energy efficient and renewable energy technologies on farms will play a critical role in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of dairy farms in the United States. This research conducted a survey which found there is significant interest in installing solar panels on dairy farms. However, many farmers feel solar panels are too expensive and time consuming to install. Additionally, 51% of participants were not aware of government incentives related to on-farm renewable energy investments. The survey also found that many farmers rely on word of mouth, University Extension, and farm organization meetings as sources of information. A regression analysis was done on energy audit data from 132 dairy farms throughout Michigan. It was concluded that for every 1% increase in the number of milking cows, the annual electricity consumption will increase by 0.93%. Then, a case study was performed using the median subject from the energy audit data, consisting of 180 cows, to evaluate if solar panels would be a good investment for the subject farm. It was estimated that installing panels to produce their annual electricity consumption would cost $92,722 to install, have a net present value of $221,053, and have a payback period of 5.13 years. This suggests that installing solar panels would be economically beneficial for the subject dairy farm. A decision support system (DSS) was created to allow dairy farmers to enter pertinent data of their farm, then assess the economic feasibility of deploying the available solar technologies to power their farm operations. The DSS will advance the goal of the Net Zero Initiative by educating dairy farmers about the opportunities and challenges of using solar technologies on their farms including funding opportunities, Extension resources, and answers to frequently asked questions.