When we talk about farms and being environmentally-friendly, we usually think of a bunch of changes you can make. In fact, the suggestions can often become quite obvious. We know we should preserve water to the best of our ability. And we’ve written before about protecting animals instead of using them for produce. This is something that definitely helps with your carbon footprint. But what if your farm could do something more? What if you did something on your farm that could actually help not just your farm, but the community around you?

Of course, any measure you take to protect the environment is a helpful service to all of us. But what I’m talking about here, specifically, isn’t just cutting down. It’s generating. I’m talking about using your farm to generate clean, renewable energy.

For many towns, the problems in implementing renewable energy isn’t so much a lack of support or interest. It’s that they rarely have the resources to pursue this sort of thing. And that’s where your farm could come in handy. This is especially true if you’re running quite a big farm. Let’s say you find yourself with some free land. Or a large amount of land producing a resource that isn’t doing you much good that could be converted to something new.

Before you start thinking about providing energy for others, you need to work out how to generate energy for yourself. And this is going to help you out in so many ways. If your farm is like the majority of farms, then you’re probably reliant on traditional energy sources. But this isn’t doing your farm any favors, and is likely costing you a lot of money!

Of course, we shouldn’t pretend that installing renewable energy generators is going to be cheap. The up-front costs of these things aren’t going to be pretty. But it’s possible you could look into a government grant in order to fund this endeavor. Decisions made at the likes of the Argentinian Renewable Energy Conference show the importance of farms. Governments all across the world are looking to get their agricultural sectors more invested in clean energy.

If you’re only looking to use your farm to generate more energy for others, that can be done, too. Perhaps the best way to do this is to hire out land to the national electrical grid. They’ll install solar panels that can power nearby buildings, both residential and commercial.

The entire process is actually much easier than you might think. As long you actually have the right sort of landscape, finding installation experts should take no time. Solar panels are probably the most famous and the easiest generation method. These, of course, will require that you have as much exposure to the sun as possible.

But if you have problems with sun exposure, there are other options you could look into. Generators that use the wind are also popular installations on farms that pursue this endeavor. These, however, require quite a substantial amount of free land. It’s not actually practical or even safe to be doing other types of farm business at the base of those generators.

Be sure to review your options. Your farm is loaded with potential that you might not have even tapped into yet.

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Can Your Farm Help with Renewable Energy?

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