If you are a poultry farmer chances are your hot water usage is for the birds… Radiant Brooders – This type of heat pumps hot water under the floors of the chicken house to aid in heating the floor and space above.  Imagine heating this water using the sun instead of an expensive fossil fuel like propane or natural gas.  Our Solar Thermal Systems can cover it! Forced Air Space Heating  – Agricultural forced-air heaters range from 15,000 BTUh to over 300,000 BTUh, with poultry houses commonly rated between 80,000 to 250,000 BTUh.  We can help significantly reduce the use of these fuels with a Solar Thermal Space heating system. Air Chilled Chickens – a great new technology some poultry farmers are using is air chilled chicken.  After chickens are cleaned and processed they are submerged in water and the water chills them down which is absorbed by the chicken and can add 6-8% water into the chicken – which consumers pay for at the register.  Chilling birds with air is a great alternative and gives the chicken a much better flavor.  A solar PV system can greatly offset the cost of electricity used to run this chiller. Everyday cost of heating and cooling the chickens – Chickens need constantly to be at a comfortable temperature…with electricity costs in the thousands installing a PV System to cover those costs can save thousands! Here is a great article in thepoultrysite.com about a poultry farm who has gone solar.  And another one in deltafarmpress.com about a farmer who added solar to one of his chicken houses and liked it so much he added more…​ Poultry Farmers benefit from the same incentives as Dairy Farmers:

• 30% Federal Tax Credit
• ​California Solar Initiative Rebate
• ​The USDA offers a 25% Grant through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP)
• ​Accelerated depreciation in the first year
• Some cities and counties offer additional incentives as well (varies per area…you can see if your area has incentives by going to www.energy.gov