Agricultural Partnerships
BEST Solutions for YOUR Business
An offering of North Carolina’s 26 electric cooperatives, the BEST Solutions Program provides strategies for agricultural, commercial and industrial co-op members looking to save money, improve efficiency and achieve sustainability goals. Our energy experts can help you create customized plans using BE (Beneficial Electrification) and ST (Sustainable Technologies) to enhance your operations.
Energy Projects
North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives developed one of the state’s first self-powering agricultural microgrids, which incorporates alternative energy sources including biogas, solar and swine waste and uses them in coordination with one another to generate electricity and provide power reliability.
In addition to added resiliency, this partnership is allowing us to work together to lower carbon emissions and provide an educational resource for local teachers and students. We are continuing to develop other innovative efforts with farmers to achieve mutually beneficial goals that support our industries and communities.
Electrification
Our state’s electric cooperatives are also helping identify new ways to electrify agricultural processes to improve sustainability, lower operating costs and provide additional productivity and convenience. Farm equipment like tractors, irrigation systems, grain drying, robotic milking and automatic feed pushers, along with operations like controlled environment agriculture, can all be powered through electricity.
Opportunities also exist to electrify commercial equipment and processes ranging from forklifts and induction cooking to pumps and food processing and service equipment. Heating and cooling technologies like advanced heat pumps and electrified thermal and cold storage can also be employed to achieve industrial benefits and efficiencies. Rapidly advancing technology will continue to provide additional opportunities for electrification and the innovative use of electric power.
- Electric Irrigation: Variable frequency drive systems and large single phase motors eliminate the need for costly infrastructure upgrades and allows farmers to irrigate without relying on diesel.
- Electric Equipment: Electric forklifts are more efficient, quieter and cost significantly less to maintain than diesel forklifts. North Carolina’s electric cooperatives have capabilities and incentives in place to support the transition to electric equipment.
- Indoor Agriculture: The controlled, consistent environment of an indoor facility offers new economic opportunities for farm owners. Indoor agriculture is energy intensive, and the state’s electric cooperatives are working with indoor farmers to provide new solutions for energy management.
Reducing Farm Energy Costs
The North Carolina Energy Evaluation Program provides discounted energy evaluations to help farmers prioritize energy efficiency projects and access funding for equipment upgrades. It provides an unbiased third-party evaluation of energy efficiency and demand reduction opportunities, and each energy evaluation also includes a detailed inventory of current equipment and an analysis of energy usage by farm activity.
This program will cover 75% of the cost of an energy evaluation that can be used to access funding through U.S. Department of Agriculture programs such as the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which provides grants up to 25% of your project cost and loan guarantees up to 75% of your project cost. There is no obligation to move forward with projects once an evaluation report is received.
The North Carolina Energy Evaluation Program is funded by USDA Rural Development and operated by North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation and EnSave, Inc. It is offered on a first-come, first-served basis and funding is limited. Contact your electric cooperative or call EnSave at (800) 732-1399 for more information to get started.
