REAL GOODS CASE STUDY -

Toasting Solar in Sonoma

Harvey Hoefer and Lisa Carr have harnessed sun power to help irrigate their organic cabernet vineyard as well as power their rural northern California home.
 
When you ask clinical psychologist Harvey Hoefer why he and his physician wife, Lisa Carr, decided to install a solar system, his answer is, essentially, why not? In this day and age, “Why does anyone not go solar?” he asks.

Hoefer and Carr had Real Goods install their system in 2006.

It powers not only their Sonoma County, Calif., home, but also one of the pumps that helps irrigate their 10 acres of organic cabernet grapes. The couple sells their grapes to northern California’s renowned Bonterra organic winery. (“I grew up in the Napa Valley,” Carr says. “My great-grandfather was a barrel maker there.”)

Hoefer and Carr’s system boasts 18 Sharp PV modules, which are mounted on an embankment next to their home, rather than on the roof, as are many solar systems. The unconventional location is optimal because of the abundance of shade on the couple’s property from their numerous California Live Oak trees.

They credit Real Goods’ technical staff for its ability to incorporate their system architecturally and locate it appropriately.

 “They worked with us for at least half a day to site it,” Hoefer says, “and now you can barely see it.” Hoefer and Carr figure that the power their system produces will just about offset their monthly electric bill, and that they’ll routinely be selling the excess power they produce back to Pacific Gas & Electric, their local energy utility.