Solar Power for Holland Dairy in Hanford, CA

Background

For Art De Hoop, owner of Holland Dairy, investing in solar energy came down to a matter of values. “Everything we do is about quality and integrity,” he said. “That’s what I care about with anyone I work with.”

Holland Dairy is located in California’s central valley in the town of Hanford. “We’ve been here for 50 years,” Art said. “We want to be here another 50 years and then some.”

Why Solar?

Holland Dairy implemented solar power to reduce energy costs and to invest in financial and environmental sustainability. With electricity bills north of $50,000 per month, the reduction in operating expenses was hard to ignore. At the same time, he sees his stewardship of the land as a high calling.

“Sustainability is big in agriculture,” Art said. “We have to be efficient in everything we do. If we’re not sustainable, we won’t be here.”

With multiple metered facilities spread across 750 acres, the Holland Dairy project was anything but simple. It was important that the solar power system, which would produce 1 MW of electricity, be built without disrupting business operations.

Why Coldwell Solar?

Art chose Coldwell Solar to build and manage Holland Dairy’s solar energy system. “The quality and attention to detail of their work was way beyond what anyone else presented,” he said. “You can visit one of their projects and you won’t see a single wire–everything is covered and protected to perform for the long run.”

“Coldwell Solar did everything they said they would do, and set a new standard for integrity,” Art said. “It feels good to harvest energy from the sun, reduce our impact on the environment and to do it with good people.”

“What also impressed me was the way Coldwell was able to work with the local utilities. The billing can be very complicated. They handled everything and whenever I had a question, someone would call me with the answer right away.”

Ongoing Partnership

Since completion of the project in December 2016, the communication with Coldwell Solar has been ongoing. “They have called me and told me something needs to be addressed with my bill and that they are taking care of it,” Art said. “They also found that a couple of control units were not performing properly and they replaced them immediately. I didn’t have to do anything. It shows me that they really are monitoring and managing the system every day and they stand behind their product.”

“The customer service is important to me and Coldwell might just deliver the best customer service I’ve experienced.”