Written by Claire Anderson for Home Power magazine Feb/Mar 2014 Issue #159.

Suzanne Willow and Lanita Witt are the owners of Willow Witt Ranch, a 440-acre sustainable farming enterprise that raises organic, pasture-grown pigs; Alpine goats for milk and backpacking; chickens for meat and eggs; and a wide variety of cold-hardy vegetables. During the 27 years that they’ve been at their property, they’ve successfully lived with renewable energy—and without grid power.

In addition to your home’s energy needs, you also have a goat dairy and meat operation. With potential large electrical draws such as refrigeration and water heating, did you ever consider connecting to the grid?

When we bought the property—27 years ago—we contacted the utility to see what the cost of bringing in grid electricity would be. We were four miles from the nearest power pole, and they quoted us a cost of more than $100,000.

So how did you expect to meet your energy needs? How familiar were you with off-grid living?

Suzanne had previously used solar energy at her rural home near Redway, California, from 1976 until 1983. The system powered a few lights, a radio, and a tape player.

Lanita had no experience with living off-grid or farming, although her family had farmed in Texas in the 1940s. She wished to return to a more rural life.

And that we did. In 1986, we moved from our house on 0.7 acres in Napa, California, to a 1920s farmhouse on 440 acres near Ashland, Oregon. We used kerosene lamps and had a propane cookstove and water heater. We heated the space with wood. As the old farmhouse was renovated, we put in wiring to handle either DC or AC, though we had neither at the time.

In 1987—after having been on the ranch for about a year—we decided to use Suzanne’s original PV modules from her Redway home and a battery to power a radio phone. Six years later, however, we were ready for more electricity. We built a combination greenhouse, woodshed, and chicken house, and with a south-facing roof on one end, this structure housed our first complete PV system: four solar-electric modules and four Trojan L16 batteries. We installed electric lighting in the house. We also were required by the county to install a sand filter for the septic system. Since that required a pump, we connected a generator for backup.

What differences did the PV system make in your lives?

We got less sleep as electricity prolonged activity into the dark of the night! (Laughs.) The greatest joy was doing laundry at home instead of at the laundromat that was a 30-minute drive away.

What other RE upgrades have you made since your initial foray into solar electricity?

By 1996, we had paid off the land by doing salvage logging on mistletoe-infested white fir, and selective cutting of diseased and dying trees, so we took out a new loan to put in a water storage tank and piped water from the spring box to flow through a Pelton wheel as it fell into the tank. The tank is located just above the pond, so the overflow from the tank still keeps the pond full. The microhydro generator has a permanent-magnet alternator that outputs wild AC current then is transformed to 12 volts DC and sent to our house system’s batteries. This provides a continuous trickle charge that is especially appreciated during the winter, when solar electricity production is low. We laid 4,000 feet of pipe to have ample water for our domestic use with 50 pounds of water pressure.

That year, we also upgraded our house system to twelve 51 W modules with eight Trojan L16 batteries and a more efficient inverter (from a Trace 2012 to a Trace SW2512).

What other changes have you made since then?

The home site sits along what used to be the main ranch road—on the northwest side of a large mountain—and that compromised our array’s electricity production. So, in 2007, we relocated the house’s PV array farther from the house so it could capture more solar energy—it now intercepts about 70% of the sun’s path. This is not a tracked system, but pole-mounted. During this time, the system was upgraded from 12 V to 24 V, with twelve 130 W PV modules, a new inverter and new charge controller, and 12 Rolls Surrette S460 batteries. Seasonally, we adjust the array’s tilt.

A 6 kW diesel generator provides backup, as well as battery equalization and recharging. In the winter, we use it about two hours daily—in the early morning and evening. Occasionally, we’ll use it in the summer, depending on ranch visitors’ electricity utilization, since most of them are not conservation-savvy.

In the house, we use standard AC Energy Star appliances, but still use propane for water heating, cooking, and drying clothes. We previously had a propane freezer and refrigerator, but have switched to electricity for these. These are also just typical, off-the-shelf brands. We time our “big” loads—like washing clothes and vacuuming—for when we have ample energy, that is, when the sun is shining and the batteries are fully charged.

So what motivated you to upgrade your house system?

Better-quality batteries were available when we needed to replace them and there had been inverter improvements as well. Plus, we were able to afford to move the modules to a better location. Propane costs had steadily gone up and it is difficult to find quality propane refrigerators. Propane freezers are expensive to buy and operate.

Given your remote location, how were you able to support your ranch and rural lifestyle?

In 2006, Suzanne retired from her career as a physician’s assistant, and began running the ranch full time. Lanita continued (and continues) to work as a gynecologist in nearby Medford. We decided to try making the enterprises on our land be fully self-sustaining, including economically.

We manage the forested acres with restoration logging and replanting to obtain a sustainable timber harvest, but in the recent downturned economy, the cost of logging became greater than the income.

We always have had dairy goats and organically raised pigs for meat. We have expanded to breeding our own Berkshire pigs, and we have developed a raw goat-milk herd-share enterprise and milk 12 goats twice a day. We sell our three lines of specialty goat and pork sausage at farmers’ markets and online, and have recently started community-supported agriculture (CSA) partnering with other local organic meat producers who contribute beef, lamb, rabbit, and chicken.

In addition to raising livestock, we offer “farm stays” for folks who are interested in a sustainable getaway on a working ranch. We have a seasonal campground with tent camping, as well as wall tents for luxury and comfort. Both opportunities provide agritourism income and educational experiences—guests get to experience off-grid farm life, the animals, and quality, farm-fresh foods, as well as the natural beauty of the woodland and meadows.

Where we live and how we live is both a choice and an adventure. It is an educational experience to share with those who visit us.

What energy systems support your more recent ranch enterprises? How did you originally meet these needs? How did you design/size this system?

We could not have expanded our meat production and the goat milk herd-share system without the energy upgrade, but we did use our house system and rely on the generator during the two years it took to get a grant and commercial system going.

In 2009, we obtained a U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant to develop a commercial PV system for our dairy and meat enterprises, which require a commercial dishwasher, milking machine, barn lights, and refrigeration. The best solar site was 400 feet into the wetland from our barns, but it took nine months to get approval from the county for the structure. This was a huge delay that pushed the project into the late fall and winter, so we could not start construction until the following summer.

The 21 Samsung 247-watt PV modules are mounted on the roof of a new power shed, while the interior houses the rest of the system. It includes a Northern Lights 6 kW 120/240 VAC diesel generator and a diesel storage tank. But the PV system supplies about 90% of our commercial energy needs, providing electricity for three Energy Star-rated freezers, two commercial refrigerators, a commercial dishwasher/sanitizer with internal water-temperature booster, the vacuum pump for the milking machine and milking machine itself, and exhaust fans, as well as some lighting and smaller loads.

This system cost $85,000. The grant offset $20,000 of the cost, and we also took advantage of state and federal tax credits, which shaved more off the bottom line, although the balance was a ding to our pension fund and would not be fully recovered for a long time. That said, it has been worth all of the effort.

What kind of involvement do the systems require?

We have scheduled maintenance that we do every two weeks to check the battery electrolyte levels, the filters on the diesel generator, and the generator fluids, with oil changes based on the generator’s run time. Battery equalization is done monthly.

What are the challenges in relying on this system for your business and home? How much do you rely on the backup generator?

The technology is so advanced that we rely on the professionals who installed the systems for troubleshooting. This makes us less “independent,” but they are much more knowledgeable.

We will always need to rely on generator backup, as our refrigeration needs are significant. Milking, however, can (and sometimes does) take place by headlamp or battery-powered lanterns. Batteries are the main periodic expense and technology improves the quality of the inverters, so when we are looking for improved efficiency and can afford to upgrade, we will do so.

Knowing what you know now, what, if anything, would you do differently from the start?

Getting started, we mounted our renewable energy systems on existing structures, which resulted in less-than-optimal siting and, of course, lower energy production from our systems. Given a bigger budget, we would have installed our current system where it is now for both our home and our commercial electricity production.

What accommodations have you made for living with an off-grid system?

We have lived this way for so long that it’s normal—we don’t feel like we’re making concessions. We have flashlights for backup lighting and use rechargeable batteries and phones that are plugged in to recharge during the day, while our PV system is providing lots of electricity.

Home Power magazine