UKIAH, CA., 10/23/26 — The new solar panels at Nelson Family Vineyards don’t take up any farmland. All 252 float on the irrigation pond.
“There’s nothing fancy about it. It’s just a bunch of solar panels, but they’re floating. And that makes it really, really cool,” owner Tyler Nelson said Friday. “It’s kind of fun to watch, and I love the electricity bill.”
The pond array is the farm’s second. Together with older panels on the winery roof, the two now cover all the power on the ranch, Nelson said.
When the family first priced the project, it was expected to save about $30,000 a year, he said. It took the family about three years to finally commit. By the time it was finished, PG&E rate increases had pushed the estimated savings to about $80,000 a year.
“I drive by a sign that says they’ve just dropped the rates five times in the last year. And I’m like, I’m not seeing the same thing you guys are advertising,” Nelson said.
State utility records for a matching project show PG&E received the application in March 2023, weeks before California stopped giving new solar customers full retail-rate credit for power they send back to the grid. The array was switched on earlier this year, and it hasn’t run a full year yet, Nelson said.
“It does what it’s supposed to do,” he said.
Noria Energy of Sausalito designed and installed the system. “Best of all, because the system floats on a pond, it does not take a single acre of land out of production,” Nelson said when the project was announced in December 2025.
The farm is also counting on shade from the panels to slow the water fleas and aquatic weeds that clog its drip irrigation filters. Water fleas are crustaceans up to about a quarter-inch long that eat algae and are food for fish. In peak season, the filters need tending every hour.
The panels went in after the fleas had already multiplied, Nelson said. “We are hopeful that it’s going to make a huge difference,” he said. “Next year is when we’ll see the difference.”
A UC Davis scientist hired by the solar company is sampling the pond, Nelson said, and running his own studies on how the panels affect bats and what kind of waterfowl come in.
“All kinds of really fun, interesting things,” Nelson said.
Fascinating! Thanks for this story. I hope there is a follow up next year.
I luv it.
And now grow food for the locals and I won’t be cynical