July 17, 2026
West Lafayette, located in Indiana Rising solar energy has completed a series of nine on-farm agrivoltaic solar projects for the egg producer Handsome Brook Farms.
The portfolio of nine projects, spread across Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, totals 579.7 kW, according to officials at Purdue Research Park, the headquarters of Emergent Solar Energy. In addition, the projects will offset approximately 668 tons of CO2 annually, the research foundation says.
The projects will generate power on-site for Handsome Brook Farms, directly reducing the company’s electric bills, a move the company says is an investment in small family farms in the lower Midwest. Josiah Troyer, a producer with Handsome Brook Farms in Sugarcreek, Ohio, says the results of his project have already exceeded his expectations.
“From the beginning, I have been extremely pleased with what we have accomplished with Handsome Brook Farms and Emergent Solar Energy,” he said. “Their teams maintained constant communication and focused on the specifics of our farm to develop, design, procure, supply and install a solar system that reduced our annual electricity bill by 74.23%. Since it was put into service, the system has maintained 100% uptime and solar production.”
Energy costs are rising across the country, thanks to AI data centers and increased electrification of utilities. The rising tide of the agrivoltaic trend in the US hopes to reduce some of these costs for farmers and rural residents alike.
Relieving the pressure on agriculture
Agricultural producers are facing “growing pressure,” the research firm says, not only to improve operational efficiency but also to maintain the profitability of their farms. The Emergent Solar Energy portfolio takes an infrastructure approach to help solve that problem in the long term.
“Farm solar has gone from a sustainability gesture to a major capital decision for agricultural producers,” said Jeremy Lipinski, founder and CEO of Emergent Solar Energy. “At these nine Handsome Brook Farms projects in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, we have implemented on-site energy infrastructure that converts the rising, unpredictable operating costs of utilities into a fixed capital investment. As egg and livestock farming becomes increasingly electrified, on-site solar is the most immediate lever producers have to protect their margins and control their long-term energy costs.”
The projects also serve other energy-based functions, Purdue says. In addition to reducing dependence on grid electricity, the project portfolio aims to improve long-term energy cost predictability and advance sustainability goals for Handsome Brook Farms. All this is in service of taking leadership in agricultural energy innovation, the company says.
“More and more manufacturers and food producers are viewing on-site energy generation as a strategic asset rather than a utility,” said Zacaria Martinez, commercial business development officer at Emergent Solar Energy. “Across the Handsome Brook Farms portfolio, we have delivered nine solar energy systems with a total output of 579.7 kilowatts, each designed to the load profile of the individual farm and completed on time and within budget.”
Tags: agrivoltaic energy, commercial, commercial and industrial, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, project
