San Luis Valley REC Completes New Solar Site

Turret Peak, sitting 16,662 feet above sea level, has a new solar site thanks to Monte Vista-based San Luis Valley Rural Electric Cooperative. Completed in September at Humphreys Ranch, the solar site addition was constructed to supplement a solar setup that wasn’t fully supporting the infrastructure that delivers high-speed internet to the ranch.

Challenging, to say the least, the solar site install took a lot of innovation and hard work.
Several trips were made up the mountain with horses saddled and loaded with the solar site batteries. The solar panels and cabinet to house the batteries were brought up on a sled arrangement. And SLVREC team members made the one-mile hike with the tools and framework to put the solar panels into place.

The new solar site serves three purposes: to provide phone and internet to the ranch through Ciello (a subsidiary of SLVREC); to give the co-op the ability to read meters remotely; and eventually the co-op will be able to read output information from another project in the area.