A Loudon County Dairy Farm known for its cheese is now also a solar farm.
Sweetwater Valley Farm in Philadelphia recently installed its second solar generating station. The 126 solar panels are on the roof of the cheese factory and retail store building. They can generate almost 40 kilowatts of power on a sunny day.
The 1,000 acre farm uses a lot of electricity keeping the dairy cows cool and running a cheese production factory. The solar panels will provide about 25 percent of the power used by the farm.
Farm owner John Harrison says with grants, tax breaks and incentives, he will recoup his investment in green energy in about four years.
"We're trying to do things that are kind of green and kind of doing things that are sustainable and I think it kind of fits in to all that. If you've got a roof that's turned in the right direction it's a great opportunity to do something like that," he said.
Harrison says as a farmer it's one of the few things he doesn't worry about. When it's sunny and dry the corn is not doing well, but the solar panels are cranking out electricity.
