New technologies to transform the grape industry?
By CnAgri
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Nic Stover, chief executive officer of CalCom Solar in Visalia, Calif., discussed rising rate increases in California. These have been have been triggered in part by a decrease in coal-fired power plants nationwide, a ban on “once-through cooling” in California, and the shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear plant.
Meanwhile, there has been a shift to permanent crops in the state, an increase in pumping spurred by the drought, and new wells drilled while “the electrical grid is aging and showing wear and tear,” Stover said.
He added that the cost for energy use as a share of inputs is rising, citing a move to 18 percent a couple of years ago – “probably now over 20 percent” – for pistachios.
