The Clean Energy Transition Institute is releasing the first in a series of Claiming Power videos, short films that explore an equitable energy transition in rural Washington communities. Harvesting the Sun is a six-minute film produced in Jefferson and Clallam counties, featuring farms and businesses that have installed rooftop solar capacity with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).

This story takes viewers to the North Olympic Peninsula, on a brisk spring day, where longtime USDA specialist Carlotta Donisi is visiting farms transformed by REAP grants. As a filmmaker, it’s a special pleasure to document this transformation. I’ve lived on the Olympic Peninsula for two decades, long enough to see a resurgence in the region’s agricultural community led by forward-thinking farmers.

Watching Finnriver Farm & Cidery co-founder Crystie Kisler stroll the land in Chimacum, WA, it’s clear that the farm’s energy transformation is rooted in long-term relationships and vision. Finnriver has become a solar-powered community gathering space and thriving business.

For Crystie, renewable energy is part of a larger vision for sustainability. “Thinking about food, water, and energy as interlinked systems on the land, we wanted to find a way to use energy most wisely. In the same way that sunshine powers plants, the sun is powering our operation. We're using this incredibly powerful resource, hanging free up in the sky, to grow our organic orchard and to sustain the growth at our cider garden.”

With 100kW of capacity on barn rooftops, Finnriver powers the majority of its operation with solar energy. As an early EV adopter, I’m grateful to charge our crew vehicle at Finnriver’s free EV charger, before we head to Dungeness Valley Creamery in Clallam County.

In a bend of the Dungeness River, Sarah and Ryan McCarthey nurture a three-generation dairy farm in Sequim, WA, selling raw milk products and serving up delicious ice cream. Sarah, whose parents started the farm, oversees day-to-day dairy operations and knows each animal by name.

Ryan is a veteran who supported agricultural restoration in Iraq before turning his attention to business strategy at the creamery. Calves watch us curiously as we unpack film gear, and Ryan leads us to a barn that accommodates about 70 Jersey cows beneath a large rooftop solar array.  

Dairy farming requires significant energy for refrigeration, which led Ryan to explore renewable power. We take a short break when a school bus slows to a halt, setting his two young sons free to run down the driveway. “It's nice to know that if we reduce our energy consumption and our footprint, as well as being good stewards of the land, this farm business and property will all be available to them,” says Ryan.

Any rural business can apply for energy grants from USDA, as REAP’s goal is to support thriving communities and rural enterprise. The largest solar rooftop array on the North Olympic Peninsula is at Edensaw Woods, a specialty lumber business serving maritime, woodworking and construction companies.

The millhouse requires significant power, and with the REAP incentive to go solar, co-founder Jim Ferris says simply, “You'd be silly not to do it.” Current solar sales tax incentives in Washington State are limited to 100kW arrays. Jim would be glad to install additional panels on a new warehouse, and he wishes state tax incentives supported more ambitious projects. He plans to pass the business to his son, who already helps to manage the operation. Jim sees renewable energy as a strategy to future-proof Edensaw’s energy needs.

Rural residents experience the impacts of climate change in immediate and intimate ways. While farmers consider deeper-rooted, drought-resistant crops, all of us on the Olympic Peninsula wrestle with resilience questions, and bear witness to nuanced changes in the environment we call home. Our closeknit communities are close to the land, yet isolated during power outages or disaster.

In the rain shadow of the Olympic mountains, as summers grow hotter and drier, businesses are claiming power by harvesting the sun. The production company that I run and that created this video is among them. Love of place is the most basic incentive to shape a new energy destiny, and our Claiming Power films reveal people making that choice. See their stories and meet the business owners here.