Milling & Baking News - August 28, 2018 - 31

Milling Technology

Milling operations: Installing
solar power to make flour

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

der $2.5 million dollars, Mr. Sidles said.
In addition to installing the equipment, SunPower provides data summarizing yearly, monthly, weekly and
daily solar energy production as well
as production trends over different
periods of time. The software includes
data kilowatts, which involves the
rate of energy use, and kilowatt hours,
which measures the total amount of
energy used.
Mr. Sidles said in 2017 the Miller Milling facility in Fresno used about 12 million kilowatts of electrical energy. The

MILLER MILLING

FRESNO, CALIF. - The search for ways
to be more environmentally sound as
well as reduce energy costs continues
to lead to new and innovative ways to
power flour mills around the globe.
Over the years, a number of mills
around the world have used water as
an energy source to power their plants.
In recent years, several flour mills have
begun using wind as an energy source
to help power their plants, and now a
flour mill in Fresno, Calif., is harnessing the sun's energy to partially power
its facility that produces 9,500 cwts of
flour per day.
Miller Milling Co.'s solar power system was built in 11 months and became
operational toward the end of 2017, Damon Sidles, plant manager, said during
a recent presentation on the project at
the 2018 International Association of
Operative Millers (IAOM) Conference
in Atlanta.
Mr. Sidles noted that solar energy
systems reap the benefits in climates
that have abundant sunshine.
After taking time to explore the resumes of several companies in the solar
power industry, Miller Milling chose
Richmond, Calif.-based SunPower Corp.
Mr. Sidles, who noted that this was
one of SunPower's smaller-scale projects, said Miller Milling decided to install the 2,340 solar panels required for
the project on 5 acres located adjacent
to the mill.
While it takes 2 to 5 kilowatts of solar energy per day to power a home, the
system generates 1,018 kilowatts of solar energy per hour, Mr. Sidles said.
Miller Milling purchased SunPower's
latest technology, a system called Oasis 3, in which each solar panel is rated
for 435 watts. Mr. Sidles explained that
a tracking system, aided by sensors,
helps move the panels throughout the
day so they are always receiving a direct path of sun rays.
When the sun sets, the solar panels
return to their stowed, horizontal position parallel to the ground and then
move to an angle facing east toward the
sun at sunrise, he said.
Mr. Sidles described the process as
"harvesting the sun's rays or photons
and converting them into electrons, or
electrical energy. When the sun hits the
panel, protons are converted to electrons
and direct current electricity that flows to
the inverter; that's when it is transformed
into AC (alternating current) power."
Total cost of the project was just un-

About 17% of the power at Miller Milling's
Fresno, Calif., mill is sourced from solar
panels.

solar energy system is rated at 2 million
kilowatts per year, which means it is
producing about one-sixth, or approximately 17%, of the plant's energy.
The environmental impact of drawing 17% of the mill's power from the
sun was significant, he said.
In terms of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the solar energy system
for the year offsets the equivalent of
170,000 gallons of gasoline consumed
and 1.6 million lbs of coal burned.
Mr. Sidles said the only mill shutdown that was required during the
installation of the solar energy system
lasted for 8 to 9 hours.
"There was really very minimal
downtime with this project," he said.
Mr. Sidles said the solar panels,
which must be cleaned periodically to
ensure optimal performance, are under
warranty for 25 years, and at age 25
they are guaranteed to perform at 85%
efficiency.
Miller Milling's Fresno plant processes hard and durum wheat into tortilla flour, all-purpose flour, wheat tortilla and whole wheat all-purpose flour,
semolina, durum flours and whole
wheat durum products. MBN

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Milling & Baking News

August 28, 2018 / 31

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Milling & Baking News - August 28, 2018

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