A new solar energy project designed to reduce costs and promote sustainability was unveiled earlier this week during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Bayer’s Global Vegetable Research and Development site in Woodland.
The site – located at 37437 Highway 16 in Woodland – worked with Enel X North America, a company with a long history in the energy sector, which installed two solar arrays with a total of 5,415 solar panels occupying 10 acres capable of generating nearly three megawatts of electricity.
According to Bayer staff, this makes the Woodland site the company’s most onsite solar-powered operation globally.
The panels will supply roughly 70% of the site’s needs, according to Bayer.
Notably, the project ties in closely with the city’s Climate Action Plan, which identified a need for local greenhouse gas reductions of over 110,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2035 to achieve Woodland’s goals.
City Manager Ken Hiatt attended the Tuesday event and applauded Bayer’s investment for demonstrating its commitment to the city’s job market and the community’s climate goals.
“The city is proud to be home to partners like Bayer’s vegetable seed facility that help keep Woodland on the cutting edge of food, agriculture and sustainability,” Hiatt remarked.
Mike Winningham, facilities manager for Bayer’s Woodland site, stressed that this is one of the first Bayer sites to be able to install a large solar panel array to offset some of its carbon footprint.
The addition of a battery backup system also allows the site to offset carbon emissions when the solar arrays are not generating electricity such as at night.
“We’re able to offset 44-plus tons of carbon emissions per year, which equates to about 472 homes,” he emphasized. “As you can imagine, being able to offset three or four neighborhoods worth of homes is probably pretty big for this community.”
Site Operations Lead Staci Rosenberger noted that Bayer has been talking about installing solar panels for decades but only got around to starting the process in 2019.
“So this is the culmination of five years worth of work,” she emphasized.
John Shoeb, head of health, safety, environment, and quality for Enel X North America, noted that his company – which he said has the most terawatts in its portfolio in the “world of clean energy” – is excited to work with Bayer’s Woodland site and thanked local officials for their support.
“Bayer Woodland’s storage will result in about a 70% reduction in their overall usage of electricity,” he emphasized. “It’s power that we get right from mother nature and goes through and helps Bayer, as well as the community, reach the carbon neutrality objectives it’s set out for us.”
He also highlighted that the 2.7-megawatt solar facility should be functional for the next 20 years.
“At Enel, our whole goal is carbon neutrality and cutting out the carbon that we have,” he added.
Additionally, Shoeb noted that the project took 23,000 hours to build and relied heavily on local labor.
“That’s 23,000 hours of local labor we brought into this community and there were no injuries, so bravo to everybody,” he said.
Bayer’s Woodland site celebrated its 50th anniversary two years ago. It was initially created to focus on developing tomato hybrids resistant to a particular disease and has evolved through the years to do much more.
Today, the site employs nearly 250 employees who work on “developing healthy vegetable varieties while seeking new solutions to help achieve more sustainable harvests,” according to its website.
During a tour before the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the solar arrays, Bayer staff walked attendees through the Woodland site to show two programs that benefit the community – Baylab and LifeHub.
Baylab Woodland allows students to visit the lab, learn about the industry, and deepen their understanding of agricultural science through hands-on experiments.
Lisa McDaniel, head of engagement and sustainability for the site, explained that the lab opened last year and has welcomed over 650 students catering to all grades from elementary through junior college.
“We typically try to target the local schools or communities that are Title 1 just to give them a better advantage, but we welcome all students,” she stressed.
Title 1 schools rely on federal funds to meet the educational needs of students. These funds are typically used to support evidence-based educational strategies that close the achievement gap and enable students to meet the state’s challenging academic standards, according to the California Department of Education.
“We have career mapping so they can learn about all the different kinds of career opportunities that exist in (agriculture) and a lot of science to give them opportunities to hands-on experiments that teach them about sustainability as well,” McDaniel remarked. “We’re proud to be part of a network of 20 around the world. We’re the first one in the U.S. and the first one with an agriculture focus…, and we really are grateful to all of our volunteer scientists that make this lab operate.”
Furthermore, the site will soon have a Bayer LifeHub, which will be an “innovation space” and part of a network of innovation centers Bayer has around the globe.
Alberto Ladino, who is in charge of strategic sourcing biologicals for Bayer, explained that the facility will offer two types of activities.
“We offer wet labs to support local innovators and startups to conduct research,” Ladino said. “And at the same time, we have a space where we open the facilities to the community and to innovators to solve problems together and also share the science that is coming out of our labs that will make the future of agriculture more sustainable.”
If interested in learning more about Bayer’s Vegetables Research and Development site in Woodland, visit bayer.com/en/us/woodland.
