James (Jim) Miller received a State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) grant award of $97,614 for improvements at an orange and avocado orchard in Cayucos, California. The farm was dealing with a high energy cost and wanted to utilize irrigation tools to support more precise and efficient irrigation scheduling. Using the SWEEP funds, Jim and his son Daryn oversaw the installation of two solar energy arrays (14.72 kW and 16 kW); one for each of the on-farm wells. In addition, the recipients installed new high efficiency electric pumps with screen filters, a flow meter at each well, soil moisture sensors, and a weather station. With the addition of these tools, the farm made improvements to both the energy efficiency of their irrigation system and can make more informed irrigation decisions by relying on the sensors.

According to Daryn, “to keep the farm sustainable is more and more challenging… receiving a SWEEP grant makes us more competitive to survive in this challenging market.” He went on to explain the multiple objectives of their project, “to cut down our energy, to really see how much water we were using and try to mitigate if we were over-irrigating or under-irrigating and just try to get a good idea of where we’re at on a total amount of water and total amount of electricity, and to essentially create our own little electric grid to offset most of our pumping costs.”

In 2019, Daryn hosted a farm tour for members of the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Environmental Farming Act Science Advisory Panel to showcase the SWEEP project. He shared feedback on the experience of receiving and implementing a SWEEP grant, noting that they saw a positive impact on their energy bills after implementation of the SWEEP project. He indicated that they have seen utility credits in the winter months and much lower energy costs, even in the summer months when they are irrigating the avocados and orange trees. The farm has also experienced pronounced water savings due to the project.