Locke Farm

The Locke family runs a high-end cotton operation in the fertile San Joaquin Valley in California.  The local agricultural area was subject to power outages from 4 to 6 times per year. Outages created operational uncertainty, and were particularly damaging economically, during peak irrigation season from April to September.

To eliminate unexpected outages and to lower the owner’s electrical bill, WorldWater designed and built a PV power system with WorldWater’s patented VariMax™ technology.  The Locke’s VariMax™ system supplies power to run a 50 hp irrigation pump and a 10 hp well pump. The system is also tied into the electric grid supply for the shop and main residence.  The 38 kW PV array generates an average of 179 kWh of electricity per day, which can either be used in combination with the electric grid or, in the event of a grid outage, can power the irrigation pump offg-grid to ensure adequate irrigation on hot, dry days.

An excellent system that has exceeded all our expectations. I would build it again in a minute.

Gary Martin, D.T. Locke Ranch Owner/Manager

The VariMax™ is performing fabulously! Today, the grid went down…the array was automatically redirected to the VariMax™ and the irrigation pump ran powered strictly by the sun.

Mari Locke Martin