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Minnesota Dairy Farm goes green

In total, they have 72 solar panels installed on three arrays and the wind turbine. Both combined create 30 kilowatts of electricity or enough to power 4 to 5 average homes.

On a small dairy farm in Royalton, Minnesota, north of St. Cloud, and right along the mighty Mississippi, you'll find mighty solar arrays and a wind turbine on top of the hill at the Two Rivers Dairy Farm.

"Its first blades were spinning on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7th 2006. So it's been a little over 11 years the wind turbine has been up. It's been working fine, we've had no issues," said Douglas Popp, owner of Two Rivers Dairy Farm.

The solar arrays were then installed in 2012, and with other energy efficient improvements on the farm, they are able to power about half of what they needed.

"The energy footprint is fairly large. You need to cool the milk. The milk is coming out of the cow at 101 degrees. So you need to cool that milk down to 40 degrees. Then to wash all the equipment up, you need the hot water of 180 degrees. And then on a day like to day when it's hotter. You are running a lot of fans," said Douglas.

On a small dairy farm, everyone has to help out milking the cows and even adjusting the solar arrays seasonally to generate the maximum power. The Popp family does this to help support their own future.

"When we came here, someone was great stewards of the land and we would like to pass that on to our next generation," said Jane Popp, co-owner of Two Rivers Dairy Farm.

In total, they have 72 solar panels installed on three arrays and the wind turbine. Both combined create 30 kilowatts of electricity or enough to power 4 to 5 average homes.

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