Black Ankle Vineyard in Mount Airy has become the latest example of a local wine-making business to employ alternative energy.

A 73.8-kilowatt roof-mounted solar system installed recently will offset 100 percent of Black Ankle's energy usage. State and federal grants will cover 25 percent of the $180,000 project cost.

"What's exciting is that the project will pay for itself in about four years," said Ed Boyce, who owns the farm with his wife, Sarah O'Herron.

The couple has thought about ways to curb energy use on the farm, Boyce said. A 2,500-square-foot tasting room and a 8,000-square-foot barrel cellar were built with straw bales before adding solar power. Finding anything as good as straw bales for insulation is difficult, Boyce said.

The 145-acre Black Ankle Vineyards also grows its own straw and the farm has a green roof, meaning, plants grow on top of the roof, which keeps it cool and absorbs moisture. Wood used for building construction comes from trees on the farm and inside walls are plastered with dirt and sand.

"We're kind of proud of our place," Boyce said. "Customers can see different experimental buildings built 90 percent from natural materials on our farm."

The solar system was installed by Westminster-based Earth and Air Technologies, LLC.

Federal, state and local officials will meet at 11 a.m. Thursday to see the new solar installation at 14463 Black Ankle Road in Mount Airy.

"The owners of Black Ankle have done an amazing job with keeping every element of their facility and operations in environmental sustainability," said Rebecca Rush, owner of Renewable Energy Stewardship Inc., who wrote the grant to fund the project.

Black Ankle's first grapes were planted in 2003 and the business opened to the public in 2008.

Solar and wind are popular

energy sources for local farms

The quest for alternative energy on the farm is the preferred route for several local farms.

Berrywine Plantations Inc. Linganore Winecellars in Mount Airy has installed a 9-kilowatt solar system connected to two electric vehicle charging systems, and skylights were added to allow natural lights into a processing room, eliminating six or seven 100-watt halogen lights.

"We went 100 percent wind power in February 2011, and it's just become (such a) part of us now we don't even think about it anymore," said Anthony Aellen, president of Berrywine Plantations Inc. Linganore Winecellars.

A 28-kilowatt solar system installed in 2012 powers about 50 percent of Whitmore Farm's electrical needs in Emmitsburg. The remaining 50 percent of the farm's electricity comes from wind power.

Warm air from a wind-powered generator is pushed through pipes and into the walls of a greenhouse at Fox Haven Farm in Jefferson, and a solar-powered well and irrigation system waters the garden.

Under construction at Catoctin Breeze Vineyard in Thurmont is a 3,000-square-foot tasting room. The finished product takes advantage of natural heating and cooling that building the room in the mountainside offers, and thus, is a greener way to operate, owner Voytek Fizyta said.

"I think there's more opportunity for vineyards to use solar because we tend to use power differently than the normal farm," Aellen said. "A lot of farms use tractor and heavy equipment and for us, we're working inside."