Phil Sundblad is a strong believer in harvesting energy from the strong winds that often blow in northwest Iowa. The Albert City farmer is a founder and current president of Crosswind Energy, a farmer-owned, ten-turbine wind generation farm in Palo Alto County which was launched in 2007. He also recently erected a small wind turbine on his home farm to help offset his own electricity needs.

Now Sundblad is harvesting energy even on calm days, thanks to five solar panels he recently installed on his farmstead.

"I really wanted a mix of energy sources on my home farm to offset our energy...