The Solar Project

In a field in Charleston Township between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo where soy beans and corn usually grow, there's a new harvest. A solar array, built entirely through the ingenuity and hard work of Connor Field, his father Sam, and their partner, Richard Schmitt, is capturing sunlight and turning it into power.

Their company, Kalamazoo Solar LLC, sells the power back to Consumers Energy. Their key innovation is having three settings for the solar panels -- for spring, summer and winter -- which allows the panels to be moved manually for optimum use as the sun changes position each season. The Fields say manually moving the panels is much cheaper than existing systems that mechanically move the panels to follow the sun. Putting up  $1 million for the project has taught the Fields lessons and provided information they will use as they take their company into the future.

Video by Joho Productions
Music by Ribbons of Song
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