Clean, Safe, Renewable Energy

The initial installation of 150 panels in 2012 produced over 50,000 kWh—enough to power and heat the 11,400 SF building and still return 50% of the energy produced back to the grid. In 2019, another 132 panels were added increasing kWh production by 33%. During the last 3 years, the nearly 300 panels have produced over 178,000 kWh of electricity – enough to power 16 US households for 1 year!

Midwest Groundcovers utilizes dead trees from our wooded areas and discarded/salvaged wood and cardboard from our nursery operations to help heat our growing shelters and greenhouse. In our St. Charles nursery, we have a total of 70 heated growing shelters with nearly 100,000SF of growing space that is heated from November through March using 70% natural gas and 30% wood materials that are burned in our vintage custom fabricated wood-burning stoves. This method of heating requires having someone monitor the shelter temperatures and fuel the stoves 3 times per day 7 days per week—including holidays. In operation since 1988, these 2 stoves have been rebuilt and modified twice to keep them operational through many years of use. Our Michigan nursery greenhouse is heated using an outdoor wood-fired log boiler which has been in use since 1993. It is the sole source of heat for the nearly 17,000SF space where perennials are propagated.