Wine making is a pretty natural process—just waiting for grape juice to ferment and turn into wine, really. That’s what Keith Johnstone, owner of the Corrales Winery in Corrales, N.M., says anyway.

“We’re doing it pretty close to the same way people have done it for the last 6,000 years,” Johnstone said.

He guesses that connection with nature and a rather natural process may be what draws vintners to solar power.

Johnstone installed 30 photovoltaic solar panels at his winery at the beginning of this year. The system generates about 6.9 kilowatts, which he says is more than twice the energy the winery uses.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “There are some processes, some times of the year, when we’re using more than we generate. But for the most part, over the whole year, we generate way more than we need.”

In addition to paying nothing to the Public Service Company of New Mexico, the local utility, Johnstone said he gets a check for $130 to $160 every month from the company, which pays 13 cents for every kilowatt hour the winery feeds into the system. The credits more than cover the winery’s natural gas bill, Johnstone said.

With the 30 percent federal tax rebate, the 10 percent New Mexico state tax rebate and the accelerated depreciation of the panels as business investments, Johnstone estimated the system would pay for itself within eight years. But the utility has increased its rates once and is about to do it again.

“If they keep on doing that, we’ll just pay it off faster and faster,” Johnstone said. “And then it will just be free.”

He said he expects the system to be high functioning for the next 25 years at least, and he’s been interested in solar energy for the last 40 years or so. He’s watched the technology evolve and public interest grow over the years.

“I figured since I, for whatever reason, wasn’t getting any younger, I better just go ahead and do it,” he said of installing solar at the winery.

The government incentives and the utility’s feed-in tariffs just made it a lot easier.

The biggest surprise to Johnstone was the letter he received from the utility company when he installed his panels. The letter said he was the 742nd person to install solar in the state.

“I just can’t believe that in a state with a population close to 2 million, especially in New Mexico where the sun shines pretty much 95 percent of the time, that more people aren’t doing it,” Johnstone said.

Pictured: The Tablas Creek Winery's solar system in Paso Robles, Calif.