Oregon Public Broadcasting

Going "green" is in vogue right now on Northwest farms. But many rural parts of the region are struggling to put new technologies into practice and make renewable energy pay.

That's the take-home message from the Harvesting Clean Energy conference in Kennewick, Washington this week. Anna King was there and has this report.

Sheldon Heffernan is 22, a tall, tall drink of water and is all about clean energy.

He helps his father with the family farm. They grow hay and timber out of the tiny town of North Powder in northeast Oregon. He tells me that with the price of hay, milk and timber down he's looking for a new kind of crop.

Anna King: "So wind and power is a good option for you guys."

Sheldon Heffernan: "Yeah, it's a good option to help you diversify whatever industry you are in. We are in agriculture and forestry and it's a good way to diversify it. And give you another option."

Heffernan's family is hoping that green energy will be a way for the young man to be able to come back from college and actually work and live on the farm.

Farm kids have a hard time getting a start in agriculture because many family farms aren't profitable enough to support more than one family.

But Karl Untershuetz of the Northwest Environmental Business Council says despite all the hoopla over green energy, it still hard to make  it work for people like the farming Heffernan family.

Karl Untershuetz: "Energy, clean technologies, energy in general is getting a lot of attention, but the big hurdle is going to be creating sound policy that's stable enough that allows those investors to come in and feel comfortable enough to really come in and make some big changes."

The Harvesting Clean Energy conference is in its tenth year. It's organized by the Olympia-based group Climate Solutions.