Even before Matt Wassam’s great-great-great grandfather settled on the plains and valleys of Colorado in the 1800s, ranchers and farmers were using solar power. Not photovoltaic solar panels. That would come later. “There is a reason my great grandpa’s old dairy barn and house, still standing near Palmer Lake, has windows all along the south facing side,” said Wassam, general manager for SPG Solar in the Rocky Mountain region. “They used the sun to grow and dry crops, heat the barn and stuff like that. Operating a business that is sustainable for generations is second nature to people of the