Penciling out the Economics of a Green Lightning machine...

With current UAN prices around $0.64 per unit of N, and corn prices projected to stay in the $4.00/bushel range, profit is looking slim again for the American farmer in 2025. However, overcoming this difficult era for row crop farms is becoming an actual possibility. By reducing input costs, farmers can increase profits in the coming seasons.

A very common question for Green Lightning is also one of the most important:

Is it economical to produce your own nitrogen?

A 6-head Green Lightning machine uses 1,100 watts, which is 1.1 kWh. To calculate your hourly cost to run the unit, take what you pay per kilowatt hour (most states are around $0.12/kWh), multiply by 1.1 (kWh), then multiply by 8,760 (hours in a year). That gives you the projected annual operating cost:

$0.12 × 1.1 × 8,760 = $1,156.32 per year.

The 6-head Green Lightning machine produces 100 gallons of product per day, or 36,500 gallons per year. Each gallon equates to about 3 pounds of nitrogen, which means the unit produces over 100,000 pounds of N per year.

Now take the annual electricity cost — $1,156.32 (assuming $0.12/kWh in Kansas) — and divide it by 100,000 lbs of N. That gives you a nitrogen production cost of just $0.0115 per pound of N (or about $0.035 per gallon).

Of course, the cost of the machine itself, plus filters and maintenance, must be factored in — but even then, the savings and potential are significant. What a difference you can make!