But the political climate nowadays is pulling for more traditional sources of energy, mostly fossil fuels.

“When people get to know what solar is and what it can do, that it can work, it can really change some minds,” says Jensen as the tour ends. For Jensen and the group here today, it’s about progress. “There are still people who don’t like computers, but where are they? They’re so far behind that they’ll never catch up.”

Of course, there are myriad road blocks before the Diven cannery becomes Helios’ new plant. Currently, Jones said, one of their CPV modules is being independently verified for efficiency. Once that step is complete, it’s all about money.

Both the Department of Energy and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers have funds out there for new manufacturing ventures in the U.S., but Helios has to tap into those funds. Jones seems optimistic.

“Depending on how much money we get, we can either use the space as is, or demolish and improve the building, make it more efficient,” says Jones. “We want to recycle the building, and maybe some of the unemployed workers here [in Fowler] as well.”

As the Vibrant installers leave to return to the various projects around Fowler, Jones, Hamilton and Jensen stand outside the cannery, next to the train tracks, and talk about corn. Jensen is planning to harvest his crop later in the day, which Hamilton remarks seems late in the season. Just as Jensen is schooling us on corn, the ground vibrates.

“Get the train; take a picture of the train,” Jones shouts to me.

A mile-long coal car rumbles through town, and the group goes quiet.

For Jones, he might be imagining his dream: a train packed with clean technology—a unification of what built America up from a modest set of colonies and the new technology that can sustain us for hundreds of years to come.

As for Jensen, I'm not sure what he's thinking about. Maybe it's one of the days he spent at the cannery; the air smelled like tomato pulp, and the Diven plant sounded like a machine behind him. Or, maybe, it's the thought that the town of Fowler will hear the sound of production, and commerce, once again in the future.

Pictured: Jensen, Jones, and Hamilton, outside of a vacant school in Fowler, which is slated to become municipal offices. Vibrant recently built a 69-panel array here to power the building.