Agrivoltaics Helps Colorado Farmers Reap Benefits of Solar + Agriculture

In partnership with: Colorado Department of Agriculture

For Byron Kominek, the choice to integrate solar energy production into his family farm – an approach called agrivoltaics — was born out of necessity.

“Haying 24 acres in Boulder County didn’t generate enough revenue to cover the farm’s bills,” says Kominek, owner and manager of Jack’s Solar Garden in Longmont, Colorado. “Our family needed an alternative method for generating income.”

And so, it began. Jack’s added 3,276 solar panels capable of generating 1.2 megawatts of direct current. Under and around these panels, a variety of garden vegetables, medicinal herbs, berry bushes and grasslands grow.

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What Is Agrivoltaics?

Agrivoltaics is a term for combining solar energy production with agriculture. Jack’s is also a research site for agrivoltaics, thanks to partnerships with the University of Arizona and Colorado State University, as well as support from Sprout City Farms, a Denver-based urban agricultural nonprofit.

“It’s definitely been a trailblazing kind of project,” says Meg Caley, co-founder and executive director of Sprout City Farms, describing the work her group is doing at Jack’s to grow market-ready crops like tomatoes and tender greens.

She laughingly likened farming around solar panels to working in an obstacle course. But a little struggle can reap significant benefits come harvest time.

“We have Swiss chard where the leaf is the size of your torso,” Caley says.

She explains how the shade provided by the panels helps take sun stress off leafy greens and, in some cases, can even extend growing seasons. Plus, crops like spinach and arugula end up sweeter and some bolt less.

Sprout City Farms is conducting research about agrivoltaics, including climate-resilient impacts like decreased water usage. Caley notes the importance of such research, as much of Colorado stands to face a drier climate in the future.

“We are hoping that by combining solar and farmland we can see multiple benefits from the same piece of land, keep farmland in production and keep farmers farming.”

– Kristen Boysen, Colorado Department of Agriculture

Solar Grazing 

Denver-based Namaste Solar has been involved in agrivoltaics since 2019. In addition to building the solar panels at Jack’s Solar Garden, they’ve worked on projects integrating pollinators and solar grazing.

Through a 2023 grant from Colorado Department of Agriculture, the company partnered with Greenbacker Capital to introduce sheep grazing under one of the company’s areas where vegetation had overgrown.

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Plants that grow too tall can pose fire risks and interfere with equipment, according to Julia Park, co-owner at Namaste. Normally, vegetation is managed through mowing, but letting animals chomp it reduces the carbon impacts associated with gas-powered equipment and provides extra income, as shepherds generally have to pay for grazing land.

“We’re excited to be able to participate in what feels like a burgeoning field, and we’re learning a lot through implementation,” Park says. “It feels very exciting to see all the new work that’s being done, especially since so much of it is close to home.”

Funding the Future

To help address cost barriers for Colorado farmers who want to explore agrivoltaics, CDA runs an annual Agrivoltaic Research and Demonstration Grant program that funded six projects across Colorado in 2024.

According to Kristen Boysen, managing director of CDA’s Agricultural Drought and Climate Resilience Office, this is part of a larger campaign by the state to jump-start more renewable energy projects to mitigate climate challenges.

She notes that the goal of Colorado’s agrivoltaics push is to bring the benefits of solar to communities while maintaining workable farmland.

“We are hoping that by combining solar and farmland we can see multiple benefits from the same piece of land, keep farmland in production and keep farmers farming, which is good for all sorts of reasons,” Boysen says. “This isn’t like a silver bullet. It’s not going to work everywhere, but agrivoltaics can be an opportunity to create new partnerships and outcomes that help farmers and their communities.”

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