"Agrivoltaics" combines food production with solar power

At Jack’s Solar Garden in Longmont, Colorado, more than 3,000 solar panels glint in the sun, powering some 300 homes in the community and providing shade to the fruits, vegetables, and herbs growing below. The practice is known as “agrivoltaics,” combining agriculture and solar power generation on the same land.

“It's using the different microclimates created by the solar panels to be able to be of use to different types of vegetation, livestock, people, soil health,” said Byron Kominek, owner and manager.

Kominek named the solar garden after his grandfather, Jack Stinger, who bought the original farm in 1972 and grew hay and wheat. When Kominek took over in 2018, he was looking for ways to increase the farm’s income.

“Our family had been losing money on the farm,” Kominek said. “The idea was, how do we make our farm more useful financially for our family, and do something useful for our community?”

And that’s when he stumbled on the idea of agrivoltaics. But first he had to convince his mom, who still owned the land, to embrace the change.

“She wasn't too interested in solar panels on our farm, but having agriculture mixed in with it was more interesting to her,” Kominek said. 

The solar panels are elevated 6½ to 8 feet off the ground, creating shade for the crops below — and for the workers who plant and harvest them.

“I think of myself as a shade peddler a lot of times,” Kominek said. “The more shade that's accessible to people, to animals, to crops, that's going to be useful in hotter, drier parts of our country.”

For the past five years, Kominek has partnered with a nonprofit called Sprout City Farms to grow tomatoes, peppers, onions, and greens, which the group sells at farmers markets or through a community-supported agriculture program, or donates to local food aid groups.

Katie Ketchum, field and harvest manager, said there are some eccentricities involved with farming amid solar panels.

“Maneuvering equipment and stuff like that can be challenging,” she said. “We have a small walk-behind tractor. We can't really drive a traditional tractor in between these panels.”

But maybe the biggest advantage is more efficient land use, as millions of acres of land convert to solar farms to meet growing energy demand.

“We don't have to leave the land useless,” said Kominek. “We can continue to make use of it, creating jobs for people underneath the solar panels, producing food for our communities, keeping rural communities especially more afloat.”

As a business, he said, selling electricity makes more money than hay production ever did. Next year, he plans to add another income stream: a you-pick berry operation beneath the solar panels.