Home – Energy – A Colorado farm parked 3,000 solar panels over its crops, and the third thing the shade produced was neither food nor power
What if a solar farm did not have to stop being a farm? Outside Longmont, Colorado, Jack’s Solar Garden is showing how the same land can generate electricity while remaining available for crops, habitat and other agricultural uses. It turns a familiar rural argument into a practical question about design.
Across five acres of a 24-acre family farm, 3,276 elevated panels form a 1.2-megawatt community solar project capable of producing enough electricity for more than 300 homes. The larger lesson is business as much as technology. Agrivoltaics can give landowners another source of revenue while helping solar developers answer one of the industry’s hardest questions, which is where all those panels should go.
The panels at Jack’s Solar Garden are mounted at heights of roughly 6 feet and 8 feet, creating space for people, vegetation and some farm activity below. Researchers have used the site to study crops, pasture grass, pollinator habitat and broader ecosystem effects rather than treating the ground as empty space beneath electrical equipment.
The project grew from a real farm problem. When owner Byron Kominek returned to the property in 2016, warmer summers and lower rainfall were making the farm’s traditional grass production less reliable. Instead of choosing between abandoning agriculture and covering the land with a conventional solar array, the family tried to stack both activities on the same acreage.
This is also a community solar project, not an off-grid farm powered only for its own use. Electricity generated on the property enters the local system and is purchased by community customers. In practical terms, the farm produces a crop of electrons alongside its agricultural output.
Agrivoltaics means placing solar infrastructure so agricultural production can continue beneath or between the panels. That sounds simple, but the height, spacing, tracking system and crop choice determine whether the arrangement works. A panel designed only to maximize electricity may create a poor field, while a farm-first layout may sacrifice too much power production.
Research from Colorado State University and Cornell University adds evidence that the shade can be useful in dry landscapes. Using four years of data from a Longmont agrivoltaic site, the team found that partial shade and water collected by the panels could reduce plant stress and improve soil moisture.
During a dry year, overall plant growth rose by about 20% or more compared with open areas, while grasses east of some panels were up to 90% more productive in certain cases.
Those numbers are not a promise for every crop or every season. The study focused on cool-season perennial grasses, and the researchers noted that reduced sunlight can also create trade-offs. Still, Matthew Sturchio said, “With small changes in array design, configuration and management, we may even realize untapped benefits, particularly those related to water use.”
For a farmer, the appeal is easy to understand. Crop income can swing with drought, market prices and weather, while a solar agreement may create a steadier second revenue stream. When the electric bill, irrigation costs and a hot summer all move in the wrong direction, diversification can make the difference between keeping land productive and selling it.
But agrivoltaics costs more than dropping standard panels into a field. Elevated structures, wider rows, grid interconnection, specialized maintenance and room for workers or machinery can all affect the economics. The U.S. Department of Energy has warned that cost, liability, legal and regulatory questions still need answers before the model becomes widely available.
The easiest version may not involve rows of delicate vegetables. Sheep grazing, pasture, pollinator habitat and low-intensity crops often need less machinery and can fit more naturally around solar equipment. Agrivoltaics is not a magic trick, but a land management system whose details decide whether it pays.
Colorado already has 5,687 megawatts of installed solar capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Solar now represents an estimated 14.18% of the state’s electricity, with enough installed capacity to serve the equivalent of more than 1.2 million homes.
SEIA also projects another 6,039 megawatts of growth over five years, so the pressure to find acceptable sites is unlikely to fade.
State policy is beginning to support the dual-use model. Colorado’s 2023 agrivoltaics law provided $500,000 for project grants, included wildlife consultation and created a property-tax exemption for qualifying equipment. In August 2025, the Colorado Department of Agriculture announced another $300,000 for five agrivoltaic projects, its third funding round.
That matters because rural opposition to solar is often less about the technology than about what communities fear losing. A project that preserves real farming, supports local income and produces electricity has a different footprint from one that simply replaces agricultural activity. The key test is whether farming remains measurable and economically meaningful, not just a label attached to a power project.
Jack’s Solar Garden proves coexistence is possible, but it does not prove every farm should copy the same design. Soil, rainfall, crops, livestock, machinery, grid access and local rules all change the calculation. For the most part, successful projects will be designed around a specific farm rather than built from a standard solar blueprint.
At the end of the day, agrivoltaics tries to make one acre do two jobs, easing pressure on farmland while creating clean power and another source of rural income. Colorado’s experiment matters because it treats the farm as part of the energy system instead of an obstacle standing in its way.
The latest agrivoltaics funding announcement was published by the Colorado Department of Agriculture.
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