Harnessing Sun and Soil
Heading to Longmont on North 95th St, you might notice Jack’s Solar Garden to the east. This community solar initiative, launched in 2020, boasts over 3,000 elevated solar panels that produce enough clean energy to power 300 homes. It’s an important community resource for clean local energy, but the real story lies in what you can’t see from a quick drive-by.
Jack’s Solar Garden, a family-owned social enterprise, is dedicated to enhancing the community through the innovative use of its farm. Through collaboration with the research community, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado State University, and the University of Arizona, they have been hard at work advancing agrivoltaics, the practice of coupling solar panels with agriculture. Five years of dedicated, groundbreaking research have put Jack’s on the map as the nation’s premier site for agrivoltaics.
The land required for solar development is expected to increase 20- 40X by 2050, and most of these sites will be on agricultural land. Conventional solar development removes this land from productivity, but land stewardship through agrivoltaics accommodates agricultural land use along with solar energy generation, creating a shady microclimate beneath the panels, with mutually beneficial attributes:
- As ambient temperature rises, many plants shut down their photosynthetic activity; in the shade, they continue this activity throughout the day, improving plant health and vigor.
- The microclimate cools the panels, creating greater efficiency and higher output, increasing clean energy production.
- Cooler temperatures slow evaporation from the soil, reducing the need for supplemental irrigation.
- Livestock, like sheep and cows, can take refuge in the shade of solar panels during the hottest days of the year while the grasses they eat grow better under the panels compared to outside the solar array during drier years.
Jack’s is now the base for the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center, a non-profit established to showcase the research, opportunities, and development of land stewardship within solar arrays.
Growing Food, Farmers and Community
Crops are cultivated at Jack’s Solar Garden by Sprout City Farms (a nonprofit farming organization based in Denver), and food production is funneled back to the local community through their CSA program, farmers’ markets, and food bank donations. Seasoned and aspiring farmers benefit from and participate in the ongoing agrivoltaic research on site, with the added perk of spending most of their work hours in the shade.
Education and engaging the community are core values, and there is always something happening at Jack’s through the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center. Come for a tour, take in an art exhibit, participate in a seminar, explore pollinator habitats, enjoy a farm-to-table meal, or even get married under the solar panels.
As a Jack’s Solar Garden subscriber, Western is proud to support local clean energy production and agricultural innovation.
