2022
United States
Jack’s Solar Garden is a 4-acre, 1.2 MW-DC solar array integrating improved land management strategies called agrivoltaics – this entails co-locating agricultural activities within the solar array infrastructure. It became the country’s largest commercial research site for agrivoltaics in the USA in 2021 through research partner collaborations.
Highlights
01
Researchers and universities use the land under the solar panels for free to study the microclimates the solar panels create and how vegetation grows within their solar array.
02
The solar array consists of 3,276 solar panels on a single-axis tracking system elevated to heights where panels are flat at 6ft and 8ft high to support research objectives and the ability of farm labour to work under them.
03
Developed an “Artist on the Farm” program to support local artists in the community who help showcase their work and 2% of the solar array’s electricity is donated to low-income households.
Main Information
Jack’s Solar Garden created a non-profit called the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center to teach students, community members, and policymakers about how land beneath solar arrays is still functional and shouldn’t be disregarded, denuded, and degraded.
Jack’s Solar Garden aims to be a model for the potential of agrivoltaics and inspire more research into the practice and promote a broader acceptance of solar on farmland given better land stewardship practices within solar arrays.
Jack’s Solar Garden is a family-owned social enterprise in Colorado doing more with the family farm for the betterment of the local community, agrivoltaics.
other practices
