Jack’s Solar Garden is a family-owned 24-acre farm that has developed an ambitious plan to support their local community using agrovoltaics. The combining of ground mounted solar panels and farming activities in the same location is known as agrovoltaics.

Jack, who purchased the farm in 1972, grew hay and wheat. When Jack died, the family continued to farm hay through the summer of 2019, even though it had become less and less economically viable. Then, Jack’s grandson had another idea. Through partnerships with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado State University, and the University of Arizona, Jack’s Solar Garden is conducting valuable research into co-locating solar panels with agriculture – or agrivoltaics. Partnering with Sprout City Farms the cultivation of crops at Jack’s Solar Garden will provide food for the community while training farmers on how agrivoltaic works.

​Jack’s Solar Garden is educating the next generation through school tours under it’s solar panels via the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center. Farmers, government officials, and the public are routinely able to tour the farm to help spread the word about what agrivoltaics can offer society.

Jack’s Solar Garden states on their web site that they hope to inspire communities to support local farmers as they,

“Embark on creative paths to better our community with locally produced foods and solar power. We plan to continue pushing the envelope of what our kind of agrivoltaics is and what others around the world could do to better use land within solar arrays.”

They clearly are implementing an ambitious plan—visit their website—here: https://www.jackssolargarden.com/the-vision . They are supporting pollinators via a birds and bees program; low-income folks through the donation of a portion of the electricity generated; promote local artists who choose to create illustrations of what the Garden is up to; hosting events (think weddings) to familiarize people with agrivoltaics; even inviting cattle to land that simultaneously supports solar energy production and cattle grazing.

PHOTO CREDITS: Jack’s Solar Garden and the Colorado Agrivoltaics Learning Center