Dan Matsch, composting and carbon farming director at Eco-Cycle, shows mulch to attendees during a tour Saturday of the organization’s compost site at Jack’s Solar Garden in Longmont. (Celia Frazier – For Prairie Mountain Media)
At the intersection of sustainable agriculture and renewable energy, Jack’s Solar Garden in Longmont educated community members about growing plants alongside solar panels at a fundraiser event for nonprofits Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center and Eco-Cycle on Saturday afternoon.
Boulder County community members enjoyed live music, drinks and snacks from local vendors while learning about the roles compost and agrivoltaic farming — which allows solar panels to share agricultural land by raising panels off the ground — play in sustainable agriculture.
Anna Leske, philanthropy manager at Eco-Cycle, said she was excited to put on the event at the solar gardens because of how the two organizations are “both innovative in similar ways.”
“This is a beautiful space to be in,” Leske said. “I think this is an example of how things can be, moving forward.”
Byron Kominek, owner and manager of the garden, led over 50 community members — the largest group he’s given a tour to in the solar garden’s three-year history — between rows of elevated solar panels with various plants growing beneath.
Kominek explained how the garden’s over 3,200 solar panels are programmed to follow the sun to maximize the amount of energy they can produce. Jack’s Solar Garden sells the energy to various clients in Boulder County and leases the land under the panels to farmers for free.
Throughout the tour, Kominek pointed out different crops growing underneath the solar panels and explained what farmers have learned about how crops grow in different conditions.
Kominek said leafy vegetables like basil, kale, lettuce and celery are growing three to five times larger with the shade provided by the solar panels. Sprout City Farms, which uses two acres of Jack’s Solar Garden, switched to growing all of their leafy vegetables at the gardens because they do well with the shade.
Researchers from Colorado State University and the University of Arizona also use the garden’s plots for experiments, including one to determine if plants under the shade of the solar panels need less water. Last year, researchers found lettuce that was in morning sun and got half as much water as other lettuce tasted better.
Solar panels can also help protect plants from hail, depending on which way the hail is falling from. The garden’s plants haven’t been damaged by hail this year, and the garden has had to replace only two of its panels in three years.
Kominek also spoke of how some cows visited the farm last fall and were able to graze safely, despite the solar panel structures.
“This is space that we could potentially have animals out in, in the future,” Kominek said. “We’re going to have hundreds of thousands of acres of solar panels coming to Colorado; why not put it up a little bit higher, and we’re able to keep the cattle industry working within those lands?”
Tommy Brahm, an attendee who recently began working as a shepherd, said he found the tour of the solar garden interesting and was excited by the potential to have sheep graze farms like Jack’s.
“It’ll be cool, like when they were talking about the commercial viability, having more of this,” Brahm said.
Dan Matsch, director of composting and carbon farming at Eco-Cycle, also gave attendees a tour of Eco-Cycle’s compost demonstration site, which is using mycelium, or mushrooms, to break down wood chips.
“What we’re trying to do is see if we can break these down in a reasonable amount of time to make a high-value mulch for use by a farmer,” Matsch said.
Matsch said he hopes scientific trials Eco-Cycle is doing will answer questions about how putting high fungal material on top of soil will translate to the soil.
Brahm expressed interest in the research presented during the tours.
“I think this is like that first step that’s so important, just like having this kind of research teaching ”](events),” he said.
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