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Jack’s Solar Garden

March 29, 2022 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We thought it had to be Solar versus Plants, but put them in a field together in the right conditions and you just might get Jack’s Solar Garden. Byron Kominek showed how these two can play together in the growing field of Agrivoltaics.

The 2021 harvest, courtesy of Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center

Byron Kominek, Director of the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center, talked about the growing opportunity in agrivoltaics and what has been happening at Jack’s Solar Garden. He also discussed policy/regulations that would support agrivoltaics in various communities.

Planting: May 26, 2021. Brittany Staie of Sprout City Farms, and farm manager at Jack’s Solar Garden, tills the soil at the farm in Longmont, Colo. Jack’s Solar Garden is a 1.2-MW, five-acre community solar farm and is the largest agrivoltaic research project in the U.S. The solar project was designed and built by Namasté Solar. (Photo by Werner Slocum / NREL)

Byron Kominek is an agrivoltaics entrepreneur and consultant as the owner, developer, and manager of Jack’s Solar Garden in Boulder County, Colorado. He is a former US diplomat having served for the US Agency for International Development in southern Africa. He spent over 15 years in international development practices before returning to the US and moving onto his family’s farm in Boulder County. Byron has learned to speak French and Portuguese fluently over time and was an Appalachian Trail through-hiker in 2016. Byron currently spends his time expanding and improving the services of the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center. One service is to provide high school kids with creative programs related to agrivoltaics. Another service is to provide policymakers with new ideas on regulating solar array lands.

Free

Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association (eastern PA)