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Agrivoltaics Grants

Agrivoltaics are the integration of solar energy generation facilities with agricultural activities. To help promote multi-faceted uses of agricultural land, the Colorado Department of Agriculture operates the Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Grant Program. 

The Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Grant Program has awarded $1 million to thirteen projects in its first two years. Grants are intended to investigate the advantages, additional costs, and compromises of agrivoltaics systems. Funded projects include the construction of multiple new agrivoltaic arrays that showcase various panel technologies and applications with different cropping systems. Additionally, the program funded outreach campaigns, research studies, the retrofitting of a traditional solar array for grazing, and economic modeling projects. 

Sheep graze underneath solar panels, one sheep looks directly at the camera

Colorado State Representative Karen McCormick, CO State Senator Chris Hansen, Agriculture Commissioner Kate Greenberg stand in agrivoltaic solar garden while Governor Jared Polis signs Senate Bill 23-092
Colorado State Representative Karen McCormick, Colorado State Senator Chris Hansen, Agriculture Commissioner Kate Greenberg stand in agrivoltaic solar garden while Governor Jared Polis signs Senate Bill 23-092.

The program originated from Senate Bill 23-092, in which the Colorado state legislature appropriated $500,000 to distribute as agrivoltaics grants in Fiscal Year 2023-24 to support Colorado producers and help Colorado’s clean energy transition. These grants should “conduct a new or ongoing demonstration or research project as a means to study the potential, benefits, and tradeoffs of agrivoltaics in the state."

This program is separate from CDA’s existing Advancing Colorado’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ACRE3) Program.

Awarded Projects To Date

Map of Colorado that shows the locations of Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration grants with a list of the grants to the left.

Visit our Agrivoltaics Research & Demonstration Projects StoryMap to learn more about about completed projects. 

A tractor seeds in-between solar panels on a plot of land retrofitted for solar grazing by Namaste Solar (FY24 Awardee).
A tractor seeds in-between solar panels on a plot of land retrofitted for solar grazing by Namaste Solar (FY24 Awardee)

2025-26 Awarded Projects 

  • Colorado State University (Dr. Knapp & Sturchio Lab) will quantify how agrivoltaic land use in the semi-arid native rangelands of Colorado can conserve soil moisture, particularly important during drought, and provide reliable, and perhaps increased, forage production for livestock (Weld County). 
  • AgriSolar Consulting will host a training workshop, create fact sheets, and convene a working group to help CSU Extension build expertise and capacity to provide science-based, actionable information on agrivoltaics to producers (statewide).
  • Longroots Ranch will shift from continuous grazing to holistic planned grazing and regenerative grazing of sheep at a 55-acre solar array and establish an ecological monitoring process to measure land regeneration (Boulder County). 
  • American Farmland Trust will conduct interviews and focus groups with agricultural producers and electrical utility stakeholders that will identify key factors hindering agrivoltaics deployment, opportunities, and potential policy and programmatic solutions (statewide). 
  • Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center will host regional workshops focused on county officials, electric cooperatives, farming and ranching organizations, solar companies, land trusts, and other interested local organizations in their home communities to discuss local opportunities for agrivoltaics (statewide).

Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Grant

Applications CLOSED for Fiscal Year 2025-26! 

View the Grant Guidelines for FY26 and Grant Application for FY26 here. 

This grant encourages innovative projects, including demonstrations of agrivoltaics, research projects, and outreach campaigns to further agrivoltaics and Colorado’s agricultural economy.

Eligible project types include:

  • Planning and/or permitting of agrivoltaics demonstration projects,
  • Construction of agrivoltaics demonstration projects, 
  • Expansion of existing demonstration projects of agrivoltaic systems, 
  • Research, monitoring and/or analysis of an agrivoltaic demonstration project,
  • Outreach and communication projects promoting results found from agrivoltaics demonstration projects,
  • Other projects that further the research and demonstration of agrivoltaics projects.
     

We will host an informational webinar about the grant requirements and application process. We will also host an "office hours" session for interested applicants to ask questions about their projects. 

  • Webinar on April 4th, 10 am - 11am, Watch the Recording
  • Webinar on April 29, 1 pm - 2 pm 
  • Office Hours have passed, please reach out via email with any project questions

Agrivoltaic Steering Committee

Byron Kominek, Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center / Jack's Solar Garden
Ellen Kutzer, Colorado Solar and Storage Association
Jordan Macknick, National Renewable Energy Association
Duncan Gilchrist, The Nature Conservancy
Meg Caley, Sprout City Farms
Bob Wagner, Farmer, Wagner Charolais and Gene Check, Inc.
Nathan Troudt, Farmer
Alan Knapp, Colorado State University
Tyler Garrett, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union
John Caven, Farmer
Zach Riley, Colorado Livestock Association
Mark Uchanski, Colorado State University
Darrell Littlefield, L7 Ranch LLC

State Staff
Kristen Boysen, Lead
Sam Anderson, Advisor
Cindy Lair, Advisor 

Three rows of bifacial solar panels stand in a field of corn at the ARDEC site, constructed by Sandbox Solar (FY24 Awardee).
Three rows of bifacial solar panels stand in a field of corn at the ARDEC site.