Local Colorado Solar Company
Agrivoltaics: Where Solar Energy and Agriculture Meet
Explore how Sandbox+ Solar is testing agrivoltaic systems, from bifacial fences to transparent arrays, to measure crop yield, soil health, and energy output across Colorado farmland.
What is Agrivoltaics?
Agrivoltaics is the practice of using the same land for both agriculture and solar energy production. By elevating photovoltaic arrays above active crops, the system creates shared benefits: panels shade plants and reduce evaporation, while vegetation cools the panels and improves their efficiency. The approach varies by climate, crop type, and terrain ranging from fixed elevated arrays to mobile or transparent configurations, but the core goal is the same: to generate clean electricity without taking farmland out of production.
The Intersection of Food, Energy, & Water
Food
Keeping agricultural lands in production & maintaining access to sustainable and nutritious food.
Energy
Supplying the renewable energy demand for a growing population in urban and rural regions of the world.
Water
An Agrivoltaics Mini Documentary
Agrivoltaics, a novel approach combining agriculture and renewable energy, addresses food security and energy challenges without harming the environment. Adaptable to local contexts, it includes strategies like elevated solar panels in Kenya improving crop yields, and vertical systems in Norway preserving forests. Agrivoltaics promotes sustainable energy and enhances agriculture, potentially redefining land use, energy, and food production.
In this mini documentary, ‘Reharvesting the Sun‘ by RE:TV, Sandbox Solar had some of its recent projects (listed below) featured as major developments towards achieving this goal.
Colaborative Project Sites
Today, we see Agrivoltaics being applied worldwide in incredibly different and innovative ways. In some areas, agrivoltaics is already a well-established technology. However, the concept is still widely unknown in countries like the United States, with very few applications. Sandbox Solar is helping to change that! Alongside our partners, we installed multiple agrivoltaic arrays in the last two years here in Northern Colorado, while gathering and providing research for further deployment of the technology nationwide! We are proud to be a part of the growth of Agrivoltaics in North America and excited about its effects on a more self-sufficient future.
Sandbox Solar Agrivoltaic Testing Grounds at CSU
Sandbox Solar, Colorado State University, and other solar partners teamed up to create our very own Agrivoltaics Testing Grounds at CSU’s ARDEC South. With funding from the Colorado Department of Agriculture, this plot will be used for research and educational purposes for further deployment of Agrivoltaics nationwide.
Click the button below to see live data being produced by the different arrays.
Advancing ecological preservation through innovative solar solutions. Our collaboration with Colorado State University explores the synergy between forage growth, moisture retention, plant physiology, and renewable energy production.
Vineyard Agrivoltaics on Colorado's Western Slope
At CSU’s Orchard Mesa Research Station, we installed a 100kW single-axis tracking array to power on-site operations and drive long-term ‘vitivoltaic’ research. The system will explore potential benefits including frost protection, water retention, hail mitigation, shade management, and changes in grape chemistry.
AGRIVOLTAIC ARRAY TYPES
Bifacial Solar Fence Agrivoltaics
Spring Hill Greens is a local Fort Collins farm that strives to be entirely carbon-neutral. So naturally, they would need an extensive solar system to generate sufficient power for their entire farm to be energy self-sufficient. However, Spring Hill Greens required more land to support a conventional ground-mount solar array. What they needed was an agrivoltaic solution. So they called their local agrivoltaic solar company, Sandbox Solar.
Transparent Agrivoltaic Array
Sandbox Solar has an ongoing agrivoltaic research project in partnership with the Colorado State University Research Farm at ARDEC South. Thanks to funding secured from the USDA SBIR grant, Sandbox Solar was able to install 9 separate agrivoltaic arrays. These arrays test certain crop types with varying solar panel transparency to measure the results. Sandbox Solar and the CSU Department of Agriculture utilize this research for educational and practical implementation.
Mobile Agrivoltaics Array
This Native Hill Farms solar agrivoltaic array is quite unique! Our local farmers wanted a way to integrate enough solar to power their entire farm but could not find a way without sacrificing precious fertile farming land! We custom built this array to be able to slide beneath their green house allowing to them to transfer the area from one plot to another. By working with their existing agricultural practices we found a way to integrate solar in an efficient and innovative way.
Rooftop Agrivoltaics
Rooftop agrivoltaics is the co-location of solar panels (photovoltaics) and food production on rooftops. Combining green roofs with rooftop solar is still in its infancy, but these systems’ synergies are well documented. The plants benefit from the solar panels’ protection, and panel performance improves on warm days due to the evaporative cooling that the plants provide. Agrivoltaic systems are currently used in farm fields but taking this concept to a rooftop is still unique.