What if a solar project didn’t require a community to choose between producing food and producing clean energy?
In Hotchkiss, Delta County, Colorado, Thistle Whistle Farm owner Mark Waltermire began with a simple goal: find a way to power his farm with renewable energy without compromising the land that produces its food. That idea grew into Mirasol Agrivoltaic. Across five acres, the project will grow food and generate renewable energy side by side, keeping farmland in production while extending the benefits of locally generated power beyond the farm and into the surrounding community. Agrivoltaic solar installations allow for crops to continue growing beneath and between elevated solar panels, integrating agriculture and solar generation rather than forcing communities to choose between the two. Mirasol’s plan is that the array will generate electricity for Thistle Whistle Farm and approximately 70 others.
Western Colorado, where the solar array and the farm are located, receives only about 12 to 14 inches of precipitation each year. In this semi-arid landscape, water is precious and increasingly important to the future of agriculture. Solar panels can provide crops with partial shade, creating microclimates that can reduce heat and water stress while helping soil retain moisture. Vegetation, in turn, can help cool the area around the solar panels, supporting their performance during hot weather. For Mirasol and the folks at Thistle Whistle Farm, this project is about much more than finding a productive use for five acres. It is about demonstrating what renewable energy development can look like when it begins with the needs of the land and the people who live there. For the folks at Thistle Whistle Farm, they believe that if we are living in a time when we are developing alternatives, then they have to be shared, and it has to include everyone.
From ideation to implementation
The idea for Mirasol grew partly out of frustration. In 2021, a large, for-profit developer proposed converting pastureland in the area into a solar array. The project was ultimately stopped by county commissioners, but the experience raised a larger question for Mark: Could Western Colorado develop renewable energy differently? Instead of taking agricultural land out of production and bringing in an outside developer, could a solar project strengthen agriculture, remain rooted in the community and return benefits to local residents? For Mark, the answer was yes, and the mechanism for making this happen was agrivoltaics.
Renewable energy offers an opportunity to bring another piece of the farm’s vision into alignment. Rather than installing solar solely for the farm, Mark saw an opportunity to pool local energy needs. By developing a larger shared system, the farm could generate renewable electricity for itself while extending the benefits to neighboring households in this rural area. Mirasol Agrivoltaic began to take shape. The project, led by Thistle Whistle founder Mark and hosted at his farm, is in a region with deep connections to fossil fuel extraction. Delta County has a history of coal mining, with mining activity continuing alongside nearby oil and gas development. Mirasol hopes to offer another pathway by generating renewable energy locally that can help lower electricity costs while creating an economic asset rooted in the community.
Mirasol is working with others in the area like Delta-Montrose Electric Association to connect the project to the grid and line up subscribers, with outreach focused on local growers and lower-income agricultural workers. The project received support from the Colorado Department of Agriculture for a collaboration with Colorado State University to research the agrivoltaic system after construction. The research could help provide a pathway for understanding how the model performs and how similar projects can be replicated on other farms, making Mirasol’s five-acre installation much of a living laboratory.
Financial modeling has been one of the steepest learning curves. Developing pro formas, navigating tax credits, and identifying investors for a project of Mirasol’s size have all presented challenges. PSEF’s support has helped Mirasol navigate some of those barriers. Through PSEF’s Safe Harbor financing, Mirasol has been able to pursue the purchase of project materials while preserving more time to navigate federal tax-credit requirements. The process has also connected the cooperative with organizations and specialists that can help address other pieces of development. Lawyers for Good Government provided legal assistance, helping Mirasol navigate complex questions and move through challenges that would have been difficult to address alone.
Through Mirasol’s journey, they have been in community with PSEF’s member commons. The PSEF network connects Mirasol with other community energy organizations. Mark hopes to assist other PSEF members in navigating the challenging process. As Mirasol continues toward construction, its five acres represent something larger than a single solar project. By bringing together agriculture, renewable energy, and community ownership, Mirasol is building a model rooted in the needs of Western Colorado, one that can help other farms and rural communities imagine what is possible when energy development begins with the people and the land it is meant to serve.