Talbott Farms Receives $700K Grant for Agrivoltaic System | Western Colorado

The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week announced a $713,000 grant to Talbott Farms in Palisade to install a 420-kilowatt solar array on one of its peach orchards.

Charlie Talbott of Talbott Farms said the system, once built, should generate enough electricity to power the entire packing and processing facility. It will cover just over an acre of peach trees adjacent to the packing plant in Palisade.

“Our goal is to produce fruit first and then solar production,” Talbott said. “We will manage the garden to shade the trees when they need shade and give them light when they need light the most, and the solar production will be an added benefit.”

Talbott, who said the USDA has not yet informed the company of the grant decision, said the panels will be placed about 15 feet high so they do not interfere with equipment or orchard operations.

The company considered solar options on its properties, Talbott said, but didn’t want to take any farmland out of production and replace it with solar panels. Agrivoltaics combines the two.

“We want the best of both worlds,” Talbott said. “Why can’t we produce solar energy in trees? The French are quite far ahead, much farther ahead than we are.”

According to his knowledge, Talbott said it will be the largest agrivoltaic system on fruit trees in the country. The company is working with American company Jordan Energy and French company Sun’Agri on the project.

In addition to producing energy, Talbott said the panels could provide additional protection from frost and shield trees from hail. The panels would have motors that would allow them to move, providing sunlight when the trees need it and generating electricity when it doesn’t.

“We’re really hoping that there’s a symbiotic experience where we actually increase fruit production and also have a little less transpiration, a little less need for irrigation, all while generating electricity,” Talbott said. “That’s the hope. That’s the plan.”

The total cost of the project is about $1.5 million, Talbott said, and there are other tax incentives that could help fund the project. He also said they plan to work with Colorado State University to track data on how the project is progressing.

“We think there will be a lot of learning opportunities,” Talbott said. “We’ll be working with CSU, working with them to collect data to see what the outcome will be, what it will do to tree health, soil health, etc.”

If all goes according to plan, Talbott said he expects construction of the solar installation to begin in 2025 and be up and running in 2026. He added that once completed, it would be a good test to see if such systems could work with orchards.

“Solar production is something that almost everyone has an opinion on,” Talbott said. “I really think that if there’s a symbiosis between solar production enhancing agriculture and agriculture not going out of production to just produce electricity, then we have the best of both worlds. We’re going to have Exhibit A here, not just in Colorado, but across the country, whether that works or not.”