Little USA Community Solar Campus Agrivoltaics Training and Curriculum Development

Commodities

Practices

Agrivoltaics (farming with assistance of solar energy)  is a relatively new concept with practical applications for farmers, community gardeners, and related agricultural ventures. While there are excellent examples of Agrivoltaic pioneers, such as Jack’s Solar Garden in Colorado, and others, there is a notable absence of this effort in Alabama. Little USA, with the help of local community members, Institutions that produce industry leaders including Auburn and Tuskegee Universities, and regional partners, will develop a cohort of instructors, plan, and resources to build innovative sustainable agricultural practices in Alabama and the Black Belt region.

As we develop a training and certification program for Solar Energy careers and applications within the agricultural economy of the Black Belt region, we are confronted with a lack of trainers within our region for these targeted career opportunities. This project will be the cornerstone of an ongoing program in partnership with established institutions, including Auburn and Tuskegee universities, local industry partners  plus assistance from Jack’s Solar Garden, to build a model for innovation in the region over the longer term. 

LittleUSA (LUSA) Community Solar Campus is a 22 acre property located in Union Springs in the Black Belt region of rural Alabama, donated by the Hall-Jordan Allen Family Trust, to fulfill a mission of bringing economic opportunity through education and workforce development in sustainable energy and agriculture.

Our investment in the community will ensure that generations continue to thrive starting with education and career opportunities in the $881 billion  Green Energy economy.

Main Project Objectives: 

The objectives of this project are multifaceted and transdisciplinary, bringing together the expertise of educators, practitioners and stakeholders who can extend their knowledge to empower grassroot communities with knowledge and capacity building skills. 

Create the Cohort: LUSA’s first step will be to gather a group of educators and others interested in developing innovative tools for agriculture and renewable energy and for teaching. The cohort will include professors at universities in the region, instructors at community colleges, farm to fork activists, representatives of local Ag Extension including 4H youth leaders. This cohort will gather expertise to design a course, test the feasibility of the course, evaluate and train the next generation of agri-voltaic professionals.  

Introduce Agrivoltaics and Solar Energy to the Cohort: Through a combination of online learning and in-person workshops, the cohort will be introduced to Agrivoltaics by educators from the Colorado Agrivoltaics Learning Center associated with Jack’s Solar Garden, the largest Agrivoltaic enterprise in the United States. 

The cohort will also receive an introductory series of workshops and hands-on experience following NABCEP (North American Board of Energy Professionals) requirements as a first step to careers in the solar industry. That segment of the training will be led by Joe Mitchell.

Build a Model Agrivoltaic Installation: An essential step in the program will be the installation of a model Agrivoltaic garden at the Little USA site in Union Springs. The solar installation will be led by Joe Mitchell with strategic input from Dr. Eduard Muljadi, professor of Electrical Engineering at Auburn University and an associate of NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory).

Along with the Installation of solar panels, the cohort will prepare a demonstration community garden on an acre. Part of the garden will be devoted to crops that are suited for growing beneath the solar canopy and the remainder of the acre will consist of crops that are usually grown in the region with irrigation and other necessary support powered by the solar panels.

The initial funds from grant and investment funders will be dedicated to the prioritized LUSA objectives, beginning with the first steps in creating an Agrivoltaics training facility and the development of a core group of trainers in southeastern Alabama. 

The proposed leader-training will include online study and in-person hands-on experience building a demonstration community garden featuring crops that can thrive under the solar panel canopy. The panels will also be installed by trainees led by our certified trainer, who will need to come from outside of the region due to the current lack of regional instructors. We hope to create a foundation for Agrivoltaic training In the region with assistance from this grant.

Develop a Training Protocol and Resource for the Region:
As a collaborative project, the cohort will bring their expertise and priorities together to create a scope and sequence for training focused on needs of the Black Belt region. This may be a modular approach to teaching as the curriculum needs of a college class may be different than a company training its employees on the needs of farmers as well as solar providers. Farmers may first need to be introduced to the benefits of adoption of an agrivoltaic approach to growing practices. Likewise solar developers should understand how working with farmers benefits their businesses. 

Modules developed by the cohort and reactions of the cohort to the training experience will be published together with other web resources they find useful. The training resource will be made available on a website that can be used to test some of the concepts. As a living tool, the resource will be open to change and further development. 

The proposed project is limited in scope with large longer term goals. We see this as an opening step to introducing Agrivoltaics to the region through all of the entities and avenues represented by the cohort. The outcome of this initial project will be a training model that can grow in the region.