Colorado Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Grant Program (AgPV)

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. 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, as well as outreach campaigns, research studies, the retrofitting of a traditional solar array for grazing, and economic modeling projects. The program has awarded $1 million to thirteen projects in its first two years.

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

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.

Maximum funding depends on which project type you apply under. From the FY27 Grant Guidelines:

• Demonstration projects (planning/permitting, construction, or expansion of an agrivoltaic array): "Maximum funding: $150,000."

• Outreach and communication projects: "Maximum funding: $75,000."

• Research projects: "Maximum funding: $75,000."

Match is not required but helps you score: "Match is encouraged" is listed under the 20-point Budget criterion, and the rubric asks whether "If additional funding is needed to complete the project, the source of funding has been identified and secured."

Indirect costs are capped: "Indirect costs (maximum 5% of grant award)." Eligible costs include salaries, travel at GSA rates, and construction costs.

Term: "Grantees will have two years to complete their grant projects, roughly June 2026 to June 2028," and "The grant deliverables will be completed by June 30th, 2028."

Two things worth knowing before you invest application time: CDA states "This will be the final year of the Agrivoltaics Research & Demonstration grant program," and the FY 2026-27 application window "closed on June 15, 2026." The program has "awarded $1 million to thirteen projects in its first two years." Farmers and ranchers are explicitly eligible applicants alongside universities, utilities, tribes and nonprofits, and demonstration projects score better when "a producer(s) is directly involved in the project scope" with a landowner letter of support. Reporting includes a final report due "no later than 8 weeks after the end of the grant agreement," with agrivoltaic cost premiums "quantified on both a dollar-per-megawatt and a dollar-per-megawatt-hour basis."

The Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Grant application window for Fiscal Year 2026-27 closed on June 15, 2026. See the program page for the AgPV FY27 Grant Guidelines and Grant Application, and for updates on future rounds.