Rising Star: Byron Kominek, Jack’s Solar Garden Developments

Solar Power World is proud to present the inaugural SPW Rising Stars. These solar industry workers are improving the industry and inspiring others to join the green workforce. Read all of our Rising Star profiles here.

Byron Kominek is the owner of Jack’s Solar Garden Developments. He transformed his Colorado family farm into Jack’s Solar Garden in 2020 to provide his family with financial security, host community events and conduct agrivoltaic research. Kominek was motivated to pursue renewable energy research after working on climate mitigation and forest preservation for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Zambia.

What accomplishments are you most proud of so far in your career?

I’d say I have three to date:

When I worked as a diplomat for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Zambia from 2012 to 2014, I spearheaded strategizing how to use $30 million from U.S. taxpayers on climate mitigation and adaptation programs aimed at preserving forests and wildlife, while creating livelihoods for local communities. My U.S. government colleagues worked with me to provide direct payments to Zambian forestry departments to supplement their ability to monitor their forests as well as to establish a novel program that gave small funding amounts to Zambian civic organizations to work with their communities on advocacy and livelihood initiatives. The crown jewel of it all was kickstarting a massive effort to protect 1 to 2 million hectares of forest across multiple provinces and chiefdoms that ten years later became a much bigger success than I could have imagined. I was very proud of this work, and it gave me a wonderful appreciation for how government can work innovatively given the right people in the right places being willing to push their boundaries, and those of others.

I think I’m more thankful about building Jack’s Solar Garden in 2020 than I am proud of it. It took 3 to 4 years of work delving into industries and government processes I didn’t have much experience with. As with my USAID work, this took a wide variety of people being willing to support my vision with advice, financial support, collaborative efforts and the granting of many permissions. Jack’s Solar Garden transformed my family’s farm. It provides my family and I with more financial security while allowing us to be more integrated into our community with on-site events, activities, tours and folks creating their livelihoods on the land under and around our solar panels. I love having folks on my land and being able to provide them with inspiration for how future solar developments can do far more for our communities than produce clean energy with minor design changes.

Kominek holds a community event at Jack’s Solar Garden. Credit: Katie Warnke from Green Earth Photography

The last is an ongoing one where I strive to raise enough funds for our small nonprofit, the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center, that I can hire and retain staff who are passionate about agrivoltaics. Fundraising as a nonprofit is very challenging and constantly weighs on my mind as I want to keep sharing information on agrivoltaics and pushing the envelope of what it’s capable of being. Most importantly, having funds means I get to keep paying my amazing staff to work toward a shared vision for a more climate-resilient future that we can all enjoy. As the other two accomplishments, it wouldn’t be possible without the support and willingness of wonderful donors, an engaged board and a broader community wanting to hear from us about how agrivoltaics can be rolled out in Colorado and across our nation.

What’s a lesson you learned the hard way in this industry?

Financing solar projects is hard. From 2018 to 2020, I was seeking tax equity investors to cover the cost of building Jack’s Solar Garden and making my vision come to reality. Unfortunately, I came across a number of “impact investors” that only cared about the impact on their wallet — only wanting ROIs that’d beat the market — and not really caring about the likely impact of our project. To avoid being financially entangled with characters that didn’t share in my vision, I spent some sleepless nights figuring out how else to finance Jack’s Solar Garden. I came up with a very different financial structure than other community solar gardens, while also needing to collateralize my family’s farm for a significant bank loan. The lesson I learned was more of a reiteration of an idea I already knew — if the traditional way of getting what you want done doesn’t allow your vision to come to fruition, do it differently — there’s never only one way to get what you want done no matter what industry you’re in.

Who or what has had a major influence on your work in the renewable energy field?

I couldn’t have built Jack’s Solar Garden without my buddy Jean Paul “JP” LaMarche, who works for Greenskies Clean Focus, that gave me consistent, practical advice on developing Jack’s Solar Garden while being enduringly positive and supportive. Not once did he tell me that my vision wasn’t practical or that I couldn’t do it — it was always very thoughtful advice that helped me achieve the next steps. There was only one time when he told me not to pursue a specific idea — there was a racking system I was interested in that he told me to avoid, and thankfully I took his advice as that racking company folded within a few years. We all need a JP in our lives that provides practical yet positive encouragement.

What’s a Big Idea you have about the renewable energy transition?

My biggest ideas that I’m working toward right now is getting cattle within solar arrays. ‘Cattlevoltaics’ will improve the adoption of solar arrays in communities across our country, while providing shade for animals that need it as global temperatures continue to rise. In the western states, shade for select crops and livestock is already at a premium. Imagine 20, 40, 60 years from now when it’s 10°F+ hotter in the summers. Shade is only going to be more valuable for agriculture, our environment and humanity.

Building solar arrays now that can accommodate a diverse array of agricultural practices, like cattle grazing, is a climate adaptation technique that will support the next generation of agricultural workers given the structural supports of solar arrays should last for over 50 years if built correctly. The second idea I’m working toward is how to incorporate community members with agricultural skills that don’t own land into existing solar arrays to showcase the possibility of providing land access for livelihood creations and improving local food security. Existing solar arrays aren’t ideal for agrivoltaics, but we can still be innovative and figure out what can be done to enable land access for those that can make good use of it. Solar arrays can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing — but with the right training and safety rules, they can be made safe for people, livestock and a variety of agricultural practices.

Why should young people consider careers in the solar space?

It’s a rapidly growing industry that provides for career advancement and innovation with good wages. There is a huge opportunity to influence how our country and our world rolls out clean energy that will help mitigate climate change. With the right people in the right places, hopefully decisions on how to build solar arrays will help our agricultural industry adapt to hotter climates in the future. Smart young people can help figure out the future of agrivoltaics.

Are there any companies or organizations that have especially helped to foster your career in solar? 

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado State University and the University of Arizona have been long-term partners and champions of agrivoltaics. Individuals at each institution helped me in the early building of Jack’s Solar Garden through feedback and willingness to partner with me. Once Jack’s Solar Garden was built, these same folks found resources to conduct research at Jack’s Solar Garden that broadens my knowledge of agrivoltaics. It’s been wonderful having these research institutions thoughtfully collaborating with me over the years.