Click the link to read the article on the KUNC website (Caroline Llanes). Here’s an excerpt:

July 1, 2025

At Thistle Whistle Farm in Hotchkiss, farmer Mark Waltermire grows a wide variety of crops on his 16 acres.

“A lot of greens, onions, shallots, cabbage, kohlrabi, carrots, beets, parsnips, burdock root, scorzonera and saltapie, and then heirloom tomatoes…” he lists when prompted.

Waltermire’s farm is in Colorado’s North Fork Valley, in the West Elk Range of the Rockies. The growing season is short, and the climate is semi-arid. As Waltermire notes, climate change is impacting how he operates…Waltermire is considering a solution [to the warmer atmosphere] that would create a dual use of his land. He wants to build five acres of solar panels on his land — about a megawatt of power — and continue growing his tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, and leafy greens under them. The solar panels would provide shade, something that would benefit his many crops, as well as his goats, chickens, and ducks…It’s called agrivoltaics, combining agriculture with photovoltaic, or solar, panels…[Byron Kominek] explains that selling the energy from these solar panels can help farmers, even during bad years.