Seminar: Agrivoltaics
November 2023
We are happy to share this recording of the interdisciplinary research seminar on Agrivoltaics. Faculty members from across CSU and industry leaders shared their thoughts and ideas on how agrivoltaics can benefit agriculture broadly.
Our Interdisciplinary Research Agrivoltaics Seminar Presenters
Mark Uchanski
Panel Moderator
Associate Professor of Horticulture, Specialty Crops
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Mark Uchanski was born and raised in the far western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois – where the suburbs meet rural America, corn, and soybeans. He fell in love with vegetable farming systems and food systems in his backyard and grandfather’s garden in Chicago. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for his undergraduate degree in horticulture. He later went on to pursue his Ph.D., also at UIUC. His graduate project involved testing and removing pathogens from horseradish propagation stock to provide pathogen-free planting materials to growers. Shortly after graduation in 2008, Uchanski moved to New Mexico to serve the commercial chile pepper and onion industries as Assistant Professor of Horticulture at New Mexico State University. That work soon expanded to include small farm, diversified, and organic operations. In 2015, Uchanski moved to Fort Collins to serve as the Colorado State University Specialty Crops Program Coordinator. There he continues his work with vegetable and other specialty crop producers, including conducting research on sustainable and organic practices and inputs that are applicable to Colorado agriculture. As an Associate Professor at CSU, he continues to blend his research and teaching interests in horticulture, ecology, and inputs in sustainable vegetable cropping systems.
Byron Kominek
Opportunities in Agrivoltaics
Executive Director, Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center
Dana Hoag
Economics of Agrivoltaics
Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics
Dana Hoag is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Colorado State University. He specializes in using economics to find sustainable solutions to satisfy production, cultural, and environmental interests. Hoag teaches courses in production economics, policy, environmental economics, and ecosystem services. He is widely published on soil conservation, water quality, wildlife on farms and ranches, irrigation, and sustainability. He is currently looking at agrivoltaics in peach orchards, how livestock producers can manage wolves, disease in orchards, virtual fencing and deficit irrigation. He is also author to a book and companion website called Risk Navigator: SRM.
Alan Knapp
Ecology of Agrivoltaics
Professor, Biology
Alan K. Knapp is a University Distinguished Professor in the Biology Department and the Senior Ecologist for the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University. Professor Knapp’s research interests include grassland ecology, global change biology and ecosystem ecology. Currently, Professor Knapp is a lead investigator on the Sustainably Co-locating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems (SCAPES) project funded by the USDA. The goal of SCAPES is to provide the scientific knowledge necessary to design sustainable Agrivoltaic technologies for diverse agricultural practices.
Lily Edwards Callaway
Agrivoltaics and animals
Associate Professor, Animal Sciences
Lily Edwards-Callaway is currently an Associate Professor focusing on livestock behavior and welfare at Colorado State University in the Department of Animal Sciences. Originally from the Northeast, with a B.A. in French from Amherst College, she had her first exposure to the agriculture industry, on a small scale, during her time at the University of Rhode Island where she received a Master’s in Animal Science. After finishing her studies, she moved to Colorado, receiving her Ph.D. in Livestock Behavior under the advisement of Temple Grandin at Colorado State University. Since completion of her graduate work, Edwards-Callaway has held various roles in academia (Assistant Professor, Kansas State University), the packing industry (Director of Animal Welfare, JBS) and cattle production (VP of Operations, Crystal River Meats) primarily focusing on improving animal welfare in the various management systems with a specific focus on end of life decision-making. She is involved in industry groups and associations to promote and progress the beef and dairy industries.
Amit Munshi
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Amit Munshi hails from western region of India and pursued his undergraduate engineering education India in Automobile Engineering. Through a series of life-altering events, he joined CSU in the Mechanical Engineering department for graduate school with focus on Materials and Process Engineering of thin film photovoltaics. Following graduate school, he found home in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at CSU in various roles leading up to his current position as an Assistant Professor. For a brief period during 2021-22, Amit also served in the CdTe solar panel manufacturing industry as the Chief Research & Development Officer for a solar panel manufacturing company with key interest in agrivoltaics. Amit has been exploring opportunities to work closely with his counterparts in Agriculture and Horticulture to expand the scope of photovoltaics. This includes his vision for semitransparent thin film solar panels as well as exploring uncharted territories of flexible photovoltaics produced on polymer sheets that may be able to replace traditionally used shade cloth.