The Capital Development Committee unanimously approved a multi-stakeholder agrivoltaic land lease at the Sage Ridge facility, combining solar energy production, cattle grazing, and Colorado State University research on 100 acres of unused state land. A separate public-private partnership proposal for affordable housing, child care, and a community land trust on 14.1 acres at the Lakewood Complex drew no opposition but was deferred for a vote to the following morning.
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Senator Rod Pelton stated that solar developers tell him raising panels for agrivoltaic use 'increases the cost too much, we can't get that back,' and explicitly said 'I disagree with that.' Josh Bennett partially concurred that 'getting modules to 10ft is very challenging in terms of cost in a competitive market' but said 'I still think there's a path with raising modules.'
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“, we've grazed yearlings, Charolais, Black Angus, Red Angus. So it's a docile breed. On those sites we did not have any damaged modules. There were absolutely no issues whatsoever. It added the benefit of having an extra person on site who can identify potential problems throughout the site. So I'm with you. Figuring out how to integrate agriculture with these just makes sense. I think if you were to go with larger breeds or less docile breeds, you would need to raise the modules to a point where it can become very difficult to”
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Sign in to subscribeCapital Development Committee. Committee will come to order. Mr. Almsada, please call the roll committee members. Henriksen here. Lindsay Excused. Elton B. Present. Winter. Good morning. Story excused. Mr. Chair here members. First up on the agenda this morning we have the consideration of the Sage Ridge land lease request. We have folks here to present to us. Who wants to start us off? Please just introduce yourself and just for the record, Good morning committee. My name is Caitlin Casassa, Director of Sustainability for the state. I work in Department of Personnel Administration. I would love to give the opportunity of my colleagues here to introduce themselves too. Good morning. My name is Byron Kamenek, Executive Director of the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center. My name is Josh Bennett. I'm with HUA Enterprises. We are a land reclamation company in Weld County. We also own HUA Cattle and HUA Farms. I'm Christy Wireman, Project Development Manager in Colorado for Sunshare Community Solar. Good morning. My name is Alan Knapp. I'm a professor of biology from Colorado State University. Thank you so much. Let the record reflect representative Story is with us. Who wants to start us off? Kaylin Casasa, Director…
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