HADLEY — Seeing that the silks are brown and dry and the kernels are plump, Joe Czajkowski is having workers at his Shattuck Road farm begin hand-harvesting the 2.2 acres of sweet corn growing beneath 10-foot-high solar arrays.
Though the 74-day corn, known as Awesome XR, may be taking four to five days longer to mature, Czajkowski says there is no difference in the quality of the corn below the solar panels, adding that the crops may actually be benefiting from being out of the sun for some of the 27, 90-plus degrees days this summer.
“Crops don’t mind the shade, and it probably helps the crops to have a little shade,” Czajkowski said.
2025 marks the third summer Czajkowski has been harvesting the land below the agrivoltaics, installed by Hyperion Systems LLC of Belchertown in July 2023 and becoming operational in 2024. But this is the first time sweet corn is the main crop, with some cilantro also growing, after the past two summers featured broccoli.
Hyperion owner Jake Marley said the 852 panels produce 445 kilowatts of direct current, enough to power the equivalent of 45 average-size homes in the United States, while the farmland remains productive.
“To be able to do both, I hope it’s a watershed moment,” Marley said, observing that his company was born from the idea of “food first, then energy.”
Set behind a tree line and buffered from the residential homes on Shattuck Road, the solar arrays include 32 tracker motors to help track the sun east to west throughout the day, boosting the amount of power generated by some 25% to 35%, Marley said.
“Dual-use solar has been working pretty well for us,” Czajkowski said. “The only difference is when operating heavy equipment under it.”
While his workers have to be careful in maneuvering, Czajkowski said he would like to get a GPS for the tractor that would allow crops to be planted more efficiently.
Czajkowski had experience with solar from putting panels on the farm’s packing shed, and agreed to the project when approached with the idea of a community shared solar.
“This way you can utilize your field for good in February,” Czajkowski said.
Under this, 50% of the renewable power goes to the farm, which leads to a 15% reduction in monthly utility bills, with the remaining renewable power going to the Becket Housing Authority.
The land also stays in the state’s Chapter 61A program, meaning reduced property taxes due to the agricultural use, while the town gets personal property taxes, about $8,000 per acre, Marley said.
No concrete is used for the posts and piers, which are driven into the soil, and a racking system compatible with farming and to withstand weather extremes is attached.
Czajkowski said he appreciates that the impact will be negligible when ready to be removed after 25 years.
“When the posts come out in another 22 years, there will be less disturbance than a rabbit hole,” he said.
None of the solar panels are fenced in, with the only fence surrounding a small electrical balance system area, with a humming sound emanating from it. This is where the direct current from the solar is turned into alternating current. Inside that is also a sensor that during the winter has a mechanism for dropping the snow off every 2 inches.
Joe Czajkowski Farm’s corn is all for human consumption, rather than for animals, and what is growing below the solar arrays is part of 40 acres of sweet corn.
Costas Provisions Corp. is the distributor, with corn and other crops ending up in schools in Boston, Springfield and Chicopee. Some goes to C&S Wholesalers and into supermarkets, too.
Another 40 to 50 acres is where organic tortilla corn is grown for Mi Tierra bakery, with other corn, used at the Plimoth Patuxet Museums, identical to the corn shared by the Pilgrims and Indigenous people in the 1600s.
The corn is also about rotating the crops to build up the organic matter in the field, Czajkowski said.
“Corn sequesters carbon and increases organic matter on this sandy knoll,” he said.
Long term, Marley said he sees that 30 million acres of corn are grown across the country to produce ethanol, considered a renewable fuel, but putting solar on these acres would be more efficient and better for the electrical grid.
While federal actions from the Trump administration are potentially hindering and limiting support for agrivoltaics projects, Massachusetts continues to be in favor of these.
“Projects will still be able to go ahead,” Marley said.