BOULDER, Colo., March 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Terrapin, a Boulder-based national cannabis company, today announced its subscription to Jack’s Solar Garden in Longmont. The deal enables Terrapin to obtain 10% of the power produced by the family-owned community solar garden’s 1.2-megawatt capacity.
The agreement allows Terrapin to source about 25% of the electricity its Boulder grow operation uses from a renewable source. Terrapin will receive monthly bill credits on their Xcel Energy electricity bill for its subscription to Jack’s Solar Garden. As part of the subscription, Terrapin plans to support Jack's in a number of ways, including providing volunteer tour guides when the community solar garden begins hosting public events again.
"Indoor cannabis growth has become a sizable source of greenhouse gas emissions in our state. From high-intensity grow lights to the use of CO2 to increase crop yields, the indoor cannabis cultivation life cycle produces a significant amount of carbon emissions,” said Chris Woods, Terrapin’s CEO. “The cannabis industry should consider its carbon footprint as we develop and expand. Terrapin is proud to lead the way in sustainability by addressing how energy intensive indoor grows can curb its environmental impact via unique solutions such as this.”
A recent paper in Nature Sustainability revealed indoor cannabis cultivation creates about 2.6 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent annually, and the paper’s co-author estimates that indoor cannabis is responsible for about 1.7% of the Centennial State's annual greenhouse gas emissions.
As the largest agrivoltaics research site in the United States, Jack’s Solar Garden is a national model for how to produce renewable energy while keeping the soils beneath solar panels active for agricultural production. Agrivoltaics is the practice of codeveloping land for both solar energy and crop production. Jack’s has partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado State University and the University of Arizona to study how best to cultivate vegetation within their solar array and with Sprout City Farms to train Colorado’s first agrivoltaic farmers on a few acres of land at Jack’s. Terrapin’s subscription helps enable this agrivoltaics research and many more social and environmental activities being conducted at Jack’s Solar Garden.
“I thoroughly appreciate Terrapin’s subscription to Jack’s Solar Garden! Their subscription supports all our activities – from agrivoltaic research to hosting Audubon Rockies’ largest Habitat Hero in Colorado to our donation of electricity bill credits to low-income households in Boulder County,” said Byron Kominek, Jack's Solar Garden’s owner and manager. “The generous support of commercial subscribers like Terrapin allows us to focus on the community part of our community solar garden.”
For more information about Terrapin, visit terrapin.co. For more information about Jack’s Solar Garden, visit jackssolargarden.com.
About Terrapin
Terrapin is a cultivator, processor and provider of high-quality medical and recreational cannabis products. Founded in 2009, we have six storefronts on Colorado’s Front Range. Terrapin also operates medical cannabis grower/processor facilities in Clinton County, Pennsylvania and Grand Rapids, Michigan. For more information on the Terrapin brand, visit Terrapin.co. For information on retail locations, visit TerrapinCareStation.com. We plant local roots! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About Jack's Solar Garden
Jack’s Solar Garden is a family-owned social enterprise doing more with our family farm for the betterment of our community. Through our partnerships with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado State University and the University of Arizona, Jack’s Solar Garden will put valuable research into the public sphere on co-locating solar panels with agriculture — called agrivoltaics. Partnering with Sprout City Farms will enable Jack’s Solar Garden to begin cultivating crops to put back into our community while training young farmers on agrivoltaic techniques in 2021. For more information, visit jackssolargarden.com.
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