Project Areas
Community Solar
New Mexico's Community Solar Program allows most residents to collectively share (and own!) up to a 5-megawatt solar farm and receive credits on their electricity bill from the power that is produced. Circle Two has been partnering with NM Health Soil Working Group and Rio Grande Return to design and implement land stewardship practices on six community solar installation across New Mexico. The practices focus on improving soil health, native vegetation, and other ecosystem services within the solar installation as additional benefits to the clean energy generation, sometimes referred to as ecovoltaics.
Previously, Brian helped found New Mexico People's Energy Cooperative whose goal is to have a community-led, community-owned solar project. This cooperative ownership model has proven more successful at providing more benefits to the community compared to other development models.
Agrivoltaics
Agrivoltaics is a land-use design approach that combines agricultural activities with photovoltaic (solar) power sytstems in the same space. If designed well, there can be benefits that go beyond the individual benefits of each. Panels can provide shade to prevent sun scorch to plants and excessive moisture loss from the soil especially in arid environments like New Mexico. Circle Two partnered with the Rio Grande Community Farm, Sandia National Laboratories, University of New Mexico, and SkySun to design and deploy an agrivoltaic demonstration system at the Rio Grande Community Farm in 2025. The system is a microgrid that can power the well pump and irrigation for 16 acres of microfarmer and community gardener plots.
Digital Agriculture
Circle Two built a farm-wide, open-source, data and sensor network to enhance the management practices at the Rio Grande Community Farm in Albuquerque. In addition to developing a live web dashboard of sensors and controls, Circle Two also designed and build a "flood stick" that can be placed anywhere in the farm's 140 acres to notify the farm manager by text when irrigation water has reached the stick. This helps to make more efficient use of limited irrigation water during the growing season.
Regenerative Agriculture
Regenerative agriculture can refer to many different things, but in general the focus is on soil health. Circle Two partnered with the New Mexico Healthy Soil Working Group and farmers at Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm to host a field day for the public to demonstrate different methods of cover cropping as part of the Village of Los Ranchos Agrifutures Program. Circle Two is also a member of the National Associations of Conservation District's Soil Health Champion Network to help promote and demonstrate healthy soil pratices. Circle Two works on various projects at the Rio Grande Community Farm in Albuquerque to implement regenerative agriculture practices including growing small grains like barley using a no-till seed drill and building Johnson-Su bioreactors to produce high-fungal compost teas.