What is Solar Grazing?
When I think back to 2019, it feels like decades ago - yet also like it's just been the blink of an eye.
It was before COVID-19 made many of us seriously question our food systems (though many of us were starting to raise an eyebrow before 2020, too).
I remember one phone call I had in the summer of 2019 quite vividly. I was in the first few years of my then-part-time job (now I do this full time) as a freelance writer, and I had a contract with Acres USA to write an article about solar grazing.
At the time, this was a relatively new concept - but I was intrigued for more reasons than one.
For one, the writer part of me wanted to know more about what this was - the idea that sheep could be used to manage the vegetation under solar panels, providing a benefit for both the farmer and the solar company alike.
The farmer part of me wanted to know more about how we could do this, too.
A large solar farm was in construction just down the road from us, on land leased to the developer by good friends of ours - the farmers who sold us hay for our sheep.
We had a vested interest in learning more about solar grazing, but never thought it would be what it is today.
On that hot summer day in 2019, I spoke to Lexie Hain and Lewis Fox, two of the pioneers in the solar grazing revolution here in the United States. They kindly talked me through the ins and outs of the practice - and I was instantly hooked.
Now, J&R Pierce Family Farm has a handful of solar grazing projects and is in the process of expanding, as are many farmers around the world as this practice continues to grow in popularity.
But for many people, the concept is still foreign. What exactly is solar grazing?
Is it just a trend - something that will work well only in isolated cases? How does it affect…well..everything else that goes into managing a farm? Managing a solar array?
In this blog post, I'm going to tell you a little bit more about what solar grazing is and why it matters. Likely, it will only scratch the surface - but hopefully, it will pique your interest just as much as mine was piqued back in 2019.
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What is Solar Grazing and How Does it Work?
Solar grazing is the practice of grazing livestock, usually sheep (though not always), beneath solar panels, for the dual purpose of managing vegetation and providing affordable feed and shelter to the animals.
It's truly as simple as it sounds.
In the summer of 2022, my husband and I were interviewed by our local news station so they could learn more about what exactly it was. You can check out the clip here.
You see, vegetation is problematic (but also necessary) for solar farms. Too much vegetation shades out the panels and makes them less efficient (and more difficult to work on).
But without vegetation, erosion will occur and reduce the structural integrity of the surrounding area. Vegetation also helps cool the panels so they can, again, run more efficiently.
Traditionally, solar developers have had a few different options. Mow the grass - costly, and run the risk of rocks and debris kicking up and breaking components of the panels - or use herbicides to knock them down. Not great for pollinators or the waterways.
Enter - solar grazing.
Sheep are uniquely suited to solar grazing because their style of grazing is low to the ground. They're able to duck beneath the panels without bumping into or damaging wires (or worse, chewing on them). They're happy to nibble on the vegetation directly beneath the panels, too, which would otherwise have to be hand-trimmed if you were following the conventional model of mowing instead (a laborious and expensive process).
Sheep also don't disrupt pollinators, which we'll talk about more below - meaning solar grazing allows for a real triple threat in terms of benefiting the environment, the farmer, and the solar developer.
The Benefits of Solar Grazing
So why is solar grazing so beneficial? Let me count the ways.
For the Farmer
As a farmer who's actively involved in solar grazing, this is something I can speak directly to (in a few different ways).
First, there's the farmer who's leasing his or her land to the solar developer.
This is a contentious point, and one that's echoed often - typically, the most common argument people use against renewable energy and solar, in particular.
The argument goes like this: "We can't put in more solar, because it's eating up precious farmland."
And to some extent, that's true. Between 2011 and 2018, the country lost more than 100,000 farms. The percentage of people who work in agriculture dropped by 18% in the 1990s, and it's continuing to plummet.
The White House has set a goal to achieve up to 52% reduction in greenhouse gas pollution by 2050. To accomplish this goal, it will need more than 10 million acres to scale up solar.
Farmland tends to be a prime target, with the American Farmland Trust projecting that 80% of new solar projects will likely be sited on agricultural lands. Farmland is ideal for solar for a variety of reasons, including easy access to transmission lines, good sun exposure, etc.
And farmers aren't necessarily fighting the transition, either. Solar companies offer massive payouts to farmers willing to lease their land, often offering tens of thousands of dollars per year in exchange for leasing rights.
The American Farmland Trust has a policy known as Smart Solar Principles that states that solar siting should be prioritized on “buildings and land not well suited for farming …on rooftops, carports, irrigation ditches, brownfields, or other land not well suited for agriculture to help minimize the impacts of solar energy on out nation’s best agricultural land and farm businesses.” AFT does also include provisions that agrivoltaics should be a priority if solar must be placed on farmland (what is agrivoltaics, you ask? I’ll explain that more below).
I mention that policy not to call AFT out - Smart Solar is definitely a win in any farmer’s book and its principles make a lot of sense. In fact, Ethan Winter of AFT told me, “What makes AFT unique among farmland organizations is that nuanced approach to solar focusing on farm viability.” And nuance is important - which is why it’s important to discuss the related misconception that many people have in that area.
That misconception is that solar should never be sited on farmland. Full stop. No nuance. No grey area.
Instead, lots of folks like to think we’ll meet our energy goals by planting solar panels on warehouses alone.
But siting a solar farm, particularly a commercial one with enough potential to power more than just one residence, on a rooftop is incredibly cost-prohibitive, particularly if the infrastructure is already there. And even if we utilized all other available options (besides farmland) for siting solar, it's not going to get us anywhere close to our ultimate goal.
I love the idea of keeping farmland as working farmland for generations to come - don't get me wrong. This is a point I'm often called out for.
I believe that, in a perfect world, all of our farmland would stay farmland. Another full stop. Again.
But we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a world where the average age of the American farmer is 58. Where the land once farmed by generations of farmers is now lying fallow because there's nobody left to farm it.
"OK," people huff, "well, more people just need to farm."
Oh, if it were truly as simple as that.
My husband and I have always worked at least two - if not three or more - outside jobs outside of the farm. We like to say (with a joking tone, but not joking at all), that our "day jobs" support our farm.
The average price of an acre - one acre - in the Northeast is $5710 an acre. That’s an average. Quality farmland, particularly farmland in high cost of living areas, is going to cost significantly more.
When we sell lamb at a price of $12/lb to our local customers, we're profiting less than $1/lb - on a good year. Most years we're breaking even. And $12/lb isn't exactly cheap - we understand that. But hay to feed our ewes in the winter isn't cheap, nor is veterinary care, or even just the trucking costs required to get them to the USDA butchering facility an hour and a half away.
Farmers are not in the business of making money. The vast majority of farmers - more than 60% by most estimates - are working second or third off-farm jobs to supplement their farm income and get by.
Solar grazing can change that - and we aren't even the people that own the land that's being grazed. We're the ones being hired to manage the vegetation.
By combining renewable energy with agriculture - a practice called agri voltaics - there's the potential for farms not only to stay in business, but to actually make enough money to sustain themselves.
Because when people talk about the concern of losing farmland to renewable energy, namely solar, the one thing they always conveniently forget about is this: Yes - it would be great to keep farmland in farmland.
But who's going to farm it?
In the conversation about farmland, we've got to remember to keep the farmer in mind - and not just the acreage.
For the Solar Developer
It's not just the farmer who stands to benefit from solar grazing - developers have a lot to gain, too.
For one, they get access to land that's already cleared, level, and ideal for solar. This reduces installation costs and increases efficiency.
And having goals for solar grazing in the development plans is a big win for them, too. They're able to show that they're building these sites with agriculture, the environment, and the community in mind - what better way to build community support as projects move from initial conception to installation? Nothing says "good PR" like cute little lambs frolicking around solar panels.
In conversations we've had with developers, we've found that many favor solar grazing despite the good press, too.
Grazing can often be done at the same price as what conventional mowing or spraying would cost. It doesn't harm the panels and it preserves the beauty of rural landscapes. It reduces emissions and costs, a real win-win.
For the Community
It's no secret that there's been no shortage of outrage expressed at the construction of massive solar farms around the US.
When presenting at a clean energy conference last summer about our work we've been doing with the sheep, many of the participants (despite expressing that they were in favor of clean energy initiatives) didn't like the idea of big solar farms going into their communities.
It's the whole idea of NIMBY (not in my backyard). We all want a healthier, more sustainable planet - but we don't want to look at big, ugly solar arrays.
I get it. If I had a choice, I probably wouldn't buy a house next to one.
But the reality, again, is that farms are disappearing every day.
And that land isn't just remaining open fields when a farmer stops farming it. It has to get turned into something. More often than not, it's sold to a web developer who will buy the land and build a storage barn, a housing development, or worse (far worse, in my opinion) a Dollar General - the scourge of rural America.
We all love to hate the new guy on the block, and solar is that new guy. What would you rather have - a solar farm that's required to provide a decommissioning plan for when the solar farm is no longer operative in 20 or 30 years, or that same Dollar General that drives away local businesses and is just as much of an eyesore on the landscape?
It's not a matter of farmland OR solar. It's a matter of solar OR <fill in the blank development>.
But what many people don't realize is that most solar companies are doing a lot more for the community than other businesses. Many conduct local improvement projects to bolster the area economy and infrastructure when they come in to build a commercial site (for example, putting up parks or playgrounds for residents to enjoy).
They are also required to pay their fair share in taxes to school districts. In some states, payments come in the form of PILOT payments (payments in lieu of taxes) to hosting counties, while community solar projects make residential electric rates more affordable for residents as well.
Not to mention the jobs and the money that's staying local. When we solar graze, we're grazing sheep on land that's leased from other farmers (who are making money on the lease payments).
With our vegetation management contract money, we turn around and buy hay from those farmers.
We hired a local veterinarian.
We supplement with locally-grown oats.
We buy equipment from our local feed store.
And then we turn around and sell our lamb at local co-ops and restaurants.
It's money that's all staying in the local economy. As a nation, we import about 367 million pounds of lamb per year, almost all of it coming from New Zealand and Australia. That's not local money.
For the Environment
And finally, solar grazing poses major benefits for the environment - the obvious.
The most apparent benefit of it is that the sheep eliminate the need for fossil-fuel burning equipment like lawn mowers and weed whackers, cutting down on carbon emissions.
The benefits don't end there. Grazing animals like sheep boosts soil health and enhances biodiversity. The shape naturally fertilizes the soil with their manure as they graze, helping to improve nutrient content and prevent erosion. Grazing animals can also help to promote the growth of native vegetation and wildflowers, attracting and protecting our pollinators like bees and butterflies, too.
And for the sheep themselves, the benefits are immense, too. Studies have shown that sheep in fields with solar panels are healthier than those without. The panels keep them cool and they're able to spend more time grazing and resting - rather than trying to cool down.
Why Sheep for Solar Grazing?
One last note before I wrap things up for the day - why sheep for solar grazing, and not another species?
First, sheep may be the pilot animals for grazing, but they're not the only options. There are people around the world working on solar grazing projects with other livestock, including beef and dairy cows, pigs, and even chickens. Though sheep arguably benefit the most and are the best-suited, other forms of agrivoltaics include bees, rabbits, and so much more.
Sheep are really the OG, though, because they graze so low to the ground and are able to easily fit beneath panels. They're easy to rotationally graze. Unlike cattle, they don't rub on the panels, and they don't root like pigs do.
The design of most modern arrays automatically works well for sheep without the need for much additional engineering (though many companies are experimenting with higher-mounted panels to accommodate cattle in particular).
So many people are concerned about relying on shepe as the sole "form" of agrivoltaics, which is also something I disagree with. Sheep are the original graziers and the pioneers in the solar grazing world.
However, as more solar farms are built and the conversations continue about how to best utilize our farmland, we'll likely see just about every possible commodity being produced on these farms.
When there's a will, there's a way - and while solar grazing may still be relatively new here in the US, in 2024, it's sure to be the way of the future.
If you're interested in learning more about solar grazing, I encourage you to check out the ASGA (American Solar Grazing Association) website. I'll be posting more in the upcoming weeks and months about how to get started with solar grazing (as well as other considerations - so stay tuned!
Want to learn more about raising sheep? Check out these featured articles!
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