Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: July 3, 2024

Sheep Grazing plus Solar Panels is a Win-Win!

Sheep grazing alongside solar panels provides shade for the sheep plus grass control for the solar farm.

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Reasons For Hope

Tom Warren’s solar/sheep farm in New South Wales, Australia.

Sheep sharing a field with solar panels, or “solar grazing,” is one of the many manifestations of “agrivoltaics,” the emerging practice of co-locating solar energy with farms. Now, on-the-ground reports are finding that grazing sheep¹ among solar farms is an even better bargain than it seems, especially in hot weather.

The sheep keeping the grass trimmed reduces fire risk and saves the cost of mowing, while the solar panels provide shade and shelter to the sheep and provide “drip lines” of condensation to sustain healthier grass. In Australia, New South Wales farmer Tom Warren reported a 15% increase in wool production after he installed solar panels on his field. Plus, as the weather gets weirder on a warming planet, a consistent secondary source of income from electricity generation can be a financial lifeline for farmers.

Sheep at Pennsylvania’s Nittany 1 solar farm

In the USA, early sheep/solar projects have sprung up from Wyoming to Texas to Minnesota to Pennsylvania, and early results look good. The International Wool Textile Organization recently reported on recent research findings that sheep prefer grazing underneath solar panels when available and spend more time grazing at all on solar farms than on panel-less rangelands.

While America’s largest sheep grazing operations are located west of the Mississippi, sheep/solar agrivoltaics could be applicable everywhere in the country: as of 2024, there are sheep farms in all 50 U.S. states!

We need to tell our state leaders about this and call on them to promote and support this win/win climate solution!

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1. Cattle grazing can coexist with solar as well but requires a little more legwork. Unlike sheep, cattle are too big to graze underneath normal-sized solar panels, and they’re heavy enough to knock over or break many solar panels when they scratch themselves, so extra raised supports are needed.