Solar electric sheep marry Australian farmers with clean energy

A solar power station in Australia is ensuring that successful farming is possible under such a renewable setup. Gayle Lee and Tom Lee’s 149-megawatt (MW) Glenrowan West solar farm is overcoming the challenge of producing food and renewable electricity at the same location, according to a report.

The effort aims to maintain proper land use, similar to the setup already established in Europe and Japan, where limited land led to the exploration of power and farming at the same time years ago.

The United States has also witnessed such setups as business-savvy farmers established a multi-billion-dollar industry out of ‘solar grazing’, a vegetation management practice where livestock, primarily sheep, graze on vegetation growing around and under solar panels.

Process maintains vegetation under and around solar panels

Called agrivoltaics, the process is also sometimes referred as ‘solar electric sheep’, where sheep graze and maintain vegetation under and around solar panels on solar farms.

Combining agriculture (grazing) with solar electricity generation has been a cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution, as it improves soil health.

Well, Gayle and Tom aren’t the only who are exploring solar grazing. Ben Wynn also pioneered an Australian option for cattle-plus-solar in his company Wynergy.

“You need to establish a design that provides the capacity to host animals. It’s really difficult and challenging too. For some solar farms, it can’t even happen. You get to the point where you can’t actually do it because the panels didn’t line up, or you didn’t use the right tracking infrastructure,” said Wynn.

Beneficial for farmers

Eric Nordberg, a researcher at the University of New England, stated that such setups are beneficial for the farmers who don’t want to lose their grazing landscape to a big solar company.

Nordberg highlighted that the concept isn’t only beneficial for farmers; solar companies also benefit from it. He stressed that companies get free vegetation management, helping farmers who don’t lose the area to an energy company.

There are a growing number of guidelines on how to set up solar farms right – NSW’s state renewables rollout vehicle EnergyCo is funding one now. But surprisingly little local, on-the-ground data is available about the positives or negatives, reported Cosmo Magazine.

Solar grazing also boosts wool quality, quantity

Such setups are fewer in Australia, while Europe has used solar grazing for years.

In 2023, Iberdrola, a renewable energy company in Portugal, began grazing 300 sheep on its photovoltaic farms. They found that sheep help maintain the land and reduce fire risks. Similarly, a project in the UK plans to use 4,000 sheep on its 1,600-hectare solar farm. This could save the project $6.71 million (£5 million) in mowing costs over 40 years.

Previously, reports have also claimed that sheep grazing under the solar panels have produced better wool. Some farmers from New South Wales earlier claimed that sheep grazing under solar farms resulted in an increase in wool quality and quantity.