Tag Archive for: Solar Grazing

AgriSolar News Roundup: Community Solar Projects, Colorado Agrivoltaics Bill Signing, Agrisolar Research in Oregon 

500MW of Community Solar to be Deployed by Community Solar Collective 

“Aggreko Energy Transition Solutions (ETS), a business unit of Scottish modular power equipment distributor Aggreko Ltd., announced it would become the capital partner to the Farmers Powering Communities (FPC) platform, a farmland community solar development collective. With preservation and non-profit groups Edelen Renewables, the American Farmland Trust and community solar aggregator Arcadia, the FPC platform is focused on building out 500 MW of community solar projects over the next decade sited on rural farmland.  

The farming community solar program will advance projects of 25 to 50 acres to provide green energy to the many residents who don’t have access to rooftop solar or a local clean energy source. These could be low- to middle-income residents who may not be able to afford solar, people who rent and don’t own their roof, or people whose homes are not situated to take advantage of the sun’s energy.” – PV Magazine 

Jack’s Solar Garden Hosts Agrivoltaic Bill Signing  

Colorado governor Jared Polis recently signed Colorado Senate Bill 092. The bill signing was attended by Senator Chris Hansen; Representative Karen McCormick, DVM; and Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Kate Greenberg. The signing  was hosted at Jack’s Solar Garden, an agrisolar operation in Boulder County, Colorado, and one of the largest agrivoltaic operations in the country. 

“In support of the use of agrivoltaics, which is the integration of solar energy generation facilities with agricultural activities, section 2 of the bill authorizes the agricultural drought and climate resilience office to award grants for new or ongoing demonstration or research projects that demonstrate or study the use of agrivoltaics.” – colorado.gov 

Oregon State University Shows Benefits of Agrivoltaics  

“On a small research farm outside of Wilsonville, Chad Higgins feels like he’s watching the future of farming and energy production unfold. Higgins, a biological and environmental engineering professor at Oregon State University, oversees one of the largest experiments in agrivoltaics in the world.   

Using agrivoltaic systems, Higgins has grown tomatoes with bigger yields and dry beans with higher protein content. He’s raised sheep in pastures under solar panels and, though the sheep don’t grow any faster, he’s able to graze more of them per acre because the grass grows more quickly. He’s also found that, because the plants cool the environment around them, the solar panels don’t run as hot and produce energy more efficiently.” - KGW 

AgriSolar News Roundup: Solar Pollinator Habitat in Minnesota, Agrisolar Industries in US, Europe and Asia, Dominion Energy Lambscaping, Solar Grazing in Kentucky, Virginia Solar Pollinators, Solar Restores Biocrusts 

US Agriculture Industry Demonstrates Ability to Embrace New Technologies and Practices

“The rising tide of opposition to large-scale solar farms has been impacting the US solar industry, but over the long run, PV stakeholders have the butterflies on their side. Solar developers are eager to pitch their projects as pollinator habitats that replace cultivated crops and neglected land with native plants, benefiting the property owner and nearby farms. The pollinator angle helps to undercut complaints that solar arrays are an inappropriate use of farmland, and it supports the case for farmers to adopt new technologies that benefit their industry.

Minnesota has become the epicenter of the solar-plus-pollinator trend, with local electric cooperative Connexus Energy leading the way. That’s no accident. A 2016 state law set up Minnesota’s Habitat Friendly Solar program, which incentivizes property owners and solar developers to claim benefits for gamebirds as well as songbirds and pollinating insects.” – Cleantechnica

Agrisolar Can Lower Food Costs, Reduce Emissions, and Improve Farming

“The agricultural industries in Europe, Asia and the United States have been aggressively expanding their agrivoltaic farms with wide public support. In Europe, solar panels are put over different types of crops, including fruit trees. Meanwhile, in China, agrivoltaics is used to reverse desertification which is literally using solar panels to green former deserts.

The life cycle analysis of agrivoltaics, which assesses its impact from its conception to use, found that these solar-covered farms emit 69.3 per cent less greenhouse gases and demand 82.9 per cent less fossil energy compared to separate food farms and solar farms-based production.” – Morning Ag Clips

Dominion Energy Lambscaping on Solar Sites  

“As part of Dominion’s solar grazing program, sheep clean up more than 40 acres a day across five of their solar farms. ‘We are trying to get creative and innovative in ways in vegetation management,’ said Dominion Energy spokesperson Tim Eberly. It’s more environmentally friendly, too, because it saves emissions generated by lawn mowing equipment.  

The digested grass and manure also help improve water filtration from rain, which provides a cooling aspect for more than 80,000 solar panels, which, in turn, also makes them more efficient.” – WTKR 

Kentucky Farm Uses Sheep to Graze Solar Site 

“Since 2020, Shetland and Katadin sheep have been roaming and eating grass on the 50-acre solar facility in Harrodsburg, southeast of Lexington. What started out as 25 sheep in the flock has grown to 200 sheep. 

‘By using sheep rather than lawnmowers, what we‘re doing here is both more environmentally friendly and helps manage expenses by keeping maintenance costs down. We also hope our unique approach can be a model for other utilities and their solar initiatives.’ Aron Patrick, director of Research and Development at LG&E and KU parent company PPL Corporation, said in a news release Wednesday.” – WDRB 

Hexagon Energy Plans to Develop Pollinator Habitat on Solar Site  

“Charlottesville-based Hexagon Energy hopes to install solar panels on 650 acres near Scottsville. After 80 years of tree farming, the land there is exhausted, so Hexagon’s Scott Remer says the company will cultivate native grasses and flowers to restore the soil. 

‘It’s about 500 acres of meadow habitat that’s actually going to be established from a cutover moonscape right now to about 500 acres of meadow habitat, and that’s not even counting clover and plants and flowers and grasses that are under the panels,’” – WVTF 

Thistlerock Meadery is set to keep 100 hives on the solar site once development is completed. 

Research Shows Solar Shade Helps Restore Biocrusts

“Arizona State University (ASU) professor Ferran Garcia-Pichel and his research team have proposed to use solar arrays as a solution to the problem of excess heat and light, creating a shaded nursery to promote biocrust growth.

The researchers performed a proof-of-concept experiment in the Sonoran Desert, studying biocrust growth for three years. During the study, the PV array promoted biocrust formation, doubling biocrust total biomass and tripling its coverage area when compared to open areas with similar soil characteristics. Natural recovery of harvested biocrusts can take six to eight years to recuperate without intervention, but re-inoculated areas under the solar panels were able to nearly fully recover within one year.” – PV Magazine

More information on this research can be found here.

VIDEO: How A Shepherd and Solar Developer Are Joining Forces to Grow Sheep, Clean Energy

The National Center for Appropriate Technology’s (NCAT) AgriSolar Clearinghouse today premiered its short film “The Solar Shepherd” during the 2023 Solar Farm Summit in Chicago.

The film showcases a family-owned farm in central Massachusetts that’s raising sheep and solar energy on the same piece of land. AgriSolar or agrivoltaic partnerships are growing across solar-appropriate farmland in the U.S., providing a new revenue source for farmers, clean energy for surrounding communities, and myriad benefits to crops, livestock, and pollinators.

“It’s been a wonderful friendship between the two businesses,” says Solar Shepherd LLC founder Dan Finnegan. “We can’t access enough land to keep our farm sustainable, without this partnership with solar, we wouldn’t have a successful farm, we simply don’t have enough acres to graze.”

Finnegan partnered with SWEB Development Inc. on the 15-acre solar array which provides enough clean energy to power 1,100 homes and has so-far raised 45 lambs to maturity.

“You can have this partnership in a one-acre field, a 15-acre field up to a couple hundred acres,” says Joe Mendelsohn, project developer with SWEB Development Inc.

NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse is connecting businesses, land managers, and researchers with trusted resources to support the growth of co-located solar and sustainable agriculture.

“Tremendous potential exists in partnerships between farmers and solar developers,” says NCAT Energy Director Stacie Peterson, PhD. “As the demand for solar energy grows, it’s up to us to be good stewards of the finite land resources we have and maximize the benefit to farmers, communities, and the environment.”

Case Study: James River Grazing

Sheep grazing at the Mechanicsville site.

By Anna Richmond-Mueller, NCAT Energy Analyst

Located near Richmond, Virginia, the Mechanicsville solar park is one of the state’s first utility-scale solar sites. Covering over 220 acres, the 28-megawatt, single-axis tracking site provides a source of clean power to thousands of homes in the state. More than just a solar site, though, the location is also the home base for hundreds of sheep under the care of Eric Bronson and Sam Perkins at James River Grazing. 

James River Grazing started in 2016 when founder Eric Bronson noticed the solar industry beginning to take off in Virginia. A Virginia native, Bronson attended college at Montana State University and worked for several years on large, range-based livestock operations before returning to his home state. He knew he wanted to stay involved in agriculture, but without already owning land, he realized the upfront costs were prohibitive. Compared to raising cattle or growing crops, the lower initial investment needed to successfully farm sheep gave Bronson the chance to farm in a traditional production environment before the company received its first solar grazing contract in 2019.  

For solar sites without grazing plans, mowing must be brought in for vegetation management, a difficult task for many solar developers in recent years due to labor shortages. “The grazing came along at the perfect time,” Bronson says. He explains that the Mechanicsville site was being mowed about once a month, but with the integration of livestock, it was reduced to a “clean up” mow in the fall and smaller mows in early spring. Even then, “they’re not mowing one hundred percent of the site,” Bronson explains. Only about a quarter of the site is mowed at these times, significantly lowering the time and labor cost required to control the vegetation. 

Sheep grazing under the solar panels.

Operating on the Mechanicsville site didn’t come without its challenges, however. The site hosts between 100 and 300 ewes at a time, depending on the time of year and vegetation growth. While smaller operations will move flocks on and off location seasonally, James River Grazing operates on the site year-round. Not having facilities on-site and the expansive costs to move the sheep off-site is an added layer of difficulty that comes with grazing sheep on utility-scale sites. “Everything has to be portable,” Bronson points out. Nonetheless, James River Grazing’s efforts have been so successful that SunEnergy1, the solar developer for the site, hired Bronson as Director of Livestock for the entire company and has implemented solar grazing on a number of other sites, as well. 

With a total of six grazing sites and around 1,500 sheep, Bronson says James River Grazing is looking to continue its success by creating additional partnerships with developers across the region. While being one of the first to embrace solar grazing comes with some advantages, it also means that learning involved a significant amount of trial and error. “That was one of the biggest roadblocks,” Bronson says, referring to the lack of available resources to help guide them in the early days. Their knowledge and experience also put them in an ideal place to help solar developers create construction plans with solar grazing in mind, making it much easier for grazers to care for the sheep on site. James River Grazing is still working out the details for exactly how they plan on moving into the consulting space, but their track record of success will undoubtedly make them a valuable resource for solar developers and new grazers alike.  

All photos courtesy of James River Grazing.

A Fresh Look at Dual-use Solar in the Pacific Northwest

by Emily Griffith of Renewable NorthWest

Renewable Northwest and a small workgroup are preparing an update to the 2019 report, Dual-Use Solar in the Pacific Northwest: A Way Forward, in response to the changing landscape of agrivoltaics (also referred to as dual-use solar) in the region. This blog will explain the need for a fresh look at dual-use in the Pacific Northwest and describe some of the themes important to the conversation.

Why Do We Need to Revisit Dual-use Solar?

The Biden Administration recently set a goal of reaching 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035. Many states have similar requirements of reaching net-zero GHG emissions. To reach these targets, extensive buildout of solar energy will be a cornerstone of the evolving energy grid. Dual-use solar allows farmers to use their land both as farmland and as a site to generate electricity (and additional income).

In Renewable Northwest’s 2019 report, staff explored the potential and practicality of dual-use solar by looking at advantages and disadvantages, policies, project examples, and best practices. Given the increased attention agrivoltaics has received recently, including federal research investments and policy changes, it’s time to revisit the report. The updated report (to be completed in spring 2023) will explore recent updates in agrivoltaics. Here is what you can expect:

What Has Not Changed?

The conversation around dual-use in the Pacific Northwest is still in early stages. To date, the region still does not have many dual-use projects, but some solar and pollinator projects do exist. For example, Pine Gate Renewables’ Eagle Point Solar is a 13-MW solar and pollinator project located on 41 acres in Medford, Oregon. Previously, the land was used for dairy grazing. Now, the site contains a diverse seed mix of pollinating flowers with over 30 types of native flowers and grasses. Old Sol Apiaries is a business based in southern Oregon that provides bees for honey makers and commercial pollinators. Bees forage on native pollinator plants under Pine Gate’s panels. They also provide bees at other solar-pollinator locations, such as a 73-acre project in Clackamas County, Oregon.

Eagle Point Solar Location

There are a few reasons why dual-use is still not as widely used in this region as it is in others. For instance, there are still policy barriers. In fact, every year there are regular efforts pushing back against solar development by legislators in the Northwest. For example, in Oregon, the Land Conservation and Development Commission issued a rulemaking in 2019 limiting the amount of land to 12 acres that a farmer could use for a solar project located on high-value farmland. However, there was potential for counties to issue ordinances that could increase to 20 acres for dual-use projects. The difficulty with this rulemaking was that it sunsetted after two and a half years, and counties did not have much of a chance to develop an ordinance before the sunset. Additionally, counties in Washington state are continuing to develop ordinances that limit renewable energy development, including potential dual-use projects.

Agrivoltaics continues to be a challenging environment. The idea of agrivoltaics originated in Europe and is just gaining momentum in the U.S. A recent article by Jeff Turrentine at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) states that in a number of Asian and European countries, agrivoltaics has gained much more ground. For instance, in Japan, there are 2,000 agrivoltaic installations, whereas in the U.S., there are less than 50 accounted for. The U.S. is not as far along as others for a few reasons:

  • There are significant up-front costs and barriers to entry.
  • Research on large-scale solar with crops and grazing is still considered to be in early stages.
  • There is limited transmission for projects to connect to. Projects most often need to be located near the electricity load (demand).
  • Many farmers are still uneasy about the idea of combining solar and agriculture.

What Has Changed?

While there still are not many dual-use projects in the Northwest, we have seen more interest in the idea of advancing dual-use. New research continues to be published on the advances in dual-use technology and solar-crop compatibility. Some recent studies even suggest that, under the protection of solar panels, certain crops may grow stronger and longer that may otherwise succumb to higher temperatures more readily.

Another interesting Oregon State University study found that there is a symbiotic relationship between solar panels and the crops that grow beneath them. Crops exposed to increased levels of sunlight require more water. With solar panels providing shade and cooler temperatures, less water is lost to evaporation and the plants require less water from irrigation. But perhaps the more interesting finding is that the panels were found to perform better with the crops growing beneath them. The crops beneath the panels contributed to keeping the local environment cooler. With cooler temperatures, the panels operate more efficiently, generating about 10% more electricity than panels installed over gravel.

There are additional efforts and funding being devoted to studying and implementing dual-use projects. Last December, DOE announced $8 million in funding for projects that integrate solar energy production with farming. An energy.gov article states that the funding is intended to reduce barriers to both community and utility-scale solar energy deployment while also maximizing benefits to farmers and local communities. The six states (and the District of Columbia) selected for funding are not located in the Pacific Northwest region. However, the studies will likely produce valuable knowledge that can be integrated here, as well. Some of the topics pertain to socioeconomics, technical aspects, outreach strategies, deployment resources, sustainability, and markets in rural North America.

Additionally, in 2021, the USDA awarded the University of Illinois $10 million to determine the types of crops that are best suited to pair with solar. The research sites include Illinois, Arizona, and Colorado.

With already cost-competitive solar bolstered by the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, solar development is expected to increase dramatically. Hopefully, this means we will see more dual-use projects. And, the increased interest in studying agrivoltaics from the DOE and USDA could perhaps be a sign federal aid is on the way for farmers interested in agrivoltaics. Right now, there is a real need for additional mechanisms and incentives for those interested in pursuing dual-use projects in particular.

How Is the Region Reacting to the Prospect of Dual-use?

While dual-use solar may not be a silverbullet solution to siting solar on farmland, it does offer a tool of flexibility for farmers. This tool can provide additional income that keeps farmers farming and keeps farmland as farmland. The previously mentioned NRDC article states that many people are optimistic about the idea of expanding agrivoltaic facilities with options to sustain farming, potential to bring in new farmers, and stabilize land for crops that could otherwise go to more permanent types of development.

What’s Next?

There are still many other areas of interest that updated report may investigate. For instance, we need to know: Four years later, where are we? Have many projects been implemented since 2019 and how are they doing? Are projects happening practically? What are the dos and don’ts of building a dual-use project? What are the many other studies saying? What are the farmers concerned about?

The U.S. is looking to develop about five times the solar we have to date over the next 10 years, and that solar will require land (at least for its useful life). But new solar buildouts don’t have to result in conflicts. Many think agrivoltaics is a key solution, especially when it comes to avoiding potential conflicts between energy and food production. And with more research and funding being devoted to the idea, dual-use is becoming less of a research question and more of a reality.

If you would like to be notified when the final and updated dual-use report is available, please contact Emily at emily@renewablenw.org

SURVEY: University of Illinois Study on the Economics of Solar Grazing

Sheep grazing around solar panels. Photo: Agrisolar Clearinghouse.

By Tyler Swanson and Quin Karhoff

The Bock Agricultural Law and Policy Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign is conducting a study supported by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on the economics of solar grazing. Our research goal is to determine the structure of a solar grazing business, the cost associated with entering the solar grazing market, and a general range of profits a solar grazer can expect to earn in a given year. With this data, we aim to create a free, customizable budget tool that prospective solar grazers can use to gain a better understanding of the cost of entering the market and the revenues they can generate over time.

To accomplish our research goals, we would greatly appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete the survey linked below about your solar grazing operation. Be assured that your identity will be kept confidential.

Further, we understand that your time has value. If you include your email address at the end of the survey, we will send you a $5 Amazon gift card to compensate you for your participation.

Thank you for your assistance and we hope that the findings of our study will be beneficial to your operation. If you have any questions, please reach out to Tyler Swanson at tswans4@illinois.edu

Take the survey here.

Agrisolar as Drought Protection  

By Asaf Maman and Avi Elkayam, Trigo Solar 

Declining precipitation levels and the associated reduction in arable land can negatively impact rural communities and pose a threat to food security. While utility-scale solar projects reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they can also encroach on arable lands and reduce the yield of rainfed crops. Wheat, barley, soy, corn, and other grains are cultivated in rainfed fields that are vital to food security. As precipitation levels decline and desertification spreads, arable land and farms that produce these crops are in peril.   

As solar energy is employed in the conversion from fossil fuels to renewable energy, hundreds of thousands of square miles of land will include solar development. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there will be roughly 22,000 square miles of solar in the U.S. by 2035i. It is important to understand that the actual land for solar development must be adjacent to grid or to power demand centers. The growing competition between farming, suburban development, and solar development highlights the potential for agrivoltaics.  

Agri-PV is a solution to this issue. It can significantly improve the cultivation of staple foods that substantially affect global food security by cracking the code and untying the water-land knot. By increasing the amount of water available for rainfed crops, we can increase the amount of arable land and avail a portion of it for sustainable solar development. 

In a series of field-controlled winter wheat experiments, Trigo has discovered an almost linear correlation between the amount of water supplied to cultivated area and the quantity of stem biomass and nutritional value. Based on these findings, Trigo designed an east-west solar array formation and solar table structure to both collect and regulate rainwater for redistribution into a cultivated row below. By increasing the rain capture area from both structures, enclosing, and effectively directing the rain, we managed to control the amount of water and increase it, countering the effects of declining precipitation over years.  

North-south solar array over winter wheat. Photo: Trigo Solar 

Design schematic. Source: Trigo Solar 

This design is focused on economic and efficient deployment of solar arrays that improve rain collection and redistribute water to boost crops growth, counter drought effects, and revive agricultural operations.  

Rainwater catchment design schedmatic. Source: Trigo Solar 

Benefits to this design include:  

  1. Maintaining the same yields from smaller cultivated surface area requires more limited farming operations and lower expenses, which can increase farm profitability. 
  1. Capturing more water and channeling it smartly reduces the risk of drought and the associated annual volatility and provides the farm with a drought shield. 
  1. Increased ground wetness, root growth, and wind shield from the solar rows reduces the erosion and carry away of the upper soil layer, which create irreversible damage to farms. 
  1. Preserved land under the Trigo structure can be used for future land reserve and land rotation. 
  1. The steady income from solar power generation can support farm economics and mitigate farming financial risks. 
  1. The availability of cheap, local, green power can further support many of the farm operations expected to undergo electrification in the coming decade. 
  1. The existence of a water-distribution and cheap-power system changes the economics of farming, potentially allowing the cultivation of second seasonal crop during the dry season.  

These benefits have the potential to create more win-win opportunities for effective cooperation between the agricultural and sustainable energy sectors. 

Trigo will continue its experiments to validate the benefits for major U.S. staple crops at U.S. farms to share the knowledge and promote sustainable mass Agri-PV development.  

AgriSolar News Roundup: Win for America’s Farmers, 5 Signs of Agrisolar Revolution, Agrisolar Pumps in India, Harvesting Light in Agrisolar, Massachusetts Solar Incentives 

Win for America’s Farmers: Harvesting Solar Energy 

“America’s solar industry has boomed in recent years, and is slated for a big boost from the Democrats’ recently passed climate bill. Yet solar still only accounts for about 3 percent of electricity flowing into America’s grid—less than one-seventh the share from coal. If we want to phase out fossil fuels and accommodate an electric vehicle revolution, the sun’s contribution has to rise dramatically—and fast. But where to put all the panles?

The best places for solar installations, according to a 2019 study from the University of Utah and Oregon State, tend to be the areas where we already grow our food. That’s because, just like sun-loving tomato plants that fare poorly when the mercury creeps north of 85 °F, photovoltaic (PV) panels lose their efficiency at higher temperatures. But that doesn’t mean we have to starve ourselves to keep lights on and cars humming. By elevating solar panels far enough above the ground so people, plants, and animals can operate underneath, we can “essentially harvest the sun twice,” says University of Arizona researcher Greg Barron-Gafford. Enough sunlight to grow crops gets past the panels, which also act as a shield against extreme heat, drought, and storms.” – Mother Jones  

5 Signs the US Agrisolar Revolution has Begun  

“An upswell of opposition to large-scale solar power plants on farms took shape in the U.S. last spring, partly fueled by conspiracy theories about climate change. Nevertheless, farmland is attractive to solar developers. Now they have a new support system on their side, in the form of agrivoltaics.” – Triplepundit.com  

Solar Energy Corporation of India Issues Tender to Install Agrisolar Pumps 

“New Delhi: The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) on Monday issued a tender for setting up agricultural solar pumps in selected states pan-India under component-B of the PM-KUSUM scheme of the renewable energy ministry.  

‘Individual farmers will be supported to install standalone solar agriculture pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP for replacement of existing diesel agriculture pumps and irrigation systems in off-grid areas, where grid supply is not available. Installation of new pumps will be permitted under this scheme except in dark zone areas,’ said the SECI tender document.” – Energyworld.com 

UC Davis Study Shows Harvesting Various Light Spectra Benefits Agrisolar  

“Scientists from the University of California, Davis, are investigating how to better harvest the sun — and its optimal light spectrum — to make agrivoltaic systems more efficient in arid agricultural regions like California. 

Their study, published in Earth’s Future, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, found that the red part of the light spectrum is more efficient for growing plants, while the blue part of the spectrum is better used for solar production.” UCDavis.com 

Massachusetts Sees Increase in Agrisolar Incentives 

“A Massachusetts incentive program for projects that blend solar energy and agricultural production shows signs of finally gaining momentum after a slow rollout that has at times frustrated solar developers and farmers alike. 

In 2018, Massachusetts became the first state to offer financial incentives for “dual-use” or “agrivoltaic” solar projects built above active agricultural land. Since the launch, however, just three projects have gotten up and running. Another eight have qualified for the incentive but not yet been built.” – Energynews.com  

Greener Sheep: Life cycle analysis of integrated sheep agrivoltaic systems

This life cycle assessment study investigates the environmental performance of sheep-based agrivoltaic systems and concludes that agrivoltaic systems are superior to conventional ground-mounted PV systems because they have dual purposes and reduce the environmental impacts associated with producing food and electricity.

Greener_sheep_Life_cycle_analysis_of_intDownload

Case Study: Mauntel’s Solar Sheep

Written By: Alex Delworth, Clean Energy Policy Associate; Center for Rural Affairs

Just off the campus of Maharishi University in Fairfield Iowa, sits a 1.1-megawatt (MW) solar farm. Beneath the panels, a flock of sheep and their newborn lambs are grazing, while beginning rancher Emily Mauntel and her Australian Shepherd Ziggy stand back and admire their work.

Solar farms pose a considerable opportunity for multipurpose agricultural uses in rural spaces. Iowa has seen a rapid increase in solar project development the past two years. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the industry is expected to add another 1,304 MW—a 250% increase over current installed capacity—during the next five years. Depending on the type of technology installed, this could mean between 6,520 and 13,040 acres of land will be used for solar production. With proper local siting, these projects will be required to plant and maintain native vegetation underneath the panels. This increase in open pasture presents a unique opportunity to combine traditional land uses with renewable energy development, such as pollinator habitats or open grazing for livestock. An opportunity Emily has already begun benefiting from.

Originally from Michigan, Emily relocated to Fairfield to attend Maharishi International University. While completing a three-month internship at a goat farm in Oregon as part of the university’s Regenerative Organic Agriculture certificate program, her interest in livestock grew. After the internship, she remained in Oregon for another year, working for various livestock operations and gaining experience in the industry. In late 2021, she moved back to Fairfield to work on the university’s vegetable farm and help her peers in their respective livestock businesses.

Emily Mauntel holding a solar-grazing lamb. Photo: Emily Mauntel

One day she and a friend were driving past a large solar array in Minnesota and noticed how the infrastructure was perfect for sheep grazing. They knew about the array in Fairfield, which is owned by the university and operated by Ideal Energy, a local solar company. She contacted the solar company to pitch the idea first and gained their approval before approaching the university. Both parties were ecstatic because the university had been looking for somebody to graze livestock and Ideal Energy saw an opportunity to avoid spending about $5,000 for annual landscaping, according to the company. Emily said the two parties came to an agreement that she would graze the array, which provided her an opportunity to access pasture in exchange for landscaping the solar farm. With this agreement, Emily benefited by not having lease payments for the time her sheep were on the farm, saving her approximately $360 per month according to Iowa State University’s land lease estimates, or about $2,520 for 2022.

Sheep grazing under solar array. Photo: Emily Mauntel

Once Emily had approval, she and her friend went into business together and purchased a 30-head herd of sheep from an auction in Texas. In May 2022, 29 ewes and one ram were dropped off on the six-acre, 1.1-MW solar farm. Before purchasing the herd, she surveyed the land and determined that, given the amount of growth on the site, she would be able to graze five sheep per acre. That is two more than usual because of how lush the plant life was on the property. The site was planted with a mix of flowering prairie species, including clover, fescue, broad-leaf plantain, and others, which served as a good food source. The sheep were allowed to roam freely throughout the solar array, something Emily said worked well. Overall, she believes rotational grazing would have been more efficient but would have required a larger investment due to the cost of a moveable fence.

Emily with her herd. Photo: Emily Mauntel

What makes this story especially interesting is that the agribusiness model directly addresses two major issues beginning farmers face—access to land and infrastructure. A 2017 survey by the National Young Farmers Coalition found that land access was the number one issue their respondents faced. Young farmers, according to the survey, are also the most inclined to rent, which makes finding land with the right infrastructure more difficult.

The Fairfield solar site’s infrastructure made the land even more attractive to Emily. She said it had sufficient fencing to hold her sheep and keep out predators. Due to the required native vegetation management, it also had plenty of food for the sheep, which means she never had to supplement food for them, except a mineral feed mix for nutrition. A water source to fill up the livestock troughs and an access road straight up to the gate also proved beneficial. Considering all of these factors, Emily was able to cut a lot of costs throughout the process.

Newly energized by the experience she has gained through solar grazers and managing her own livestock, Emily is now looking to return to the West to continue ranching. She and her business partner plan to sell their herd. Emily hopes to see the solar grazing model continue on the site, saying it has been a perfect opportunity for her to gain experience in the industry, and she believes it will be a great opportunity for the next person, as well.