Innovative practices in agrivoltaics (solar grazing) have been integrating solar power production and agriculture. Rather than eliminating agriculture on these sites, solar grazing is preserving--even enhancing--agricultural productivity.
In Washington state, for instance, several solar farms are utilizing sheep to control vegetation beneath solar panels. The sheep serve as natural lawnmowers for projects like the Lund Hill solar farm in Klickitat County--the state’s largest solar facility.
Likewise, the Springbok Solar Farm near Bakersfield, Calif., uses sheep grazing as a cost-effective method to manage vegetation. Sheep are small and nimble and can graze under the panels, even those that are low to the ground, and reduce the need for motorized mowing. In turn, the panels provide shade and shelter, protecting the sheep from heat, wind and rain. Grazing prevents vegetation from growing up around the panels and reducing their performance, and reduces fire danger.
In central Wyoming, a 4,700-acre sheep ranch near Glenrock is proposing to become part of a joint venture between two privately owned commercial developers seeking state approval to construct a 499-megawatt solar farm with capacity to power about 150,000 households. The large flock of sheep will continue to graze there, under solar panels. The ranch is operated by Tim Tillard & Sons.
The development company is a joint venture between BrightNight (headquartered in Florida--the first renewable integrated power company) and Cordelio (headquartered in Canada--an independent power producer that develops, owns and manages renewable power facilities across North America). Sheep will continue to graze on property where sheep have been raised for 100 years. Grazing keeps the land in ag production and reduces vegetation management costs for the solar power company.
Growing niche
The combo of privately operated solar farms with livestock production is a small but growing niche in the renewable energy industry. The Iberdrola group, one of the three largest renewable energy companies in the U.S. with a presence in 25 states and more than 9,700 MW of renewable capacity, built the Lund Hill photovoltaic plant in Klickitat, Washington with a capacity of 194 MW through Avangrid Renewables, which belongs to its U.S. subsidiary Avangrid,
A recent study at Western University in Canada found that solar grazing can have significant financial benefits to farmers. Professor Joshua Pearce collaborated with professional sheep-raiser Rafael Lara on a study that shows the profitability of “solar” sheep, raised specifically to trim grass and weeds under traditional solar panels. Lara studied animal science in Brazil, and now owns and operates The Lara Costa farm in Vittoria, Ontario.
The study at showed that sheep enjoy the shade, and the solar panels increase grass yield and protect sheep from predators. Grazing eliminates the need for herbicides or costly grass mowing. The soil’s productive potential is higher than that of a regular pasture in the same area, according to Lara. Partial shading of the pasture enhances moisture retention, improving its resilience to climate extremes. Using solar farms for lamb production makes nearly 100% of the land grazable and provides good perimeter fencing and 24-hour surveillance cameras for farm security.
In another study, Professor Pearce and Robert Handler from Michigan Tech University showed sheep are the most eco-friendly way to manage vegetation for solar farms. The research team conducted a number of case studies. One case was a small-scale, family-owned farm with a 200-kilowatt solar panel system generating 262,430 kilowatt hours per year, enough electricity to power 25 homes. A large-scale industrial solar farm with a 465-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic network generated enough electricity to power more than 150,000 homes.
Canada had an early start in North American sheep-based agrivoltaics, bringing in sheep to trim grass on large-scale solar farms. Now the U.S. is utilizing this innovation. For instance, Texas has tripled its sheep numbers with use of agrivoltaics.
Sheep minimize mowing
Kade Hodges is 6th generation on his family ranch in Sterling County, Texas. He and his wife Morgan raise Royal White hair sheep. In 2024, they lost some of their leased acreage, but had an opportunity to expand their business by offering vegetation management services to solar farms. Kade and Morgan are now members of the American Solar Grazing Association, an organization that facilitates vegetation management through dual use of sheep and mechanical mowing.
“Our job is to keep the grass under the solar panels below a certain height. We work with a mowing company in a grazing/mowing model; we handle the grazing and the other company handles mowing. The sheep minimize the amount of mowing that has to be done,” Hodges says.
“Grazing sheep under photovoltaic array is not a new concept. It’s been going on in eastern and northeastern regions of the U.S. for at least a decade, but here in Texas doing it on a utility scale (600 to 1000-plus acre sites) is relatively new. We bring in our sheep and rotate them around, targeting the places grass needs to be shortened the most. Mowing follows the sheep to clean up wherever they were unable to get short enough, or whatever the sheep don’t eat,” he says. Though these locations are more than six hours away from the ranch, during drought it enables this young couple to raise their sheep in areas with greater rainfall.
Solar grazing in the Pacific Northwest continues to catch on. Avangrid recently partnered with a fifth-generation Oregon rancher to graze sheep at two solar farms--in Oregon and Washington--launching the largest solar grazing operation in those states. Avangrid began with a pilot project at Pachwáywit Fields, Oregon’s largest operating solar farm, located in Gilliam County. It serves Portland General Electric’s Green Future Impact participants. Avangrid expanded this into a full solar grazing operation and launched a similar operation at its Lund Hill solar farm in Klickitat County, Wash., with more than 5,000 sheep spread across both facilities.
The sheep at these sites belong to a fifth-generation Oregon rancher, Cameron Krebs. He and his family have sold wool to the Oregon-based Pendleton Woolen Mills for more than a century. The sheep turn the vegetation into food and fiber and return fertility to the soil with their droppings. They maneuver around solar panels better than the large mowing equipment, grazing right up to the panel arrays. Avangrid plans to continue using sheep at Pachwáywit Fields and Lund Hill during peak growing seasons in the spring and fall, and is considering opportunities to expand solar grazing at some of its other solar facilities.
ASGA facilitates research
The American Solar Grazing Association is a community of farmers, solar developers, and innovators who are helping shape the future of solar energy and farming. With over 800 members across 45 states, ASGA facilitates research, provides education, and develops best practices that support shepherds and solar developers to effectively manage solar installations and create new agribusiness profits. ASGA promotes solar grazing and the benefits of dual-use solar and agricultural projects.
ASGA was founded for and managed by sheep farmers who became solar grazers and is developing a directory and forum. Farmers can connect with solar projects that need vegetation management--creating networking systems for exchange of ideas and innovation, and facilitating connections between solar developers and farmers.
This is the first farmer-focused agrivoltaics organization in the U.S, and the largest one globally. Cattle are grazed in some solar projects, but typically sheep are used because they can more easily maneuver underneath and around solar arrays.