Combining solar panels and farming, agrivoltaics is proving to be a win-win for farmers and the planet.
According to CleanTechnica, this "solar grazing" is a match made in heaven. For years, solar farms have used sheep to control vegetation. The sheep get to graze, and their excrement provides free fertilizer. As CleanTechnica noted, ranchers get paid, and solar operators avoid mowing. Everybody wins.
Okay, but why stop at sheep? One company, Silicon Ranch, is now working to introduce cattle. As Nick DeVries, the company's head of technology, told Inside Climate News, this is a big challenge.
"[Cows] are very large animals," he said. "They scrape on things. They like to rub."
How do you stop a 1,400-pound bored and curious cow from demolishing a solar panel? Silicon Ranch's solution is a new system called CattleTracker. Each cow gets a tracking device. When the herd gets close, the tracker tells the solar array to reorient horizontally, letting the animals roam underneath without damaging the equipment.
And the payoff for farmers is huge. This dual-use model, which is a key part of agrivoltaics, helps them generate new, reliable income and even helps plants retain moisture.
There are reports of farmers in California's Central Valley earning $50,000 per acre annually from solar. Then there's the study in Japan that showed how panels over rice paddies produced a top-quality crop and nearly 44,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity in one year.
Farmer Daniel Bell, who grazes sheep at a Silicon Ranch, put it best. "I just can't even stress how awesome this opportunity is," he told Inside Climate News.
CleanTechnica readers were enthusiastic about the idea, too.
"Architects building new houses? Start with a solar roof for shade and rain-protection, and then build a nice house underneath," one user suggested.
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Yes 👍 "Solar panels plus sheep sounds like a good combination, I'm a little doubtful about solar with cattle," another wrote.
A third commenter added, "We have a few large farms with big barns that are loaded with Solar Panels and there's a lot of room up there..."
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