Solar projects provide opportunities for sheep herd expansion

CHICAGO — Developing a livestock grazing plan during the initial design of solar projects helps to eliminate future problems.

“Integrating sheep grazing into projects is something we start thinking about at the 5% design phase,” said Lexie Hain, director of agrivoltaics and land management for Lightsource bp. “We like to plan sites for grazing when possible and not retrofit sites for grazing.”

“It is easier to start communicating with the grazier early on,” agreed Camren Maierle, director of sustainability for the American Lamb Board. “There are some things we want to see that are beneficial.”

Communication between solar development companies and sheep producers is key, Maierle stressed.

“One of the most exciting things is the 30-year timeline of a solar project,” he said. “That’s a career timeline.”

Currently, the United States imports more than 70% of the lamb consumed by Americans, Maierle said, primarily from Australia and New Zealand.

“We desperately need the domestic supply of American lamb because we have American consumers that want to buy it,” he said.

One of the first considerations is the plant species that will be established at the solar site.

“Work with folks that have expertise,” said Hain during a presentation at the 2025 Solar Farm Summit, hosted by the American Farmland Trust at McCormick Place in Chicago. “At Lightsource, we customize every seed mix.”

The perimeter fence is important.

“We want to keep the sheep in and keep the predators out,” Hain said. “I think of sheep as guests on our solar site, so we have a responsibility to take care of those sheep.”

Wires in solar sites should be out of the reach of sheep.

“It is the fault of humans if sheep get tangled in wires,” Hain said.

“We’ve discovered that we like to work with independent family farmers because they are the right match for us,” he said. “They might not have enough sheep to graze the whole site at once so they may be mowing a percentage of the site as they scale up the grazing operation.”

One way to incentivize agrivoltaics is to include a scoring criteria as part of the evaluation process during solicitation for new projects, said Keven Campbell, director of development at EDF Renewables North America.

“In New York, there’s a scorecard that provides points for the siting away from the best farmland,” he said. “And when siting on good farmland, it provides points for including agrivoltaics in the project design to offset some of the higher associated costs.”

Regardless of the incentives to developers to encourage agrivoltaics, Campbell said, it should always be stressed to preserve the topsoil and assure the site has appropriate vegetation to prevent soil erosion.

“That way the farmland is preserved for future generations,” he said. “And even if the site doesn’t have agrivoltaics right away, it still might be possible at some point in the future.”

If solar panels need to be elevated or spaced out to accommodate various forms of agriculture, Campbell said, that could increase the price of the electricity produced at the site.

“However, what if instead of installing solar panels higher when space is needed under the panels to graze larger animals, we manipulated the panel tilt and kept the panels flat during the time of grazing?” Campbell questioned.

“That might save us from installing the panels higher,” he said. “These are some of the solutions we need to look at closer to see what the tradeoffs are for solutions with agrivoltaics.”

Campbell has heard many people say that solar panels do not belong on farmland because it is displacing food production.

“After digging into this deeper, I’ve realized it is important the land continues to be farmed during operation,” he said. “But it definitely needs to have the ability to return to farmland at the end of operation, and in New York state, that is mandated through the state permitting process.”

“Solar needs to be designed, operated and decommissioned in a way that preserves farmland — that is the most important thing,” he stressed. “Solar is an efficient way to generate energy on farmland, and grazing sheep is an affordable agrivoltaic solution.”