How Livestock Keep Solar Farms Green

Nearly one-third of American land is used for cattle and other livestock grazing. Typically, this pastureland is flat, open, vast and an excellent location for solar developers to provide energy to the world.

As the fastest growing renewable energy source, solar is predicted to fulfill 20% to 29% of the world’s power by 2100. This goal will require a larger land footprint, meaning that many solar developers are consistently seeking reliable sources.

And what better place to turn to than farmland?

Solar Farms Partner With Farmers

According to the Biden-Harris Administration, “only a small fraction of farmland in the U.S. would be needed for solar deployment to achieve a decarbonized grid.”

With the solar industry increasing in popularity, many solar owners are turning to more holistic practices for land and vegetation management, known as “agrivoltaics”.

Agrivoltaics is a system used to improve land use by allowing solar farms to produce more energy while providing rotational pasture and income for livestock farmers.

What Is Solar Grazing

A form of agrivoltaics, solar grazing is a natural vegetation control method used on a solar site with the help of grazing livestock.

Currently, in the United States alone, solar grazing accounts for over 200 agrivoltaics sites on nearly 50,000 acres of land. These solar sites are producing an astounding 7600 megawatts of energy. This information is tracked and kept up to date by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Agrivoltaics Map.

How It Works

Solar grazing works in two ways:

The first and most common approach is contractual vegetation management. Solar companies contract with local livestock farmers to rotate grazing livestock, such as sheep and cattle, onto their solar site for a specified time period. The farmers usually provide feed and water, monitor the livestock’s health and manage them, to ensure they are eating and grazing on vegetation under and around the solar panels.

In return, the solar or landowners pay the farmer, providing an additional source of income.

The second approach is for the farmer to install solar panels on his or her land for farm-related reasons. Farmers may choose to install solar farms to provide shade to livestock, as well as electricity to the farm.

For installation, Nick Elbourne, COO and Solar Expert at Sustain Solar Commercial, said that typically, around four acres of land will house one megawatt of solar panels, equating to approximately 1,800 panels.

“This depends on the land’s topography,” he noted. “The framing supporting these panels can be designed to ensure sufficient height for livestock to move freely beneath the arrays.”

Livestock Best Suited for Solar Grazing

Among the various grazing livestock, sheep are best suited for solar grazing, according to the American Solar Grazing Association.

Smaller in stature, sheep only need a 5-foot clearance to access forageable vegetation and shade found underneath solar panels. Sheep are ideal as they enjoy eating many types of weeds and invasive vegetation and replace the need for mechanical mowing or weed eating.

As mentioned previously, nearly 50,000 acres of solar sites are supported by solar grazing; most of which are maintained with sheep. Other countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and South America also use sheep to eat and reduce vegetation around and beneath solar arrays.

The most common sheep breeds used for solar grazing include Dorpers and Katahdins or any other standard sized sheep.

Other grazing livestock include cattle and smaller breeds of pigs, such as KuneKune. Cattle are best suited for panels that are higher off the ground at about 8 feet. This helps keep the cattle from bumping into the panels and causing damage.

Solar Grazing Benefits

The practice of solar grazing has many known benefits, as reported by the NREL. These include reduced maintenance costs and reduced need for herbicide spraying. Additionally, grazing livestock under and around solar installations improves soil health and enables more efficient water use.

According to Elbourne, solar farms can greatly benefit landowners, and third parties involved in livestock management.

“Over the past 25 years, livestock management on solar farms has evolved from being somewhat of a challenge to an efficient method of controlling vegetation growth,” he explained. “The result is a sustainable management system that accommodates a variety of livestock, including chickens, pigs, sheep and cows.”

Additionally, solar grazing helps maintain the solar photovoltaic (PV) assets by ensuring that vegetation growth is properly managed.

“This dual approach secures new revenue streams from solar PV generation while preserving income that might have otherwise been lost from traditional land use,” Elbourne added.

US Government Support

In September 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration announced its $8.2 million investment into advanced agrivoltaics. Known as the Large Animal and Solar System Operations (LASSO) Prize, this initiative is aimed to progress the co-location of solar energy production and cattle grazing efforts in the United States.

The hope is that this investment, among other large-scale renewable energy projects, will “help to accelerate renewable energy deployment and improve outcomes for American communities and developers.”

Through a competition-style approach, LASSO will bring together “multiple stakeholder groups” to develop and deploy solar cattle grazing by “building pilot sites and sharing information on best practices, costs and energy and agricultural outcomes.”

Positive Ecological & Financial Impacts

Elbourne believes farmers should consider installing or contracting with solar farms as it yields more benefits than drawbacks.

“I certainly think it should be a consideration,” he said. “The analysis of the yields and returns which a farmer can benefit from are very simple to calculate along with the ecological impact. This can then be compared with the current use of the land to ascertain whether the value can be obtained from exploring a development.”

He stated that solar systems are essentially solid-state power generation plants, which means minimal maintenance and repair costs if managed correctly. Given that ecological management is typically within a farmer’s expertise, solar developments can be implemented with relatively low impact while providing significant financial benefits.