Hundreds of solar panels slowly track the morning sun’s path for a direct hit from an energy source 94 million miles away. But not the sheep. They’re tracking JR Howard’s gray Ford F-250 — weaving between rows of solar panels as he lays on the horn. It’s feeding time on this April morning.
Howard, owner of Texas Solar Sheep, has found himself part of a burgeoning industry combining Texans’ ranching sensibilities with the ascendancy of solar energy, a booming electricity source.
The sheep here — white Dorpers — are not known for their wool. They’re here for their appetites, chomping away at the vegetation growing alongside the panels. If some get sold for slaughter, all the better.The pairing of solar energy and sheep ranching is one of several ways renewable energy resources are being integrated into the Texas landscape — providing a second, reliable source of income that can help farmers and ranchers hang on to a threatened way of life. The trick is finding ways to limit energy production’s impact on agricultural land.
Wind turbines are, in many ways, a more natural fit because they have a relatively small effect on farm and ranchland. Solar power, with an exponentially greater footprint, has struggled to coexist peacefully with agriculture. So far, sheep have proven to be the most natural roommates for photovoltaic cells.
For Howard, it has allowed him to continue doing what he loves: ranching and raising cattle.
Near Denver, Colorado, James McCall has been working for nine years to solve the problem of building solar power projects on agricultural land. An analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, McCall has researched ways to integrate solar power with community-supported gardens and bee hives.
The research has yet to find a viable way to combine large-scale solar and farming, McCall said. In Europe, where energy prices are higher and available land is scarce, solar companies are required to have on-site agriculture.
In the U.S., McCall said, some operators of solar arrays plant small gardens between solar panels to raise peppers, tomatoes, kale and other vegetables. Some have experimented with growing pollinating flowers and bee hives alongside solar cells.
So far, sheep are the most widely accepted agricultural use alongside solar arrays in Texas. Cows are too tall. Goats will jump on top of the panels. "And they’ll chew the wires," McCall said.
Sheep are smaller, nimble and able to maneuver around solar panels without incident. They graze with their heads down, keeping them away from wires while clearing areas beneath solar panels, the American Solar Grazing Association says.
'Solar Grazing Association' - even more infrastructure for the 'solar industry'