Sheep walk between rows of photovoltaic panels at Azure Sky in Haskell County, Texas. Shade under the panels enhances the quality and quantity of forage while providing relief from heat for the livestock. Ramsay de Give/The Washington Post

At the Azure Sky solar and storage project in Haskell County, Texas, 700,000 photovoltaic panels stretch in uniform rows across the desert landscape, shimmering under a relentless summer sun. Beneath the panels, hundreds of Dorper sheep graze on Bermuda and Johnson grasses, driven there by two border collies named Bucky and Johnny.

The sheep belong to Chad Raines, owner of Key Farms in Lamesa, Texas, and they are part of a new initiative called solar grazing. In addition to providing a low cost, eco-friendly mowing service to energy companies, Raines manages a solar site that provides an estimated 586 gigawatts annually to the booming Texas solar industry.

“We still farm and do everything we used to,” said Raines, “except underneath solar panels.”

According to the Energy Department, decarbonizing the electricity grid by 2050 will require solar power to provide nearly half of all U.S. energy production, up from just 3.4 percent today. To meet these federally mandated climate goals, the solar industry requires land, and lots of it, but many rural and predominantly conservative areas remain unfriendly to renewable energy.

“The most existential threat to our industry is not global pandemics, it’s not who is in the White House, it’s not supply chain issues or the war in Ukraine,” said Matt Beasley, chief commercial officer for Silicon Ranch Corp., a solar energy company. “It’s local opposition, all centered around land-use questions.”

As a result, hundreds of wind and solar projects fail each year.

Agrivoltaics energize ailing farms

As a fourth-generation cotton farmer in West Texas, Raines had experienced a multi-decade drought that had reduced cotton yields while expenses and debt increased. “I was selling cotton for almost the same price my granddad did,” said Raines, driving west from Lubbock toward Azure Sky as fields of white-tipped cotton and green-leafed sorghum transitioned to rolling hills of mesquite shrub land. “If I had stuck with cotton, I would have gone broke.”

A herd of sheep move between rows of photovoltaic panels. Instead of emission-producing mowers and toxic herbicides, sheep convert vegetation into a natural fertilizer, restoring soil health. Ramsay de Give/The Washington Post

Raines first heard of solar grazing in 2021. Originating in Britain in the 2010s, the practice has expanded largely through word of mouth. The allure was immediate. “You’re getting paid to graze your sheep,” said Raines, whose contract with solar companies provides a stable income while he manages more-volatile agricultural prices.

Agrivoltaics – the practice of sharing energy and food production on the same plot of land – can include a range of agricultural practices, such as farming, beekeeping, agroforestry, aquaculture and solar grazing. Solar grazing represents the bulk of the agrivoltaic industry, with over 200 grazing sites representing 50,000 acres of land, according to Jordan Macknick, lead energy-water-land analyst for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The industry is projected to be valued at $9.3 billion by 2031.

“For those that want agrivoltaics to succeed, we want to see research and incentives for solar firms to make those investments to accommodate things like solar grazing,” said Lexie Hain, director of agrivoltaics and land management at Lightsource bp and founder of the American Solar Grazing Association.

Raines now runs 4,000 sheep at six solar sites in Texas and one in Arkansas, managing vegetation to reduce shade and fire risk for the companies. His oldest son oversees the Arkansas site, his mom helps with finances, and his “retired” father, Joe, helps with the Texas operation.

“I think it’s great,” said Joe Raines, 75, speaking from the driver’s seat of a “side-by-side,” a dune-buggy-like vehicle he uses to herd sheep. “It’s only going to grow.”

This year, Ohio’s largest solar generation project was approved partly because it incorporated 4,000 acres of farmland and 1,000 sheep. The ambitious plans for agrivoltaics have addressed opponents’ concerns over the loss of farmland and convinced regulators that the site would serve the public interest, said Matthew Eisenson, who tracks the legal barriers to renewable energy development nationwide at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

“This is what will sell this to landowners and county municipal boards,” said Raines. “I fully expect that at some point, the government will say that if you’re taking out [agricultural] land, you must include agrivoltaics.”

Solar grazing and cattle production

There is growing interest in grazing cattle underneath solar panels. This year, the Energy Department launched the Large Animal and Solar System Operations (LASSO) Prize, providing millions of dollars for research around solar development and cattle grazing. The potential is immense, given that cattle production is the single most important agricultural industry, with meat and dairy production accounting for 44 percent of all U.S. farmland.

Chad Raines’s father, Joe Raines, right, is retired from farming but now helps with herding at Azure Sky; he is pictured with Dan Evans. “I think it’s great,” said Joe Raines, 75. “It’s only going to grow.” Ramsay de Give/The Washington Post

“From a land-use opposition standpoint, it will be a game changer because cattle ranching is more ingrained in the cultural identity of those living in the areas where we are siting new projects,” said Loran Shallenberger, senior director of regenerative energy operations for Silicon Ranch, which operates 170 solar sites in North America. Twenty of them have integrated agrivoltaics.

Better soil health and lower emissions

Solar grazing has proven benefits to the land as well. Instead of emission-producing mowers and toxic herbicides, sheep convert vegetation into a natural fertilizer, restoring soil health.

“If they are managed well, they are increasing biodiversity, sequestering carbon and increasing soil organic matter,” Shallenberger said. “The benefits are numerous.”

Shade under panels enhances the quality and quantity of forage while providing much-needed relief and health benefits for livestock.

“It’s not burning up under there,” said Raines, whose flock ambled through the shade of the solar array while afternoon temperatures climbed into the triple digits. “This [solar grazing] just makes sense.”