Increasing solar installations provide opportunity for shepherds

URBANA, Ill. — Vegetation management is a vital part of the development plan for solar arrays since shade is the No. 1 enemy for collecting sunlight by the panels.

“My goal as a sheep producer is to see sheep on every one of the sites that is conducive to have sheep on,” said Camren Maierle, sustainability director for the American Lamb Board.

“I own a company that grazes solar and we have sheep under panels currently on both community and utility scale,” said Maierle during a presentation at Illinois Sheep Day, hosted by Illinois Lamb and Wool Producers at the University of Illinois.

“I spend a lot of time at public education events to prevent misinformation and share the opportunity for sheep,” he said.

“Agrivoltaics pairs solar with agriculture to create energy and provide space for crops, grazing and native habitat and one thing sheep do exceptionally well is grazing.”

In Illinois, sheep numbers from 2023 to 2024 went up 3.8% to 55,000 head.

“East of the Mississippi River, we are seeing increasing sheep numbers and a lot of that has to do with our market and that we can grow a lot of grass so our ability to capitalize on affordable feed is huge,” Maierle said.

The growth of installation of solar arrays, the sustainability director said, is due to several factors, including the demand for renewable sources of energy from many companies, including those that manage data such as Meta, Amazon and Verizon.

“The other aspect is the value of capturing sunlight,” he said. “Based on the geography in western Ohio, the UV solar energy captured from the sun per acre annually is about $220,000.”

Solar panels cannot capture 100% of the energy.

“If they capture 10% of the energy throughout the year, that’s $22,000 per acre, per year,” Maierle said. “And as the panels improve in technology, that’s only going to go up, so that’s why were’ seeing the development in the rate we’re seeing.”

Installations of solar are occurring at several levels, including residential, commercial, community and utility.

“Community-scale solar is anything under 100 acres and utility is 100 acres-plus,” Maierle said. “We’re seeing the greatest gain in the utility scale.”

It takes about six acres solar panels to produce one megawatt of energy, the sustainability director said.

“That number in 20 years may be three to five acres,” he said. “With the improvement in technology, the number of acres to produce one megawatt we know is going to go down.”

Illinois farmers currently grow corn on about 11 million acres and soybeans on over 9 million acres.

“Solar land use today is at 10,000 acres which is less than 1% of the acreage of ag land currently and by 2030 it is estimated to be at 36,000 acres,” Maierle said.

Grazing sheep under solar panels minimizes the need for mowing, as well as reduces labor and emissions.

“It’s the idea of green on green and that’s a great story that companies and communities eat up,” Maierle said.

“We’re producing energy, we’re also producing lamb for the American consumer and we’re generating a business for a young or old producer,” he speaker said.

“We’re still pursuing agriculture on the same footprint. It might just look different than what the ag venture was before.”

The number of sheep that can be grazed under solar panels is site dependent, Maierle said, but a guideline is three to five ewes per acre.

“Your competitor is the mowing company and if they bid a project that’s a four pass and they’re charging $120 per pass that’s $480 per acre,” he said.

“I can offer an improved service with grazing sheep because there is all the PR and soil health benefits they are getting for free plus the vegetative management.”

Therefore, Maierle recommends shepherds can charge from $300 to $500 per acre for the service to manage vegetation under solar panels by grazing sheep.

“One of the big advantages is the permanent fence around the solar panels that is usually a 6-foot fence,” Maierle said.

“There are challenges with wire management,” he said. “You have to work with the company to establish water and find out if the company is willing to put a well on the site or if there is public water.”

Currently, 60% to 70% of the lamb consumed in America is imported from New Zealand or Australia, Maierle said.

“Lamb consumption is increasing and adding sheep to the U.S. flock has the potential to displace some of those imports,” he said. “If we don’t increase U.S. lamb production, the import number is only going to increase.”

The American Lamb Board is focused on producer education and it has teamed up with the American Sheep Industry Association and the American Solar Grazing Association to provide hands-on workshops to help shepherds learn how to graze sheep under solar panels.

“We had three workshops last year in Texas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania,” Maierle said. “This year, we will have six, with one of them in Illinois in June where you will leave as a certified solar grazer.”

For more information about the American Lamb Board or the Targeted Grazing Workshops, go to www.lambboard.com.