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If you were to visit certain Altus Power solar farms in New York, Massachusetts, or Hawaii, you may see not only an array of solar panels but a herd of sheep on the same plot of land. And that’s by design: It’s an arrangement called agrivoltaics, the combination of agriculture and photovoltaics, or solar power generation.
In Hawaii, the location and landscaping of Altus Power’s solar project make it difficult for landscapers to mow the grass — human landscapers, that is. As the Altus team searched for innovative solutions, a sheep herder in the area suggested letting ovine landscapers help take care of the grass.
For the past few years, a sheep herd has been munching away at the vegetation at our project in Hawaii. The woolly creatures have even become the unofficial mascots for a local elementary school. Students from that school have visited the project to learn about both livestock and renewable energy. (Goats and cows, meanwhile, aren’t invited to the agrivoltaic party — they are liable to chew on the wires and jump on the panels.) This agrivoltaic configuration carries other benefits, too, as Canary Media reports.
Having sheep trim the grass in addition to or instead of gas-powered lawnmowers is a lower-emission way to maintain the land, and sheep can reach grass that lawnmowers can’t. Plus, the sheep’s droppings fertilize the soil under the panels. And farmers are lauding the practice, Canary adds. Illinois farmers Brooke and Chauncey Watson have 500 ewes grazing on more than 320 acres at nine Community Solar sites in Illinois, as Watson told the site.
As Watson explained, “solar grazing” helps younger farmers maintain a living while assisting older farmers. Aging landowners who “don’t want to work the land anymore” can get income by hosting solar, and “younger, maybe first-generation or newer farmers” can tend to the sheep that tend to the panels, Watson said.
In 2024, around 62,000 sheep were grazing 87,000 acres at 109 solar sites in the South in 2024, while 13,000 sheep were grazing at around 7,000 acres of solar at 148 solar sites in the Midwest, Canary reported.
Agrivoltaics is proving to be more than a clever workaround. It’s a model for sustainable land use that benefits energy producers, farmers, and communities alike. As more solar developers embrace lamb-mowers, sheep may become an unexpected symbol of the renewable energy transition — quietly powering progress, one bite at a time.
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