Sheep + Pollinators on Solar=A Winning Combination

Happy National Pollinator Week! 

Technically, all of June is considered "National Pollinator Month," but this week, in particular, is set aside in honor of the bees, bats, birds, butterflies, and all the other creatures that help keep our gardens and farms thriving.

As we've discussed (perhaps too much!) in other posts, one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) concerns about solar development is that it's taking farmland out of production.

However, we need to acknowledge the type of farmland that's being shifted, and how we can continue to get the best use out of the land that's already been converted - or will be converted - into solar. 

Because like it or not, the solar revolution is here - many states, including New York, have made their commitments to clean energy development, and it's happening. That ship has sailed. 

The next step is to figure out how we can maximize the benefits while reducing the downfalls.

**J&R Pierce Family Farm is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to allow sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products on Amazon. I often link to Amazon when recommending certain products, and if you choose to purchase, I may earn a small percentage of the sale. It costs you nothing extra, and all recommended products are ones that I personally vouch for.**

How Solar Grazing Can Help With Pollinator Habitat

You already know that we're big fans of solar grazing - raising sheep on solar farms to control the vegetation. Years ago, the idea of running sheep on solar sites may have seemed counterintuitive to some who were more interested in pollinator health. "Won't the sheep trample and eat the species that we're trying to get to flower for the pollinators?"

Not at all. The beautiful discovery that many solar graziers and developers have now made is that sheep are actually the perfect accompaniment to pollinator habitats (provided, of course, that they are managed properly).

When our sheep are on a solar site, they're moved several times a week and grazed in smaller strips, rather than being given the entire array. They target the most desirable plant species first, then move on to whatever is left. Because the land is so intensively managed, the sheep don't return to a grazed piece for a minimum of 30 days (typically longer). 

This gives native vegetation a chance to "bounce back," and the timing often lends itself nicely to letting the plants flower and go to seed.

Sheep love eating weeds - that's one of the biggest benefits of having sheep on solar or really, having sheep in general. They'll go after the tender grasses, of course, but they'll also go hog wild (sheep wild?) for things like dandelions. 

Yet there are some species, like milkweed, that sheep just aren't that fond of (in fact, milkweed can be toxic to sheep in high amounts). But we all know how much the monarch butterflies love milkweed! 

There are now pollinator-specific seed mixes for solar sites, but even something as simple as planting clover (which sheep and bees both love) can be a big win. Other pluses of clover is that it reseeds easily, helps stabilize the soil to prevent erosion, and doesn't grow that tall - a big benefit when you consider the need to not interfere with solar panels.

The other benefit of sheep, particularly over mowing, is that they'll compact the soil just enough, with their hooves, to drive in nutrient-rich manure, fertilizing the native vegetation growing there to help it thrive before the sheep come back around again to graze.

How Sheep Are Helping Solar

A common issue with pollinator-friendly solar is how to keep it knocked back enough to prevent it from shading the panels - hence the typical need for mowing on solar sites. Sheep are thoughtful little mowers when we manage them correctly, helping to keep the vegetation just low enough to allow the panels to function beautifully, without absolutely massacring everything on a site like a mower would.

Many states, including New York, have developed pollinator-friendly scorecards for solar developers. This highlights the expectation that sites will be immediately replanted after construction, ideally into species that will help pollinators thrive. 

A recent study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that native vegetation that was grazed on by sheep shows an increase in carbon capture and improves the soil. This means that a solar development very much has the potential to leave the soil better than it was before it was developed. 

There's a misconception out there that solar grazing is only done to manage vegetation and provide a feed source for livestock, but the reality is that it can provide a whole host of benefits in terms of biodiversity and soil health. 

I'm not just talking about bees and butterflies, either. Anecdotally, we've noticed a huge increase in the number of ground-nesting birds, small mammals, and other wildlife since we started grazing.  

An article published in National Geographic put it best: "In the industrialized world, croplands have transformed into mechanically sculpted monocultures, nourished with fertilizers and protected with herbicides and insecticides."

I'm not bashing mechanized mowing or agriculture by any means. It is, after all, something that has helped increase our domestic food supply and it's the status quo for millions of acres of land all over the country. However, it's no secret that agriculture kills millions of birds and mammals each year. 

There's not always a way around this; we need hay to feed our animals all winter and there's no way to gather hay except with mechanized equipment (unless you want to take to the fields with a scythe, which frankly, I don't).  

But perhaps we can offset some of that by providing habitats for these animals elsewhere - like in the unique microclimates created on the grazed, unmowed (or infrequently mowed) solar farm. 

Reducing NIMBY-ism, One Honeybee at a Time

Another interesting thought is that solar developments, when managed properly, as described above, may actually increase pollinator numbers through a sort of trickle-down effect.

Nationwide, about 91 million acres are currently cultivated for corn, while another 87.5 million acres are for soybeans.

Let's talk just about corn for a moment. A large percentage - estimates vary, but most come in around 30 to 40 million acres of land - go directly into ethanol production. 

When you look simply at land efficiency, it would take around 100 acres of corn versus one acre of solar to produce enough energy to drive your car for the same number of miles. We're dedicating an astronomically high number of acres in this country not to feed our population, but to power our vehicles. 

I've written about this tradeoff before, so I won't go into details on the numbers.

But let's think about some of the other effects.

Corn is wind-pollinated, meaning growing corn does not support pollinators in any way. 

If you were to convert a field that had previously grown corn, whether for ethanol, livestock feed, or even human food, into a solar array that's appropriately managed for grazing and pollinators, you're now creating two food sources - nectar for pollinators and the meat produced by the grazing animals - while still generating energy. 

You're also providing an ancillary benefit to neighboring properties. And I'm not even talking about the local beekeepers who might be raising bees for honey, which is another area of solar that we're not talking about enough (apiarists all over the country are finding that they can very successfully raise bees on or closeby solar developments).

Bees will travel as far as five miles to find food (though generally less than a mile). So it's certainly not impractical to think that the solar site that's being grazed and planted for pollinators that's down the road for you could provide some benefit to your crops as well.

Remember, more bees=more food.

These are obviously very tangential notes, and there's not much in the way of science at the moment to demonstrate this benefit. However, it's clear that we need to start thinking outside of the box in regards to how solar sites are managed, and how we tend to think about them as the general public.

Rethinking Our Assumptions

Very rarely are solar sites the stark, industrial-looking complexes you see on "viral" Facebook posts that people like to share. These do exist, don't get me wrong - but many of these sites, which are not vegetated, are some of the oldest. 

Most places just don't do solar that way anymore - for a lot of reasons. It doesn't make sense to develop a site like that when it dramatically increases the likelihood of erosion, for starters, which can compromise the construction. 

Most states also have requirements in place for revegetation and erosion control, meaning the ground won't just be left unseeded. 

It's time to put some more thought into how we can make all of these systems work together. Yes, I understand that a piece of land that was once strictly agricultural will never be as productive with solar on it as it could have been without it. Similarly, a solar site that's constructed with pollinators and sheep in mind (or even cattle or vegetables) might not be quite as productive as it would without any of that.

But what are we producing? What's the end product here? Most importantly, how can we make tradeoffs that make everyone happy?

They say that in a good negotiation, neither party should walk away completely satisfied. Until the kinks get worked out of this whole agrivoltaics revolution, that might still be the case. 

I do believe, however, that when we start thinking outside of the box with solar and agriculture, we can get pretty damn close to that 100% satisfaction rating.