The largest solar grazing project in the U.S. will reduce mowing costs and emissions — and make for some happy sheep.

The largest solar grazing project in the U.S. will reduce mowing costs and emissions — and make for some happy sheep.

JR Howard of Texas Solar Sheep can’t buy sheep fast enough. He supplies them to solar farms, where their grazing keeps grass short for less than the cost of mowing it. Demand for his animals has skyrocketed over the past few years as more and more large solar installations are being built. Now Howard is scrambling to fulfill his biggest order yet: for 6,000 sheep, which will be put to work grazing eight Texas solar fields run by Enel North America.

Howard’s booming business is a form of agrivoltaics, which combines solar panels with agriculture or other land uses that benefit farmers and ecosystems.

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Agrivoltaics projects involving sheep have been shown to improve the quality of the soil, since their manure is a natural fertilizer. At a solar installation in Minnesota, where Enel first started grazing sheep in 2017, the company saw a 200 percent improvement in organic matter. Using sheep instead of mowers also cuts down on fossil fuel use, while allowing native plants to mature and bloom. Solar projects that prioritize native plant growth have been found to increase the biodiversity of plants and insects, like native bees, and to reduce soil erosion.