Flocking to a Utility-Scale PV O&M Solution

Operating and maintaining a utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant is a time-consuming and expensive proposition.

However, there’s been a unique innovation in PV plant operation – though it comes from a simple and decidedly old-school source.

Sheep’s New Role in Lowering PV Plant Operations and Maintenance Costs

You read that correctly. Sheep are now being used for landscaping duty on PV plant sites, merging the worlds of agriculture and solar power in a mutually beneficial way.

According to the National Renewable Energy Lab, utility-scale solar arrays could occupy three million acres of American land by 2030. This expansion is causing tension between the solar production industry and the livestock and farming industries that rely on acreage to be productive.

Instead of restricting the use of useful grazing land solely for solar energy production, the hybrid solution of solar grazing, as it’s known, to effectively landscape and manage array vegetation is an increasingly popular and cost-effective solution.