(19 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buckholts, Texas – 17 December 2024
1. Time-lapse shows solar panels reclining into position at a solar farm owned by SB Energy
2. Mid of Sheep take shade under solar panels on a solar farm owned by SB Energy
3. Wide of sheep grazes under solar panels
4. Tracking shot of James Hawkins, left, in white long sleeves, and Levi Cutburth, senior operations and maintenance manager, wearing a blue baseball hat, right, touring SB Energy’s facility.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) James Hawkins, SB Energy asset manager:
“Bringing the sheep into the solar array has many positive impacts for the sheep industry. For example, there’s more sheep out there because of it. Wool prices just aren’t what they used to be, and so herders are finding other ways to supplement income. And one of them is vegetation maintenance. As this industry continues to grow, so will the demand for sheep. And I think that that will really trickle down into all aspects of the sheep economy.”
6. Various of sheep graze under solar panels
7. SOUNDBITE (English) James Hawkins, SB Energy asset manager:
“There has been a reluctance to transition from gas mowing to livestock as vegetation maintenance. We’re starting to see wide-scale adoption.”
8. Various of sheep take shade and graze under solar panels
9. SOUNDBITE (English) James Hawkins, SB Energy asset manager:
“More challenging problems require more challenging solutions, and it is easy to just put gas mowers on a site and mow the grass. But what kind of stewards of the environment would we be if we are putting solar panels in the ground and generating renewable electricity while also creating more carbon emissions from gas mowers on the site?"
10. Mid of sheep under solar panels
11. Wide of sheep grazes near solar panels
12. SOUNDBITE (English) James Hawkins, SB Energy asset manager:
“We want to be good stewards of the land of the environment. And one of the challenges to that is the very difficult problem of how do we effectively control vegetation management? Well, the challenging solution to that is livestock.”
13. Mid of sheep taking shade under solar panels
14. Wide of sheep grazes near solar panels
STORYLINE:
On a rural Texas farmland, beneath hundreds of rows of solar panels, a troop of stocky sheep rummage through pasture, casually bumping into one another as they remain committed to a single task: chew grass.
The booming solar industry has found an unlikely mascot in sheep as large-scale solar farms crop up across the country and in the plain fields of Texas. In Milam County, outside Austin, SB Energy operates the fifth-largest solar project in the U.S., capable of generating 900 MW of power across 4,000 acres.
How do they manage all that grass? With the help of about 3,000 sheep who are better suited than lawn mowers to fit between small crevices and chew away rain or shine.
The proliferation of sheep on solar farms is part of a broader trend — solar grazing — that has exploded alongside the solar industry. Agrivoltaics, the combination of solar panels and agriculture, is on the rise with more than 60 solar grazing projects in the U.S. according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Twenty-seven states practice solar grazing, according to the American Solar Grazing Association.
“The industry tends to rely on gas powered mowers, which kind of contradicts the purpose of renewables,” said SB Energy asset manager James Hawkins.
A sunny opportunity
What was once a small business has turned into a full-scale operation with more than 8,000 sheep and 26 employees.
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