Silicon Ranch this week debuted a solar farm in Christiana, Tennessee, that looks like others dotting the rural landscape — except for the small herd of cattle grazing on lush pasture beneath the black panels. The 40-acre site is the company’s first attempt to prove that cattle, not just sheep, can thrive alongside solar panels, the Associated Press reported.
The project addresses a stubborn tension between clean energy and agriculture. While sheep grazing at solar sites has expanded rapidly — more than 130,000 acres were grazed as of 2024, according to the American Solar Grazing Association — cattle pose a harder challenge. They are larger, heavier, and could damage equipment if panels are not adjusted.
To make room for the animals, Silicon Ranch raised the panels slightly and developed software that operators can activate to turn the panels close to horizontal while the cattle are grazing, said Nick de Vries, the company’s chief technology officer. Workers rotate the herd — currently 10 cows and their calves — between paddocks every few days so that panels on the ungrazed portion operate normally, generating about 5 megawatts of electricity for Middle Tennessee Electric, a rural co-op.
“We know it works,” de Vries said. “But you need to prove it to other people.”
The potential benefits extend beyond energy production. Anna Clare Monlezun, a rancher and rangeland ecosystem scientist working on the Tennessee project, said pasture beneath the panels retains more moisture, making it more drought tolerant. Cattle grazing in the shade are less prone to heat stress, allowing them to gain more weight and drink less water.
“There are more win-wins than trade-offs,” she said.
The economic case for farmers is also driving interest. Farmers can earn roughly $1,000 an acre by leasing land for solar, easily ten times what they historically made through traditional agriculture, said Ethan Winter, national smart solar director at American Farmland Trust.
“Agriculture is in a really tough spot right now” because of trade wars, climate extremes, increased costs and pressure to sell land, Winter said. “So maybe this is our moment where we can be helping states meet their energy needs and do that in a way that’s providing new opportunities for farmers.”
Taylor Bacon, a doctoral student at Colorado State University who has studied ecological outcomes at solar grazing sites, said that when solar grazing is done well, “the land use can be more of an opportunity than a downside.”
Still, the industry must overcome site-design challenges and develop economic incentives for ranchers before cattle grazing at solar sites becomes widespread, said Kevin Richardson, senior director of the American Solar Grazing Association. Once those are in place, “I think we’ll see more solar sites using cattle or multi-species grazing with sheep and cattle,” he said.