Solar and Sheep: “The future of regional Australia” and the key to better quality wool

Last month, the solar arm of global oil giant BP revealed its newest utility-scale PV project in Australia – a 550MW array with a 260MW/520MWh big battery – will install the panels up around two metres* above ground level to make room for sheep.

The Goulburn River solar farm is proposed for construction by Lightsource bp on private farm land south of the town of Merriwa, and will be designed to accommodate ongoing sheep grazing among the panels.

This is not Australia’s first solar project to factor in sheep farming – not by a long way. But it would have to be one of the biggest, and a sure sign that the concept of agrivoltaics is really catching on.

As the Clean Energy Council reasoned in an industry paper in 2021, dual use of land tapped for solar farms, much of it at one time used to grow crops or livestock, could help solve problems of grid access and social licence for new large-scale PV projects.

If done right, the paper argues, solar farms can improve both grazing and crop land, while allowing solar farms to be built in areas where the electricity network is strong, providing a win-win for both solar developers and farmers.

Currently in Australia, some of the most common public objections to new solar developments – including another  big Lightsource bp project, the 400MW Gundary solar farm near Goulburn – is that they will lock up valuable agricultural land.

But new feedback from a couple of farmers who have taken the solar leap reveals that the addition of panels has greatly increased the value of their farming operations.

One of those is Ken Keith, who served 15 years as Mayor of Parkes and hosts a solar farm on his property in then region.

Speaking to renewable energy advocacy outfit, The Goulburn Group, Keith argues that every solar farm built in the future should be able to run sheep – or potentially cattle if trials being conducted in France at the moment prove a success.

“The sheep we are running have actually done better than the sheep under normal farming conditions,” says Keith.

“Say during a drought you get 5mls of rain. But with solar panels it runs off into a line and it’s the
equivalent of 20mls. There is always a green pick.

Keith says that one of the key benefits of the solar panels is that they provide shelter for the sheep.

“When it rains they are underneath them, so the rain is not getting into their wool. And they are also getting full shade on summer days.”

Keith says the recent sheering of 250 wether hoggets that had been grazing in the paddock with solar panels since last year resulted in “the longest and the best yielding wool I have ever grown in my lifetime.”

Tom Warren runs fine wool merinos and hosts one of the first larger scale solar farms in Australia on 55ha of his property, the 20MW Dubbo solar farm.

He says the panels have provided a net benefit to the farm, including a 10-15 per cent increase in carrying capacity and increased wool production.

“Animal welfare is improved,” he says. “We have hot summers and you will always see the sheep, even in the middle of winter, lining up along the shadow.

“The quality of the wool increases because they are able to get out of the sun.

“They were in a green field, so there was less contamination and vegetable matter in the wool.

Warren believes that a lot of the pushback against solar project from farming communities stems from misinformation or lack of experience.

He says one change he would like to see to large-scale solar development guidelines is that grazing requirements, such as fencing and water supply, should be the first things considered when planning solar farms.

“All too often it is the last thing on the list,” he says.

Proper planning, he adds, will mean the solar farm owners can reap the benefits of the most efficient way of controlling weeds and the height of vegetation.

*A previous version of this article said the panels for the Goulburn River solar farm would be installed five metres above ground level. Five metres refers to the highest point of the top edge of the panel at the steepest angle of its tracking movements. The bottom of the panels will actually sit between 1.6-1.8 metres above ground level.