We’re becoming evermore excited about the potential for Goats On The Go®/Sheep On The Go® affiliates to profit from solar grazing. You’ve probably noticed that we’re feeding you a steady and growing diet of solar grazing information, and that’s going to continue. In our excitement, however, we may have failed to answer one big foundational question: “How is solar grazing different from the targeted grazing I’m already doing with goats?”
There are several important differences:
The livestock. Goats already have a PR problem when it comes to solar grazing. They chew on expensive electronic components and climb on solar panels. We may see other types of livestock used in the future, but right now it appears sheep will be core to solar grazing in most situations. Thus, we created the Sheep On The Go® brand for our affiliates to use in solar grazing applications.
The vegetation. Whereas we tend to focus on weedy, brushy, often invasive vegetation with our goat grazing, the vegetation around solar farms is typically selected and planted with a purpose. It tends to be made up of more traditional livestock forages. There have already been efforts to select plant species that grow slower and shorter, and some solar farms are planting native plant mixes, sometimes with pollinator and wildlife habitat in mind. To the extent that these efforts increase positive PR (see #4 below), solar grazing service providers might be selected in part for their ability to manage for conservation benefits.
The landscape. Compared to the places we often apply our goats for weed and brush control, solar grazing landscapes are pretty tame. They may have some slopes, but they are necessarily wide open to ensure good access to the sun. They are also usually surrounded by excellent, tall fences.
The goals. The companies that own and operate solar farms generally have two big goals in mind: (1) generate as much renewable energy as possible, and (2) generate as much positive PR as possible. That means preventing vegetation from casting shadows on solar panels and making the public love all things solar. Unlike weed/brush grazing, plants are only a concern if they grow taller than the front edge of the solar panels. Avoidance of chemicals and mechanization are only a concern to the extent that the watching public thinks they are a concern. Invasive plants are unlikely to be on anyone’s radar.
The strategy and pricing. If you think of goat grazing for weed and brush control as a 100 meter sprint, then solar grazing is a marathon. When we target weeds and brush we pound the offending vegetation hard with the goal of stressing and perhaps killing it, and we do it as quickly as we can. Each extra day on one job is a day we’re not getting paid for the next. We search and destroy! But, when it comes to solar grazing, we’re more like gardeners. We’ll typically have been contracted to keep the vegetation below the height of the solar panels for the entire grazing season, for a single price per acre. Speed only matters in the sense that we can’t allow the vegetation to outgrow our capacity to keep up. Since this is much more like grazing a pasture on the farm or ranch, we can expect the price we get paid to be lower on a per-acre-per-grazing-event basis compared to our hard-target goat attacks on suburban brush and weeds.
The customers (and finding them). We can’t really find more solar grazing customers simply by trying harder or promoting more, because there aren’t significant solar installations around every corner — yet. Instead, most of us are preparing to be ready when utility-scale solar farms pop up in our territories. There are solar grazing companies out there that travel huge areas (sometimes several states) to quickly and intensely graze for multiple customers with thousands of sheep in a gigantic, never-ending rotation. Since we are limited by our territory boundaries, that strategy won’t work for us — and thank goodness! We can continue to do our weed and brush control while we wait for solar grazing opportunities nearby. We may also get some offers to graze smaller, non-utility solar installations of a few acres or smaller for home and business owners. These are likely to be out-of-control, overgrown jungles that need quick, critical care rather than the ongoing maintenance that utilities want. In those cases, a price and strategy similar to our usual weed and brush control projects makes sense.