Sheep are creating jobs by keeping solar panels in the sun

Read original article

News that’ll make science and econ teachers high-five: Incentivized by tax breaks in the Inflation Reduction Act, Wall Street big dogs are softening the green transition’s rural impact by paying local farmers to graze their sheep around solar panels and prevent grass from growing too high, the Financial Times reported this week.

It’s called solar grazing. And while the practice of ditching pollutant-heavy lawnmowers for sheep isn’t new, it is spreading rapidly as more investors pivot to green energy.

• The number of sheep-mowed solar farms in the US has multiplied 10x over the past two years, according to the American Solar Grazing Association.

• Meanwhile, the US solar industry grew at its fastest rate ever last year, thanks in part to backing from the energy subsidiaries of large financial institutions like Berkshire Hathaway.

This is “the biggest opportunity [the sheep] industry has seen in at least a generation,” one rancher told the FT. After decades of lagging demand for wool and lamb meat, solar grazing is giving some farmers a side-hustle revenue stream (~$1/acre grazed) and free food for their sheep, which helps solar companies garner local support for their ventures.