As solar expands in the Delta, can agrivoltaic projects grow with the boom?

12

Advertisement

Advertisement

Sheep graze below panels sprouting where crops once grew

Today at 4:00 a.m.

Lucas Dufalla

SEARCY — On hundreds of acres of former farmland outside of Searcy, the Raines family operates a type of farm that most Delta residents aren’t used to.

Herds of sheep, wrangled by Turkish sheepdogs, and rows of wide solar panels take up the same land that was once rice and soybean fields typical of the Arkansas Delta, the rich alluvial plain along the Mississippi River.

Chad Raines doesn’t own the land. But he earns an income managing the property for Lightsource BP, a subsidiary of energy giant British Petroleum. Raines once ran his family row crop farm in Texas, but now he’s full-time “solar grazing,” in Arkansas and Texas. His hundreds of sheep graze around the solar panels, preventing grasses from growing too high and blocking the sun from the panels.

“Agrivoltaics

<br />


Advertisement

Advertisement

Upcoming Events



Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their original owners.

Aggregated From –