NATIONAL NEWS
Apr 30, 2026, 8:03 AM | Updated: 9:10 am
A cow, right, scratches on the support beam of a solar panel Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at a farm in Christiana, Tenn. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
BY
CHRISTIANA, Tenn. (AP) — From a distance, the small solar farm in central Tennessee looks like others that now dot rural America, with row upon row of black panels absorbing the sun’s rays to generate electricity.
But beneath these panels is lush pasture instead of gravel, enjoyed by a small herd of cattle that spends its days munching grass and resting in the shade.
Silicon Ranch, which owns the 40-acre farm in Christiana, outside of Nashville, believes cattle-grazing is the next frontier in so-called agrivoltaics, which mostly has involved growing crops or grazing sheep beneath the panels.
The solar company debuted the project this week and will spend the next year working to demonstrate to farmers that much larger cattle also can thrive at solar sites. If successful, advocates say, that could jump-start new projects to meet the soaring electricity demand driven by rapidly expanding data centers — without contributing climate-warming carbon emissions — and help cattle producers hold onto their land and livelihoods.
“Solar is one of the most powerful tools we have for cutting emissions and … is cost-competitive with fossil fuels,” said Taylor Bacon, a doctoral student at Colorado State University who has studied ecological outcomes at solar grazing sites. “I think we’re starting to see enough research that, when you do it well, the land use can be more of an opportunity than a downside.”
Though there are far more cattle than sheep in the U.S., their size poses challenges at solar sites, where both expensive equipment and the animals, which can weigh more than half a ton, must be protected.
Solar panels often pivot to near-vertical angles to capture the sun’s rays, leaving little room underneath for cattle; simply raising the panels is cost-prohibitive because of the amount of steel required. So Silicon Ranch raised the panels a little but also developed software that workers activate to turn the panels close to horizontal when cattle are grazing, giving them room to wander, said Nick de Vries, the company’s chief technology officer.
Workers rotate the cattle — currently 10 cows and their calves — between paddocks every few days so panels on the ungrazed portion of the site operate normally, generating a supply of roughly 5 megawatts of electricity for Middle Tennessee Electric, a rural electric co-op.
The hope is that the technology eventually will be adopted more broadly, company officials said.
“We know it works,” said de Vries. “But you need to prove it to other people.”
For solar companies, agricultural land is generally easier to develop than other types of sites. But many farmers — and communities — will need to be convinced that solar grazing will benefit them because of past practices that destroyed topsoil and took land out of production permanently.
“For many agricultural stakeholders, it is offensive to see high-quality farmland getting graded and piled when that’s a farm family’s legacy,” said Ethan Winter, national smart solar director at American Farmland Trust.
But he sees potential for solar grazing partnerships to help farmers keep their land in production and earn extra income.
“Agriculture is in a really tough spot right now, 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,” Winter said.
Silicon Ranch this year will have almost 15,000 acres of pasture being grazed — mostly by sheep — since launching five years ago, and is working with ranchers, farmers, university researchers and others to adopt best-practices for keeping soils and animals healthy.
What they’re finding is that pasture beneath solar panels retains more moisture, making it more drought tolerant, said Anna Clare Monlezun, a rancher and rangeland ecosystem scientist who’s working on the Tennessee project. Grazing in the shade leaves animals less prone to heat stress, enabling them to gain more weight and drink less water.
“There are more win-wins than trade-offs,” she said.
Farmers often earn about $1,000 an acre by leasing their land for solar, easily 10 times more than what they historically earned through traditional agriculture, Winter said. That can help them to diversify operations, pay down debt and buy more land.
“I think you’ll start to hear more interest from farmers who are up against a serious financial wall right now and looking for income diversification opportunities that keep land in production,” Winter said. “We need and want to grow America’s energy capacity but not at the expense of our best farmland or at the expense of agricultural livelihoods.”
___
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A fire broke out Saturday evening at a lab building on the University of South Florida campus in St. Petersburg, prompting an evacuation, authorities said. The fire sent plumes of billowing gray smoke from the marine science laboratory building. No injuries had been reported, university police and the local fire […]
9 hours ago
Associated Press
Five members of a pickleball club who died after the small plane carrying them crashed in Texas are being mourned by a tight-knit community of fellow players. The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed Saturday that Justin Appling, Hayden Dillard, Brooke Skypala, Stacy Hedrick and Seren Wilson were on board the Cessna 421C that crashed […]
11 hours ago
Associated Press and MyNorthwest Staff
One person is dead following a fiery crash at a health club early Saturday in Portland, Oregon, and evidence of an explosive device was found in the vehicle, police said.
12 hours ago
Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have charged four residents with illegally voting. The U.S. attorney’s office for New Jersey said in a statement Friday that the four people were not U.S. citizens when they registered to vote and cast ballots in federal elections, as federal law requires. Their charges range from […]
16 hours ago
Associated Press
Spirit Airlines, the scrappy discounter that once rattled the industry with cheeky ads and rock-bottom fares, took its final flight after 34 years of upending the business of flying. Once worth as much as roughly $5.5 billion on the stock market, the airline known for its bright yellow planes said Saturday it had shut down […]
18 hours ago
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police have released body-worn camera footage of officers shooting and killing a machete-wielding man who stabbed three people at a Grand Central subway stop last month. The video clip posted on the department’s YouTube page Friday shows officers confronting Anthony Griffin after he had randomly slashed three people […]
19 hours ago
Three independent organizations that evaluate home service contractors each reached the same conclusion: Home Comfort Alliance is among the most reliable in its market.
Discover Aegis Living’s respite care, offering flexible short stays tailored for seniors and their families. Explore the benefits now.
Chrystal Ortega’s tireless dedication recently earned her the WSECU Community Champions Award and a $1,000 grant to further the mission.
When Shawn Tibbitts opened Tibbitts FernHill, he was just trying to survive. The small Tacoma restaurant has since earned culinary awards and praise.
Wilcox Family Farms is continuing its cherished holiday tradition of giving back by donating nearly one million eggs to food banks across the South Sound region this season.
Matthew Ballantyne has transformed that early awareness into action, embodying the organization’s mission: “No Kid Sleeps On The Floor In Our Town.”
