Image: Lexie Hain, Lightsource bp
Led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office, Innovative Solar Practices Integrated with Rural Economies and Ecosystems (InSPIRE) has completed its second, three-year phase of research into the synergies between solar energy and agriculture.
It is hard to find a flock of sheep nestled under an array of solar panels. Lexie Hain, a farmer in the Finger Lakes region of New York and director of agrivoltaics for Lightsource bp, grazes sheep underneath solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. Her flocks keep the plants under the rows of PV panels trimmed, saving the installation’s owner the cost of mowing. And Hain’s sheep get to eat for free (and may even be paid for it). This concept—of using PV…