The first part of Acen Australia’s deliberate 720 MW New England Solar Farm in Australia is dwelling to greater than 6,000 sheep, grazing underneath panels in a proof-of-concept agrivoltaics mission.
From pv journal Australia
On 2,000 hectares of pasture close to Uralla, within the Australian state of New South Wales, a mob of greater than 6,000 merino and cross-breed sheep forage for six weeks at a time underneath roughly 1 million panels deployed as a part of the 400 MW first part of Acen Australia’s New England photo voltaic farm.
The preliminary part of the mission, which is one among Australia’s largest working photo voltaic turbines, started exporting to the grid concurrently the primary of the sheep had been launched to the location in December 2023. Since then, the extra sheep are launched to the bee step by step, to assist them transfer to their new feeding space.
Every six weeks the sheep are gathered in barns for well being checks or vaccinations and returned to dwell with their renewable vitality surroundings.
Richard Munsie, who is without doubt one of the landowners who runs sheep on the photo voltaic farm website, stated his early indicators are optimistic. Munsie stated the panels create their very own microclimate, which is nice for sheep.
“They solid a shadow over the pastures early within the morning prolonging the impact of the dew. That helps the grass develop. And the panels additionally present shade for the sheep and safety from the chilly,” he stated. “We may even be capable to run extra sheep due to the local weather created by the panels, however we’ll see.”
Co-owner Cameron Wood stated the photo voltaic panels have helped his operation.
“Fresh grass and shade is an effective mixture,” he stated. “We are excited to get [the sheep] within the barns this winter for shearing, and their wool is shorn for the market.”
Acen stated that evaluations of the agrivoltaic mission will proceed for a number of seasons to overview the advantages of operating sheep on the location. However, it has been famous that earlier photo voltaic grazing trials in western New South Wales have proven a rise in carrying capability and wool high quality.
Work on the second part of the New England Solar Farm is predicted to start later this 12 months, whereas development on the primary part of what’s going to finally be a 200 MW / 400 MWh battery vitality storage system on the website has begun. .
This content material is protected by copyright and might not be reused. If you wish to cooperate with us and wish to reuse a few of our content material, please contact: [email protected].
