In Australia, "solar sheep" are pioneering agrivoltaics

The Australian farmer, located about 400 kilometers west of Sydney, would not go back on his decision to keep them together for anything in the world.

When he was approached by the company Neoen, he initially saw it as a new source of income "that does not depend on the weather or the price of wool," he explains on his farm in Dubbo, which has more than 30.000 panels on about fifty hectares.

And since then, "the rents I receive are greater than any income I could get from farming in this region, whether I graze sheep under these panels or not," he says happily.

The farmer insisted that Neoen's installations not prevent his animals from grazing underneath, and he quickly saw the benefits. "First of all, the sheep really appreciate the shade the panels provide, even in winter. And then, during the night, condensation forms on the panels, drips onto the ground, and creates little lines of green grass at the ends of the rows of panels." A small detail that makes all the difference.

"The wool produced is of better quality and cleaner, because the land is less dry and we have seen a 15% increase in our revenue from raising sheep that graze under the solar panels," says Tom Warren, who conducted a comparative study with sheep that he grazes on an adjacent plot of land without panels.

"Better quality"

About fifty kilometers away, in the city of Wellington, Tony Inder makes the same observation, with a much larger flock of 6.000 sheep, grazing on two plots of land spread over 4.000 hectares. "To produce wool uniformly, you have to provide regular feeding. On virgin land, at the moment, it is very hot and very dry," he points out.

"Then there will be a heavy downpour and suddenly everything will be green, which means the quality of the wool will not be the same along its entire length. Whereas under solar panels, there is always grass, and it stays green, which allows for the production of better quality wool."

He doesn't own the land where the solar panels are installed, but the owners let him use it for free. In exchange, "they don't have to mow as often" to ensure the panels function properly. But it's also, and above all, to comply with bushfire prevention regulations.

On the smallest plot, of 1.500 hectares, "each mowing (of the grass) costs them $90.000 and before we agreed, they had to do it six times a year. Now it's only once or twice, that makes for significant savings," notes Tony Inder.

"It's no longer really possible to decouple"

The Dubbo farm, the first example of agrivoltaics in Australia, has become the norm for Neoen. "There are sheep grazing in all our solar power plants," confirms Emily Walker, the company's director for New South Wales.

"The sector as a whole is moving very quickly on this issue, in a world where it is no longer really possible to decouple the historical agricultural use of land from the production of solar energy," she says.

While these combined uses are currently limited to livestock farming in Australia, solar energy could be combined with other agricultural activities in the future.

Thus, solar panels have been deployed on vines in the state of Victoria and Western Australia on an experimental basis, to study the potential impact of the shade generated on yield.

For Karin Stark, director of the consultancy firm Farm Renewables, it should be negligible. "In a country like Australia, six to eight hours of sun exposure is sufficient for plant development; if they are partially shaded, it does not reduce their ability to photosynthesize," she says.

A promising prospect for Australian farmers. According to a Clean Energy Council report published in 2024, thanks to renewable energies, they could generate an additional 600 million euros in revenue by 2030, and up to 6,5 billion euros by 2050.