About Agrisolar

Neoen are proud to be leading the way in ‘agrisolar’. Dubbo Solar Hub has sheep grazing among the panels.

A short video featuring the landowner and grazier at another of Neoen’s solar farm explains how well agriculture and solar can combine, bringing some unexpected benefits and can be found here Dubbo Agriculture and Solar Video.

A summary info pack is also available which summarises all of Neoen’s initiatives in this area.

What is Agrisolar?

Agrisolar is the co-existence of agriculture and solar power generation on the same land.

All of Neoen’s solar farms including the Dubbo Solar Hub have partnerships with local landowners to graze sheep on the solar farms.

2017 PARKES TRIAL

Our first sheep grazing trial was conducted at Parkes Solar Farm in 2017 during a high rainfall and high produce year.

It was a joint exercise between Neoen, local landowners and solar construction company Bouygues-Construction.

The 3 week trial involved 400 sheep within a 15 hectares zone to help reduce dry grass under the solar panels in order to manage grass fire hazard.

It successfully showed that this combined land use had positive outcomes for farmers and solar operators.

2019 Expert Review

By 2019 sheep grazing had begun on all five of our operating solar farms in NSW and Victoria. These activities were assessed by an independent grazier expert to document existing practices and make recommendations on how to integrate grazing into each stage of the solar farm’s lifecycle.

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No change to the grazing productivity potential is expected…compared to as if the land did not host panels. This is explained by the fact that climate conditions are identical except that concentrated water occurs along the edges of the trackers with the potential of allowing for
concentrated feed growth.

Phil Graham
Livestock Specialist

2019 Dubbo Agrisolar

Tom Warren, host landowner at Dubbo Solar Hub has been grazing sheep on the land under the panels since 2018 and has learnt from this experience about how to make this work well.

A short video about his experience can be viewed at the top of this page or on YouTube by searching ‘Dubbo Agrisolar’

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There are no issues with sheep-grazing co-existing with solar farms. It’s an opportunity and win-win for farmers and renewable energy producers.

Tom Warren, Land Owner
Dubbo Solar Hub in NSW

2020 CEC Agrisolar Report

We are leading a collaboration with the Clean Energy Council to bring together research, case studies and lessons from across the industry into a ground-breaking Agrisolar Report.

This will help to guide and inform farmers, solar farm operators and government on how best to integrate agriculture and solar.

We are also continuing to explore other opportunities for combined land use including biodiversity and conservation.