Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
Lewis Fox’s flock of sheep are not on your average farmland. His 700 Katahdin ewes graze about 650 acres of vegetation that are home to solar sites across New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont.
Fox’s efforts are part of an industry shift to solar grazing or agrivoltaics, the practice of allowing livestock to feed on land that’s otherwise used for solar energy production.
On April 15, Fox was invited to speak to the House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, and Food Resiliency. His testimony about his business played a role in conversations among representatives’ discussions on how land used for agriculture can also be suited for other projects.
Fox owns the solar grazing business Agrivoltaics Solutions and serves on the advisory board of the American Solar Grazing Association, which he founded with his wife, Niko Kochendoerfer.
In Oct. 2024, a national solar grazing census by Fox’s association reported that about 130,000 acres were grazed by sheep across over 500 solar sites.
Part of his work, Fox said, is consulting and creating awareness as more states look into agrivoltaic regulation. Some states are aggressive about integrating agriculture and solar, while others take longer to permit projects Vermont, Fox said, is starting to have discussions around solar development.
“It’s something that I think a lot of people are not aware of how much or how fast the adoption has been by the solar industry and what a success story it is,” he said in a recent interview with Community News Service.
The concept is simple. Fox said: The flock manages vegetation while the solar panel sites provide feed, shade and secure fencing from predators.
“From a farm viability standpoint, for us, there’s nothing like it,” Fox said. “You can take your land, which is typically your biggest expense, and turn it into a profit-generating service business.”
He said the that the idea has driven people to start farm businesses or expand their business.
Fox said solar grazing is a proven practice and that he hopes the state can recognize the scale of the industry when officials discuss agricultural development.
“It’s not something where we have to figure out how to do it. We know how to do it,” he said.
With hands-on experience in the land-use industry, Fox knows that developing land, such as with solar farms that can have a three-decade lifespan, is worth being careful about.
“You want to take into account how it fits into the community and how it provides income for landowners and if it can provide income for farmers,” he said.
Alex DePillis, senior agricultural development coordinator at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets, shared a similar sentiment. He said typical solar projects take land out of agricultural production.
“The vast majority of these ground-mounted solar projects are on productive farmland. They’re actual, decent soils,” he said.
DePillis has worked on a multitude of wind and solar projects for nearly 30 years and has advised the state and farmers on renewable energy policies. He said part of the growth in solar grazing is just general awareness.
“The question for people who are near those sites or care about land-use is, what’s happening here? It’s a big deal on the landscape,” he said.
DePillis has looked into ways other states are incentivizing solar grazing. New Jersey, he said, has a law that a certain amount of solar has to be agrivoltaic. Meanwhile, Massachusetts offers financial incentives if solar sites are farmed.
“There’s all these trade-offs and land use. We need energy. We need farming. People like both,” he said.
David Durfee, D-Bennington-3, who chairs the House Ag Committee, said he invited Fox to the State House after hearing about solar grazing in the news.
While Fox’s work was not linked to any particular bill, Durfee said lawmakers are reviewing innovative approaches to combine agriculture and other land uses.
“We know that there’s conflict just inherently between all those different uses,” Durfee said. “And here was an illustration of a way that you could get a couple of different uses out of land.”