Protecting your output with reliable grazing.

Looking for vegetation management for your solar site? Gideon Energy is proud to be your agrivoltaic solution.

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Why choose agrivoltaics?

Vegetation is a permanent line item on a solar site. Grass that reaches the panels shades generation, and a deck mower can’t work the clearance underneath. Crews string-trim by hand instead, while thrown rock and debris put the glass at risk. Sheep graze that same clearance without machinery. In Cornell’s Musgrave trial, grazing a 22-acre array ran on 2.5 times fewer labor hours than mowing and trimming. Operators choose grazing to protect output, cut labor, and keep heavy equipment out of the array.

What we do

From first site walk to years of output.

Site inspector walking the perimeter fence at a ground-mount solar farm

01 — Prep

Getting your site ready for grazing operations.

We start by walking the array with your O&M team. Together, we check what our flock needs to work safely: perimeter fencing, gates, water access, trailer access, and wire management. You finish with a written plan built around your site and priced against the vegetation standard required.

02 — Grazing

Protecting the underside a mower never reaches.

The flock then works the array in rotation, moving through paddocks on a schedule tied to your vegetation standard. Sheep reach under the panels where a mower can’t, and they don’t throw rock into the glass. That clearance is what shades generation, and it is the most expensive ground on the site to trim by hand. We size the flock to your acreage and grow-back rate. Each paddock then rests long enough for forage to recover before the next pass, so height stays held all season instead of cut twice and forgotten.

Aerial view of sheep grazing between rows of a solar farm

Sheep standing in the shade under a solar array, grazing grass a mower cannot reach

03 — Upkeep

Keeping vegetation at the height your site requires.

Vegetation grows back every season, so the flock returns on the same schedule. We log coverage as we go and keep one point of contact on the account all season. If a paddock still needs a mechanical pass, we plan it in. Most grazing contracts carry some mowing, and early seasons usually need more of it. Your coverage records stay with the site, so asset managers always know our grazing schedule.

129,000

acres of U.S. solar grazed by sheep

506

solar sites under grazing

states with grazing operations

7–11%

of installed U.S. solar capacity

Source: American Solar Grazing Association and NREL, United States Solar Grazing 2024 Census.

Who we serve