When people find out Gayle Lee has solar panels on her land, they often bring up their worries about renewable energy destroying good farming country. But at her property in Glenrowan in northern Victoria, the sheep run happily amid the rows of solar panels. It’s not only possible, it’s beneficial.
“People quite often say to us, ‘It’s OK to have solar panels, but what are we going to eat?’” Lee says. “They are quite surprised when we talk about the sheep running under the panel.” The family leases out their land to a sheep farmer, including the 40 per cent of the property with solar panels.
Lee says there is no noticeable difference in productivity between the paddocks with solar panels and those without. In fact, she says, “it’s beneficial for the sheep” because they have shade in summer and shelter from the rain, and the grass is greener from the moisture running off the panels. A solar grazing set-up like the one at the Lee farm has been commonplace in Europe and North America for about a decade, and the model is starting to take off in Australia.
Emerging research supports Lee’s claim of agricultural benefits, including that the sheep are cooler in summer and warmer in winter, more protected from predators, and better fed. Yet opposition is also growing. Nationals leader David Littleproud has declared that regional Australia is at “saturation point” for renewable energy projects of industrial scale, while fellow National Barnaby Joyce has des.