This solar farm lets cattle roam under moving panels

Silicon Ranch has brought something online commercially that you don’t see every day: a utility-scale solar farm where cattle graze under moving panels.

The Nashville-based developer has launched its new “CattleTracker” system at the Christiana Solar Ranch in Tennessee. It’s the first commercial deployment of the company’s patented approach to combining solar generation with full-scale beef cattle operations on the same land.

Instead of fencing off solar farms from agriculture, Silicon Ranch is designing its projects to coexist with agriculture. The system uses a custom solar tracker that can shift into a “grazing mode,” giving cattle space to move safely beneath the panels.

The Christiana project is located within cooperative Middle Tennessee Electric’s (MTE) service territory, which will purchase power from the site. MTE says the deal delivers savings for the more than 750,000 customers it serves across 11 counties. The co-op is the largest in the Tennessee Valley Authority region and the second largest in the US.