Author: Alex Conacher
In a field a few miles southwest of the city of Lexington in Kentucky a very special sheep is quietly grazing in the shade. It is a rare breed of sheep that has been specifically selected for a very important task. It is protected by high security fences on all sides, keeping it safe from any predators, and keeping the site safe from human interference. The 50 acre site is that of the largest solar power installation in Kentucky owned by Kentucky Utilities. It currently houses over 40,000 solar panels, and the sheep’s very important job is controlling vegetation on site in an eco-friendly and cost-efficient practice known as Solar Grazing.
The best sheep for this particular job are not seen very often nowadays. They are a heritage breed known as Shetland Sheep. They are small and they grow slowly, so are less appealing to large-scale farming operations; nevertheless, they are known to be very healthy, resilient, and live a long time. Their small stature means that they can comfortably graze beneath solar panels. How these sheep came to be here is a story that has its origins thousands of miles away, and three centuries in the past.
Kentucky goes green
Kentucky is traditionally a coal state, although that industry is now in rapid decline. The state is in the process of transitioning to generating energy from clean, renewable sources. As part of this, local utility companies have been investing in solar farms and battery storage.
The sheep that have been drafted in to manage the largest of these solar farms have come from a nearby historical village and farming community, which is run by a non-profit and open to the public.
The village was established by a religious movement commonly called ‘the Shakers’, who are known for their music, their dancing and their vows of celibacy. Some listeners might also be familiar with the minimalist ‘Shaker style’ of furniture. The Shakers were founded by a woman called Ann Lee, Mother Ann Lee as she came to be known, who was born in Manchester, England in 1736 and moved to the US in the 1770s. Her decision turned out to be critical to the energy revolution happening in Kentucky today, nearly 300 years later.
The Shakers in the United States are also known as the United Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. “Some of the beliefs that the Shakers held are: a duality of God, which means that there is both a male and a female manifestation of God,” says William Updike, president of natural and cultural resources at Shaker Village. William explains that this led to more equality of gender which was different to other faiths at the time. “The one thing everyone knows about Shakers is that they were celibate. That is certainly an important thing to bring up. But it’s not the only thing and that is we kind of like to highlight some of the other things that they have. They’re really very forward thinking people that we would find very modern if you were to meet some of them today,” he says.
Futuristic development
Shakers benefited from running water, piped into kitchens from a local spring. Which meant that they were less affected by cholera outbreaks than most. So it’s a site that has been known for looking to the future, right from the start. One of their most important pieces of faith was the music. “They got the name ‘shakers’ from their enthusiastic dancing. It’s where the name comes from and are also known as the shaking Quakers,” says William.
The dancing was originally free form and then eventually, throughout the 19th century it became more organised, similar to what might be thought of as a square dance today.
The Shaker movement is actually still in existence, with a small number of Shakers still living in Maine, the movement is long past its peak, which was around the time of the American Civil War in the 1860s. And there are about a dozen Shaker sites left to today, mostly museums and historical sites. The movement came to Kentucky in 1805 as the land opened up to settlement during the westward expansion. “Here at Pleasant Hill, our village was established in 1809. Its present site though there were some Shakers in this area, probably as early as 1808. Those folks were originally from the northeast, and then they converted some of the local residents here to Shakerism,” says William.
The last Shaker resident sadly passed away in 1923 but the idea of creating a museum had already been born. Today, the village preserves about 3,000 acres of that 5,000 that the Shakers owned. The site includes the historic village, a 72 guestroom hotel, a 100-seat restaurant, an operational riverboat and about 30 miles of walking trails. There is something for everyone, and in a normal year the village gets 50-60,000 visitors. They might come to see the historical buildings, enjoy the music programme, and to see various exhibits on the Shakers and their products. In 1960, an organisation was founded: Shaker Town at Pleasant Hill to preserve and protect what remained of the Shaker community. “At that time, there were 34 historic buildings here and those range from everything from large dwelling houses to barns, those buildings are what we maintain to this day as the core of the village,” says William.
Unique architecture
The architecture of the village will definitely interest some of our listeners. “So our meeting house was constructed in 1820. And it’s a timber frame building with brick nogging in between the frame members for insulation. And one of the unique features of it is that it’s 40 by 60 feet in size,” explains William. In metric terms this is 12 metres by 18 metres. “And on the interior, there are no interior posts on the first floor coming all the way down, which allowed for that exuberant dancing that the Shakers did.”
This was executed through a series of timber trusses in the attic of the building, something that was unusual for Kentucky. “We believe that a lot of that is influenced by a book that was published in the early 1800s by a man named Owen Biddle, I think it’s called The Young Carpenter’s Assistant,” says William. In the pages of this book are trusses very similar to those in the meeting house. “And then if you start to look at some of the other architectural features, in that book, you start to see them around the village as well,” says William.
A farm favourite
But it is the children’s favourite, the farm, that is the key part of this story. “We have a really diverse farm, we do a little bit of everything,” says Mike Moore, farm manager at Shaker Village. “Our farm footprint is about 118 acres, which is all certified organic. And that’s going to include a two acre orchard that we manage an acre and a half garden that we manage for an on-site restaurant. And then the rest is all pastures where we do cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, a few goats and some draft horses as well.”
The main goal of the farm is providing food for the Trustees Table. This is an on-site restaurant and the farm produces anything from 3,000 kg to 5,500kg. It has been producing food since the time of the Shakers. “So our garden has been producing vegetables in the same area for nearly 200 years now,” says Mike. “It’s been a living history farm, which is horse and plough. But in 2014 or 2013, we began to say: “hey, how can we use the shaker story to create something that’s a little more relevant, a little more real, that our guests or visitors can take home with them?”
Now with the arrival of the solar farm Mike’s animals are helping provide something for people’s homes in a very real sense, electricity. Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities is the solar farm owner. They explained that they needed to get the grass mowed and Mike had just the solution. “And, boy, I’m just so happy to say: “Hey, we know sheep, and we may be able to help you out with that”.”
Mike’s farming philosophy turned out to be just perfect for the job. He already had a few sheep but they had to scale up to acquire enough for the solar farm. “We ended up buying a flock of Shetland sheep. It’s a primitive breed, heritage breed that’s actually in decline. It’s getting better. Its numbers are recovering. But we try to focus on livestock that need a helping hand,” says Mike.
Goats could have been another option, or could they? “Sheep are not as curious as goats. Goats are browsers, they’re gonna want to try to taste a little bit of everything, and that could be your wiring,” points out Mike. This would obviously be more hazardous for the solar farm “Sheep are a little more consistent, predictable,” says Mike.
Solar grazing expansion
The solar farm is seven miles, or 11km away, so Mike can easily take them there in a trailer. He leaves them at the site from April to December, but checks up on them regularly to make sure they are healthy and happy and have plenty of grass. Mike says that other farmers could do the same and there is even a national organization for this: The American Solar Grazing Association!
Aron Patrick is in charge of looking for technological solutions that improve the ability of Kentucky Utilities to provide reliable power that lowers costs such as Kentucky’s largest lithium ion battery site. That is a 2MWh battery, which was very large in 2016 when it was installed, but the pace of growth in that sector is incredible and the company is looking at installing a 400MWh energy storage system.
“So we are actually using that battery to store solar power by day and discharge that solar power by night,” explains Aron. “Batteries can help with some problems that are introduced by solar, including the intermittency and volatility of solar power. So as solar power comes and goes, because a cloud moves across the horizon that can introduce frequency and voltage problems, and we use our battery to try to smooth out those problems.”
They also have one of three carbon capture systems in operational power plants in the United States thanks to a $22 million research project, with the University of Kentucky and the Department of Energy. “We started that research project in 2006. We built the site in 2014 and it remains operational today,” says Aron.
That is a 0.7 MW carbon capture facility that captures the post combustion oxide at E.W. Brown Generating Station, a major, longstanding coal power plant that has recently begun adding solar generation, with a total generating capacity of 464MW. All of this fits in to wider plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent compared to 2010 levels by 2050, with an interim goal of 70% by 2040. At the moment KU’s energy mix is about 11MW of energy from solar and about 7GW from other sources, so solar is still a very small portion of their portfolio. “But that is what my teammates and I are looking at pretty aggressively is how much solar we’ll be adding in the future? And what are the economics of that?”
Solar economics
And the economics are helped, in some part, by Mike Moore and his sheep, which Aron bought in to replace manual labour with lawn mowers and other equipment. Around 30 people would maintain the 44,500 solar panels. “And we just started thinking, “well, gosh, you know, is there not a better way to do that?” And I looked online at what some utilities were doing, and I did see that one company had started working on little battery powered robots that would go around and mow the grass. And honestly, that seemed way more trouble than it was worth. And I thought, you know, even though my department’s role is supposed to be forward looking in technologies, I thought, you know, what, we need to look back in time at how this would have been done a couple of hundred years ago, because that’s the really, honestly, the easiest way.”
So, funded by Kentucky Utilities, Shaker Village bought a couple of thousand dollars worth of sheep known for the fineness of the wool they produce, and rented them to cut the grass under solar panels. It turns out 40-50 sheep are perfect for a 10 acre site. “And so it made for a really perfect partnership,” says Aron, although the team did have concerns at the beginning. “I was worried that, you know, the sheep might knock the panels or start chewing on wires, or, create mayhem right over the solar farm. That’s the last thing I wanted. And so, our agreements and contracts that says really clearly that they will provide 24/7 assistance if something bad were to happen. And now over a year later, we’ve never called that number. Honestly, it just works. So well.”
Aron also mentions how the security fences needed to protect the solar panels also protects the sheep.”We’ve started just live streaming those security cameras to YouTube, because there’s so much fun to watch,” says Aron. It’s called EweTube. The idea came after members of staff constantly bombarded the solar team with requests for photos of the sheep. They realised that members of the public might be interested.
So the future of solar is secure, the technology is evolving, and the delivery is dynamic… but is there a future in Solar Grazing? Will the traditional approach have a place? “I met with a shepherd, just yesterday actually, at another one of our solar sites in Simpsonville, getting the scope of getting the lay of the land,” says Aron. “And yes, I do intend to proceed with replacing mowing at that site with grazing as well. And I quite frankly think that this is a trend that will catch on. We as Kentuckians are very proud of our agricultural heritage. And I think, you know, beyond environmental sustainability, one thing that’s important about solar grazing projects is it, it returns the landscape to what it might have been, say 100 or 200 years ago; a grassland with, with animals grazing on it. It’s a really a beautiful marriage of the future with our past.”
