Livestock and Solar—Synergistic Opportunities for Rural America

Rural areas in the United States have under-developed solar power capabilities relative to urban areas due to challenges matching energy demand centers with underutilized land and the consequent cost challenges related to smaller installations that lack economies of scale. This project addresses these problems by proposing solar installations that operate synergistically with livestock production operations. These operations provide concentrated energy demand alongside land and structures that are conducive to solar photovoltaic power system installations. Furthermore, the shading and shelter provided by the solar installation improves animal production efficiencies and health. In Phase I of this project, we developed solar panel mounting hardware that integrates with pre-existing cattle fence posts and feed bunks and can withstand the rugged conditions associated with year-round use on a cattle feedlot. This system allows producers to offset their high electricity costs with solar power while synergistically providing shade and shelter for their cattle. In Phase II, we will expand rural installation opportunities via our hardware and create a software platform to pair livestock producers who have excess solar capacity with solar developers interested in gaining entry into the agricultural solar development market. Our platform will simplify the solar development process and cost structure while providing fixed income via lease agreements to livestock producers with available solar installation capacity. The commercial impact of this project involves significant improvements in solar energy developments in the rural space, coupled with the creation of new channels to finance these technologies. By developing synergistic solar applications in agriculture alongside innovative financing mechanisms, our system can be expanded to work across a variety of agriculture and rural sectors, both domestic and abroad.