$500M Solar Farm Near Glenrock Will Have Raised Panels So Sheep Can Graze | Hacker News Reader

$500M Solar Farm Near Glenrock Will Have Raised Panels So Sheep Can Graze

cowboystatedaily.com

33 pointsLinuxBender12 comments

I saw a bunch of cows hanging out in the shade, munching grass under spaced-out solar panels on a 27 C (80 F) day in southern Bavaria - seems to work.

It seems to me that, done right, agrivoltaics could result in a negative land cost for PV, in that the value of increase in crop production (animal or vegetable) could outweigh losses from land taken up by panel supports and associated equipment.

That would further increase PV's cost advantage over other forms of generation.

But how does the grass grow in the shade?

Lots of grasses grow well in shade. There is enough light from scattered sunlight or from holes.

There are lots of plants that grow in shade. I have a corner of my yard that receives almost no direct sunlight, but native plants from forest do well.

That’s true but it’s never the highly nutritious grasses that cows/goats need like alfalfa, false plantains, millets etc. You would need to heavily supplement their diets, I would imagine.

The panels were spaced out enough that light was hitting part of the grass, and would probably hit all or most of it throughout the day

“Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, told Cowboy State Daily his county is familiar with all sorts of energy projects.

“We’re pretty well acquainted with developing them [energy projects] in a way that is consistent with our own all-of-the-above approach, and preserving the land to the extent possible,” Boner said.”

So in other words don’t get too comfortable oil and gas is here to stay as long as he has a say

> So in other words don’t get too comfortable oil and gas is here to stay as long as he has a say

What economics doesn’t destroy, federal clean air policy will.

https://wyofile.com/report-pace-of-coal-plant-retirements-li...

https://wyofile.com/pacificorp-plans-to-accelerate-shift-fro...

https://ieefa.org/resources/us-track-close-half-coal-capacit...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrivoltaics

"During construction, the Dutchman project will employ a peak of 447 workers, with about 20% hired locally. Once operational, it will employ three full-time workers."

Big difference in number of workers.. Only 3 full time when operational?

I imagine daily maintenance won’t be much and they’ll probably hire out to contractors for significant repairs/additions

I would guess that most solar fields have 0 full time field operations staff. There’s not much day-to-day maintenance. Everything can be monitored remotely and maintenance workers or contractors can be dispatched when problems arise. There aren’t any moving parts (unless you have fancy tilting panels), it’s a bunch of PV panels attached to metal racking, with wires going back to the monitoring equipment and distribution switchgear.

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