Скачать или смотреть Solar farm combines renewable energy and agricultural techniques on one property

(19 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Houston County, Georgia - 12 February 2025
1. Lambs nestle together in barn
2. Solar panels in fog
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Matt Beasley, Silicon Ranch Corporation Chief Commercial Officer:
"So we're at Houston Solar. It's a 68 megawatt solar farm, an energy infrastructure project that my company, Silicon Ranch owns and operates. We built this project back in 2021, and a couple of years ago we we added this barn that we're in today. We actually dedicated this last spring and we built this barn. It's a 26,000 square foot facility to house our our lambing process, but it also supports our company's work with the National Sheep Improvement Program."
4. Wide of sheep in pens
5. Close up of sheep in pen
6. Lamb nursing
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Matt Beasley, Silicon Ranch Corporation Chief Commercial Officer:
"We created this platform called - we call it regenerative energy, that allows us to use regenerative agricultural techniques, typically with livestock grazing and the sheep behind us, to drive more value to sequester carbon in the soil, to improve soil health, to promote biodiversity. We realize that we with the same piece of property that we're harvesting and generating renewable electrons that go on to the grid to power our homes and businesses. And that same piece of land we could use it to put into agricultural production through our grazing program as well."
8. Various of sheep
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Matt Beasley, Silicon Ranch Corporation Chief Commercial Officer:
"The way we operate through regenerative land management techniques, it's actually managed grazing. So our team here of shepherds and graziers, they're taking observations of the vegetation of the water cycle and really focusing where we're placing the sheep, and through animal impact we are actually improving the soil health."
10. Various of sheep in pen
11. Wide of solar panels
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Matt Beasley, Silicon Ranch Corporation Chief Commercial Officer:
"And so the renewable electrons that are produced every day, including today, they go on to the grid, provide a reliable, renewable source of power that powers homes and businesses in this area, but also supports homes and businesses around around the state."
13. Close up of solar panel

STORYLINE:
More than 200,000 solar modules sit on hundreds of acres of land owned by Silicon Ranch Corporation in Houston (HOWS'-tuhn) County, Georgia. Named the Houston Solar Project, the site supplies renewable power for thousands of homes across Georgia.

Just a few acres away on the same property is something one wouldn't expect on a solar complex - a 26,000 square foot barn housing flocks of sheep.

"We created this platform called - we call it Regenerative Energy, that allows us to use regenerative agricultural techniques, typically with livestock grazing and the sheep behind us, to drive more value to sequester carbon in the soil, to improve soil health, to promote biodiversity," said Silicon Ranch Chief Commercial Officer Matt Beasley.

The company decided to use the extra land to support the genetics improvement program as part of the National Sheep Improvement Program. Altogether, the daily production on the 705 acres amounts to solar energy and grazing improvements.

"We realize that we with the same piece of property that we're harvesting and generating renewable electrons that go on to the grid to power our homes and businesses. And that same piece of land we could use it to put into agricultural production through our grazing program as well," said Beasley.






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