With Silicon Ranch, It’s Solar and Agriculture, Not Solar or Agriculture
Solar solutions company Silicon Ranch is planning a clean energy plus regenerative agriculture project (the Metter Agrivoltaics Project) in Candler County that will produce power for South Georgia homes using made-in-America solar panels, provide access to land and new revenue for local farming, and yield healthier soil and locally raised grass-fed meat, all on one piece of land.
Learn more about Silicon Ranch, the Metter Agrivoltaics Project, and our wholly owned agribusiness, Regenerative Energy®, that makes this possible.
Projects that combine solar energy production and agriculture on one piece of land, with crops or livestock being raised underneath or between the panels, are called agrivoltaics projects. Silicon Ranch is the industry leader in grazing agrivoltaics projects through our wholly owned agribusiness, Regenerative Energy®. We own one of the largest sheep flocks in the Southeastern U.S., employ a team of shepherds, and are working to scale cattle grazing and solar energy production on the same land that is good for solar generation, good for the land, and good for the animal through our patented CattleTracker™ system.
The Metter Agrivoltaics Project will have positive economic, social, and land use impacts that will benefit Candler County for the long-term.
Locally Produced Clean Energy Generated
80 MWac
South Georgia Homes that the Metter Agrivoltaics Project Can Power Annually
14,000+
New Tax Revenues over 25 Years to Fund Local Priorities
$13,000,000
Capital Investment for Local Economic Growth
$100,000,000+
Locally Produced Clean Energy Generated
80 MWac
South Georgia Homes that the Metter Agrivoltaics Project Can Power Annually
14,000+
New Tax Revenues over 25 Years to Fund Local Priorities
$13,000,000
Capital Investment for Local Economic Growth
$100,000,000+
Photo courtesy of Nextracker
Bolsters American Manufacturing
The company will build the project using made-in-America solar panels, bolstering U.S. manufacturing. Learn more about our long-term commitment to domestic manufacturing.
Keeps Land in Regenerative Agricultural Production
Silicon Ranch will keep the land housing the project in agricultural production through our wholly owned agribusiness, Regenerative Energy®. Using regeneratively managed sheep, we will protect and improve soil health and wildlife and provide new opportunities for farmers and their families.
Meet Regenerative Energy, Our Company-Owned Agribusiness
Silicon Ranch launched Regenerative Energy® in 2019, and since then Georgia has become the heart of our agrivoltaics platform, which co-locates regenerative agriculture with energy production to revitalize ecosystems–making our communities healthier. Regenerative Energy is in large part a result of a conversation—that resulted in a long-term partnership—with world-renowned regenerative rancher and Georgia’s own Will Harris of White Oak Pastures.
Over the past four years, we have implemented a number of firsts in Georgia through Regenerative Energy, including being the first US solar developer to acquire and manage a company-owned flock of sheep.
Read about the Houston Lambing Barn
To grow our company flock responsibly, we constructed a state-of-the-art lambing barn at our Houston Solar Project in Houston County, Georgia, built a team of in-house shepherds and world-leading sheep geneticists, and partnered with the National Sheep Improvement Program to help strengthen not only our flock but the entire national flock as well. Click here to learn more about this happy marriage of tradition and innovation.
What sets Silicon Ranch apart is that we own our projects and the land they occupy. As the long-term owner and operator, we invest in communities. We partner with and support educational, agricultural, and other institutions through workforce development and career fairs, site tours, scholarships, charitable contributions, research projects, and more.
Support the Metter Agrivoltaics Project
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Frequently Asked Questions About the Metter Agrivoltaics Project
Have questions about the Metter Agrivoltaics Project? We’ve compiled a list of questions about the project.
Silicon Ranch’s solar projects provide significant economic, social, and environmental benefits. Our projects supply a reliable and cost-effective source of energy that keeps electricity prices low, benefiting utilities and their customers. We will own the land where the Metter Agrivoltaics Project will be built and anticipate investing approximately $100 million in its development, generating millions of dollars in new tax revenues (see details below). The community will also benefit from our commitment to partnerships with local schools. We make our solar farms available as “learning labs” by hosting field trips and providing guest speakers.
Silicon Ranch’s regenerative approach to project design, construction, and operations, including land management, positively impacts the local community and beyond. We nurture the land using regenerative land management practices that promote long-term, deep-rooted vegetation, including pollinator habitat, and faster plant growth cycles. This approach heals degraded soils, improves ecosystem function, makes water cleaner and better regulated, reduces erosion and runoff, and increases biodiversity of both plants and wildlife.
We will keep the land housing the project in agricultural production through our wholly owned agribusiness, Regenerative Energy®. Using regeneratively managed sheep, Silicon Ranch will protect and improve soil health and wildlife and provide new career opportunities for local ranchers and their families, and increased revenues for the local businesses that support these ranchers, including veterinarians, processors, and feed and seed shops.
The Metter Agrivoltaics Project will not only support the build-out of robust energy infrastructure necessary for energy stability here in the county and across the state, but will also support economic development, education, agriculture, and domestic manufacturing.
Silicon Ranch, as both the landowner and operator of the Metter Agrivoltaics Project, will be responsible for paying both real and personal property taxes. We anticipate contributing more than $13 million* in taxes over the next 25 years, including more than $1 million in the first year that the project is operating. Since the project will not rely on significant local government services, the tax revenue generated will primarily increase the local tax base, supporting local incentives such as government services, infrastructure projects, and schools.
*This figure is nearly $14 million if we assume no future increases to the millage rate. If we assume a slight increase to the millage rate, this figure will exceed $15 million.
No. This project will not incorporate battery storage or batteries of any type.
Yes. Silicon Ranch will plant a robust evergreen buffer to screen the site from adjoining properties and roadways. This buffer will consist of trees reaching at least 50’ in height, with low branches to shield the project from public view. Around residential properties, this tree buffer will be at least 50’ in depth to limit any visual impacts from the project to residences. If you are a neighbor to the site and would like someone from our team to speak in detail about the planned buffer around your property, please contact us at morgan.kreitner@siliconranch.com and we’ll be happy to speak with you.
We take intentional steps in our facility design, operations, and land management to ensure that stormwater runoff from each site will be reduced or not increased from the conditions that exist when we buy the property.
Before construction begins, we “pre-vegetate” the site to reduce erosion and sedimentation. A project-specific Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan will be submitted to and approved by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division as part of the permitting process. This plan will include Best Management Practices for erosion control, sediment control, and stormwater management, as outlined in the “Blue Book.”
The project site’s gentle slopes and localized high points minimize grading requirements.
Once the solar plant is constructed, impervious surfaces (foundation pads, equipment, gravel roadways, etc.) cover a relatively minor amount of the land housing it. So, while solar panels will be installed on the land, the stormwater will flow off the panels and across the vegetation, allowing for the water to infiltrate and evaporate or be absorbed and replenish the aquifer. Moreover, our regenerative land management practices increase vegetative cover and build soil organic matter and looser soils, leading to more water infiltration, increased water retention, and less stormwater runoff. Like other types of development, utility-scale solar projects are subject to federal, state, and local environmental requirements, and we comply or go beyond compliance with all of these.
Silicon Ranch will use made-in-America thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic solar panels for the project. These panels are not hazardous and do not negatively impact soil or water or endanger human or animal health.
Cadmium telluride is not the same as the element cadmium (Cd), which is toxic, and cadmium telluride does not pose the risks that cadmium poses. In the presence of tellurium, cadmium forms a crystalline lattice that is highly stable.
You may see the word cadmium and become concerned, much as you might with the word chlorine, but when these materials are combined with certain other materials, they become stable compounds with different properties than they have in their solitary forms. You’re likely familiar with the stable compound sodium chloride (NaCI), also known as table salt. It is made of chlorine—an element that in its solitary state is a deadly gas—yet you likely cook with NaCI, heat it up, and eat it on a daily basis. Like sodium chloride, cadmium telluride is a stable compound that is safe even though it is made up in part of the metal, cadmium.
Similarly, the properties of water (H2O) are not the same as those of hydrogen gas (H2) even though the two chemical species both contain hydrogen. Just as it is incorrect to assume water can burn because hydrogen burns, it is incorrect to treat cadmium telluride as if it poses the same risks as cadmium.
Thin film CdTe solar panels contain only materials in solid-state form, just like the electronic components in laptops and smartphones. These panels do not contain liquids that can leak. The thin layers of CdTe in these panels are stable and solid (high boiling point, low vapor pressure, low solubility) and are encapsulated between thick layers of glass. This encapsulation prevents CdTe from escaping into the surrounding environment, mixing with soil or water, or vaporizing into the air. Thin film CdTe solar panels are made of tempered glass and pass rigorous hail and other weather testing, as well as the U.S. EPA’s Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure test. This test is designed to assess the potential for long-term leaching of products disposed of in landfills.
To learn more about this technology, you can visit the website of our module manufacturer: firstsolar.com/Technology/CadTel
While we work to build our sites to the natural contours of the land where possible, building the project here is expected to require some minimal disturbance, mainly around the building of access roads and pile driving.
There is some truck and trailer traffic during the construction of projects, including 18-wheelers delivering supplies during installation. Prior to and throughout construction, Silicon Ranch coordinates with local stakeholders to provide a more precise operation schedule. Once operational, our sites are remotely monitored and rarely visited except for periodic and routine maintenance. These activities are usually accomplished with 1-2 pickup trucks or vans, depending on the crew.
Regenerative Energy® is our proven approach to designing, building, and operating our projects in alignment with natural systems to regenerate soil health, promote biodiversity, improve water quality, and enhance wildlife habitat. It harnesses the potential of solar land to deliver value above and beyond the energy infrastructure it houses.
As the long-term owner of our projects, our goal through Regenerative Energy® is to make the land better than we found it by promoting long-term, deep-rooted multi-species grasses and plant growth cycles. This important work aims to ensure that each and every Silicon Ranch project makes a positive impact on the water, nutrient, and carbon cycles on and around our land to revitalize ecosystems, helping to make our communities healthier for everybody and everything.
Some companies install solar panels on top of warehouses, commercial buildings, and homes. Silicon Ranch takes a different approach for a variety of reasons.
First, location: utility-scale solar projects need to be near a viable transmission or distribution line to allow for connection to the electric grid and prevent needing long, expensive transmission lines. Additionally, consolidating the solar plant in a single location rather than distributing it across multiple locations allows for more efficient and effective connection to the grid.
Second, size: Silicon Ranch aims to build utility-scale solar projects that require large areas to generate the amount of energy necessary to meet our customers’ needs. Large warehouses, which tend to be between 500,000 and 1,000,000 square feet (approximately 12 – 24 acres) are not typically large enough to meet these needs. Finally, not all existing buildings are designed or built to hold the structural load of a solar plant on the roof.
While some companies build solar plants on landfills, Silicon Ranch does not because building solar plants on landfills presents permitting and construction challenges, environmental challenges, such as avoiding damage to the landfill capping system, and engineering challenges, such as potential settlement of the landfill area that can lead to structural damage to the solar generating equipment.
We aim to deliver power into the communities that the power will serve. Each community has a range of siting options available, including both rooftop and ground mounted. In addition to considerations of location and viability, scale, and structural stability, cost is a significant consideration. Rooftop solar is by far the most expensive option for the installation of solar energy. Ground-mounted solar energy is the lowest cost form of new electricity generation in the U.S. today, and it is an important energy source for helping to keep rates low.
Once operational, our projects do not generate any noise that can be heard outside the facility fencing. Inverters have a quiet hum, not unlike that heard from a residential transformer, the small green electrical box you see in neighborhoods. Given our compliance with required project setbacks from property boundaries and the location of the inverters within the fenced area of our projects, the sounds from our projects are imperceptible.
Our solar projects are underwritten by third-party, independent engineers for a 40-year useful life.
We are committed to leading industry advancements in responsible management of end-of-life solar equipment. Our commitment goes beyond recycling to repurposing, reusing, and fueling U.S. manufacturing of solar panels for a circular solar economy.
To process-end-of life solar modules from Silicon Ranch projects, we have partnered with two pioneers in U.S.-based solar industry panel recycling. The first, SOLARCYCLE, offers an advanced platform that recovers approximately 95% of the value of solar panel materials, including glass and aluminum, as well as silicon, silver, copper, and aluminum. The second, First Solar, recovers approximately 90 percent of materials. Recovered module materials are returned to the solar supply chain to help fuel the growing U.S. solar manufacturing industry with an American supply of materials essential to the production of new solar panels. For instance, recovered aluminum from the aluminum panel frames will be used to make aluminum frames for new solar panels.
Our industry leading recycling partnerships support our commitments to advance solar manufacturing in the U.S., a circular solar economy that reduces material use and recaptures “waste” as a resource to manufacture new panels, and economic development opportunities in communities across the country.
Our solar projects are designed with reliability and the highest performance in mind over their 40-year useful lifetimes. This 40-year view means we design the entire project and select equipment to last at least 40 years. Unlike some developers who may focus more on meeting minimum design criteria to reduce short-term costs, Silicon Ranch places more emphasis on reliability and the requirements of long-term ownership.
At the end of 40 years, our projects will either be repowered with new solar equipment or decommissioned. If a project is decommissioned, all system components will be removed, and the ground will be stabilized. All costs associated with the decommissioning process will be the responsibility of Silicon Ranch, not the community or local government. As Silicon Ranch will continue to own the property and will remain a member of the community, we are invested in ensuring that decommissioning will occur safely and responsibly, and that the site is in excellent condition.
Decommissioning bonds are typically put in place to protect landowners who lease their land to solar companies for solar generating assets. Such bonds are required to protect the landowner and the community in the event the solar company lessor defaults under the lease and fails to remove the equipment from the property, making it unusable for other purposes.
Since Silicon Ranch is the landowner, we—and our neighbors and Candler County—are already protected from the type of occurrence decommissioning bonds are put in place to protect against. To underscore this point, in 2024 the Georgia General Assembly passed HB 300, which specifically exempts Silicon Ranch from certain decommissioning requirements because of our land ownership model.
As owners of our land, our incentives are the same as those of our neighbors and other community stakeholders. Therefore, if at the end of this project’s 40-year useful life we determine that there is a better and higher valued use of the property than simply repowering the plant, then we would undertake a decommissioning to protect the value of our asset and our investment. To provide the county with an additional layer of protection, however, Silicon Ranch has updated our financial guarantee based on feedback to include a $1 million surety bond that increases by half a million dollars every five years until it reaches a total value of $3.5 million. Furthermore, as the owners of the real property, in the event we were to fail in ultimately decommissioning the plant, the county would have a valuable asset you can attach to ensure we honor our commitments.
It depends on the project, but typically projects interconnect to existing transmission lines adjacent to the property.
No. Silicon Ranch constructs photovoltaic facilities, which absorb solar energy rather than reflect it, and therefore do not heat up.
There are companies that place solar panels on top of warehouses, commercial buildings, and residential houses, but this is not what Silicon Ranch does. The first part to consider is location – utility scale solar plants need to be near a viable transmission or distribution line to allow for connection to the grid to prevent needing long, expensive transmission lines. Additionally, consolidating the solar plant into a concentrated location allows for more efficient and effective connection to the grid.
The second part to consider is the size – large warehouses tend to be between 500,000 and 1,000,000 square feet, which is approximately 12 – 24 acres. Silicon Ranch aims to build utility scale solar plants that require larger areas to generate the amount of energy necessary. Another factor is that not all existing buildings were designed or built to hold the structural load of a solar plant on the rooftops.
While there are companies that build solar plants on landfills, Silicon Ranch does not do so because building solar plants on landfills presents permitting and construction challenges, environmental challenges, such as avoiding damage to the landfill capping system, and engineering challenges, such as potential settlement of the landfill area that can lead to structural damage to the solar generating equipment.
We aim to deliver power into the communities that the power will serve. Each community has a range of siting options available, including both rooftop and ground mounted. In addition to questions of scale and structural stability, rooftop is by far the most expensive option for the installation of solar energy. Ground-mounted solar energy is the lowest cost form of new electricity generation in the United States today, and it is an important energy source for helping to keep rates low.
This will depend on the time of day, but generally, no more than ten feet high. The panels at many of our newer sites rotate to follow the sun throughout the day. At the beginning and end of the day, the solar panels will be at their highest as they will be angled 60 degrees. Around lunchtime, the panels will be at their lowest.
The supporting structures that hold the modules are designed to withstand wind loads of 105-120 mph.
We take intentional steps in our facility design, operations, and land management to ensure that stormwater runoff from each site will be reduced or not increased from the conditions that exist when we buy the property.
Most of our projects are proposed at sites where the existing land is agricultural, wooded, or a combination of both. Once a solar plant is constructed, impervious surfaces (foundation pads, equipment, gravel roadways, etc.) cover a relatively minor amount of the land housing it. So, while solar panels will be installed on the land, the stormwater will flow off the panels and across the vegetation, allowing for the water to infiltrate and evaporate or be absorbed and replenish the aquifer. Moreover, our regenerative land management practices increase vegetative cover and build soil organic matter and looser soils, leading to more water infiltration, increased water retention, and less stormwater runoff.
The reduction in stormwater runoff peak flow improves downstream flooding issues. Existing natural resources (e.g., wetlands, ponds, streams, floodplains, etc.) and associated buffer areas are field identified, delineated, reviewed by the appropriate agencies, and marked during construction to be protected. In some circumstances, it may be necessary to temporarily or permanently impact a natural resource to facilitate a crossing location (e.g., access road-stream crossing). In these situations, we secure all necessary permits and we implement associated mitigative measures.
With 23 projects in Georgia operating, under construction, or contracted, Silicon Ranch’s solar projects in Georgia create more than 6,500 construction jobs. We maintain a strong preference for hiring locally and from the military veteran community.
Once a project is approved, our Project Delivery team will work with local partners, such as the chamber of commerce, to develop a plan to engage qualified, local firms and invite them to bid on the project.
Make sure to go to the Contact Us page and fill out the Contact form for Vendors. A project representative will get back to you with more details on available work and the timing of proposals.
There are also periodic announcements regarding job fairs for local residents interested in working on these projects.
There is some truck and trailer traffic during the construction of projects, including 18-wheelers delivering supplies during installation. Prior to and throughout construction, Silicon Ranch coordinates with the community to provide a more precise operation schedule as the construction of a specific project approaches. Once operational, our sites are remotely monitored and rarely visited except for periodic and routine maintenance. This is usually accomplished with 1-2 pick-up trucks or vans, depending on the crew.
Yes, we always prefer to hire qualified, local firms when possible.
Silicon Ranch has a systematic approach to health and safety and is committed to the goal of zero recordable safety incidents. Accordingly, the team gives every consideration to safety and control measures as part of overall project design. In addition to his 25+ years of environmental, health and safety experience, Silicon Ranch’s Director of Environmental, Health, Safety, and Security—Jim Barfield, CSP, CHST—has deep credentials to lead the company’s approach to safety. Along with qualifications that include BSCP certifications, FEMA incident command, accident investigation, and OSHA 30 qualifications, he is a veteran of the United States Army as a Health Specialist of Preventative Medicine, where he educated personnel on pathogen exposure, disease and occupational illness prevention, enforced military regulations governing sanitary practice and industrial hygiene, and investigated and controlled sources of pathogen and toxin exposure both inside and outside of United States borders.
Our projects across Georgia follow and adhere to all local, state, and federal regulations including fencing, electric codes, and signage. Additionally, our projects will be monitored 24/7 so that any disturbance to the system can be quickly and safely acted upon.
Once construction commences, external to the site, we post appropriate warnings in traffic ways to alert drivers of impending truck entrances to the roadway. Internal to the site there are controls in place to regulate vehicles and heavy equipment on site.
The materials and components that comprise a solar energy generating facility are not hazardous to humans. Silicon Ranch prioritizes protection of the environment.
There is noise associated with the construction of projects, but Silicon Ranch seeks to minimize any potential disruption by limiting construction activities to normal business hours. Once operational, the sites do not generate appreciable noise. The inverters have a quiet hum when the plant is generating during daylight hours, but the noise is not audible beyond the property line. The inverters are typically located centrally on the project site, far enough away from neighboring houses to be imperceptible.
A solar farm is a collection of interconnected solar panels that are strategically placed to maximize their ability to capture sunlight and convert it to electricity. Sunlight contains little packets of energy called photons. When photons from the sun reach the solar panels, it causes energy electrons within those panels to move and in turn create an electrical current. That electric current is then sent to an inverter which converts it from DC to AC. That power is then pushed out from the solar site onto the transmission lines where the electricity is then distributed to households and businesses.
Once operational, our projects do not generate any noise that can be heard outside the facility fencing. The inverters have a quiet hum, not unlike that heard from a residential transformer. We typically have 60’-40’ setbacks around the exterior of the site, with a 100’ setback from the interior parcel. Given the location of the inverters within the fenced array, sounds from these projects are imperceptible.
Solar modules do not cause glare in houses because modules are designed to absorb (rather than reflect) as much light as possible and are covered with a protective layer of anti-reflective matte glass.
No. Responsible solar development can actually enhance, not harm, wildlife habitat.
Silicon Ranch’s approach to land management has demonstrated that responsible solar development can improve wildlife habitat. For instance, we have seen a measurable increase in bobwhite quail populations at our Hazlehurst projects in Jeff Davis County, where the previous regime of intensive tillage and herbicide use for cotton-peanut-corn farms damaged bobwhite quail populations over the past 80 years. With a transition to zero soil disturbance after construction, perennial vegetation, and properly timed mowing events, these solar projects create ground nesting bird habitat where bobwhite quail and other wildlife thrive. These healthy populations then spill over into adjacent hunting properties, where neighbors share in the benefit of this work.
In addition, Silicon Ranch has developed and funded a private Gopher Tortoise Sanctuary in partnership with Georgia Department of Natural Resources on the company’s privately owned lands in Clay County. Working together, Silicon Ranch and the Department have relocated several tortoises from surrounding projects, and have room for more. In Lee County, Silicon Ranch intentionally designed in wildlife corridors at the DeSoto project site.
Silicon Ranch takes wildlife habitat very seriously, and our investment in this sanctuary and these wildlife corridors is testament.
Our Regenerative Energy platform is an outcome driven, third-party verified holistic standard of excellence for the design, construction, and operation of solar farms.
For our ecological monitoring, we contract with Savory Institute Ecological Outcome Verification Professional Monitors to take soil samples and perform the short- and long-term ecological monitoring.
We measure and third-party verify our ecological outcomes using the Savory Institute’s Land to Market Ecological Outcome Verification assessment methodology, which was developed in collaboration with leading soil scientists, ecologists, agronomists, and an extensive network of regenerative land managers around the world. This methodology measures the health of the land as a living system. In 2022, the Savory Institute certified land housing seven Silicon Ranch solar facilities as ‘regenerative’.
If we conduct a soil carbon project at a site, we contract with Earth Optics to measure soil carbon. The soil is also tested at four laboratories, including one for agriculture analysis, during our Geotechnical testing prior to construction.
Yes, our projects follow and adhere to all local, state, and federal regulations including fencing, electric codes, and signage. Additionally, Silicon Ranch projects are monitored 24/7 so that any disturbance to the system can be quickly and safely acted upon.
With 23 projects in Georgia operating, under construction, or contracted, Silicon Ranch’s solar projects in Georgia create more than 6,500 jobs.
Our goal at Silicon Ranch is to leave the land as good, if not better, than when we initially find it.
During operation, we maintain the land using regenerative land management practices that promote long-term, deep-rooted vegetation and faster plant growth cycles. This approach, which we implement under our Regenerative Energy® platform, not only multiplies the typical beneficial outcomes of a solar project but also creates new benefits, including healing degraded soils, improving ecosystem function, and increasing biodiversity of both plants and wildlife, as well as pollinator habitat.
Regenerative Energy came to be in large part as a result of an invitation from White Oak Pastures owner Will Harris to Silicon Ranch to visit his family’s world-renowned regenerative ranch in Bluffton. Harris introduced Silicon Ranch leadership to the methods of planned livestock grazing and other regenerative agricultural practices that his family had been deploying at White Oak Pastures for more than two decades. The result was a new partnership and Silicon Ranch’s innovative model for the solar industry, Regenerative Energy, our holistic approach to project design, construction, and land management that we now deploy across thousands of acres of land that we own and manage in the United States.
We recognize Georgia’s pride in the unique communities that make up the state and will implement the regenerative land management practices that are appropriate to each community to continue that legacy, in partnership with the local community and surrounding area.
Silicon Ranch aims to refrain from the use of any pesticides at our projects, unless required by state law where a project is located to mitigate noxious weeds determined injurious to agricultural or horticultural crops or, in some instances, to prevent small targeted amounts of vegetation from growing up into equipment that would interfere with plant performance and impede the facility’s ability to deliver power to serve homes and businesses in the long-term. When circumstances require that we use pesticides, Silicon Ranch is committed to minimizing their use, meaning that we only spot spray EPA approved herbicides – which are commonly used on timber farms – when required. We never broadcast spray herbicides or pesticides.
We recognize that our responsibility as a good neighbor doesn’t stop at our fence line. Rather than viewing the land housing our solar projects as a liability, we recognize that land and vegetation are valuable natural resources and biological assets. When land and vegetation are managed properly, and in alignment with natural systems, we can revitalize soils, restore grassland ecosystems, increase biodiversity, sequester carbon, improve water quality, and build better solar facilities. Ultimately, through our Regenerative Energy approach, our goal is to leave the land better than we found it.
We recognize Georgia’s pride in the unique ecosystems that make up the state and we are committed to designing, building, and operating our solar facilities in a way that continues that legacy, in partnership with communities throughout Georgia.
Our solar projects are designed with reliability and the highest performance in mind over their 40-year useful lifetimes. This 40-year view means we design the entire plant and select equipment to last up to 40 years. Unlike some developers who may focus more on meeting minimum design criteria to reduce short-term costs, Silicon Ranch places more emphasis on reliability and the requirements of long-term ownership.
At the end of 40 years, our Georgia projects will either be repowered with new solar equipment or decommissioned. If a project is decommissioned, all system components will be removed and the ground will be stabilized. All costs associated with the decommissioning process will be the responsibility of Silicon Ranch, not the community or local government. As Silicon Ranch will continue to own the property and will remain a member of the community, we are invested in ensuring that decommissioning will occur safely and responsibly, and that the site remains in excellent condition.
Silicon Ranch purchases solar panels for our projects with end-of-life in mind and we seek the most cost-effective and environmentally responsible path for recycling modules at their end of life.
We are committed to leading industry advancements in recycling. To process-end-of life solar modules from Silicon Ranch projects, we have partnered with two pioneers in US-based solar industry panel recycling: SOLARCYCLE, which offers an advanced recycling platform that recovers approximately 95% of the value of solar panel materials, including glass and aluminum, as well as silicon, copper, and silicon, and First Solar, which recovers approximately 90 percent of materials. Recovered module materials will help fuel the growing U.S. solar manufacturing industry with a domestic supply of materials essential to the production of new solar panels.
Our industry leading recycling partnerships support our commitments to advance domestic solar manufacturing, a circular solar economy that reduces material use and recaptures “waste” as a resource to manufacture new panels, and economic development opportunities in communities across the country.
The remaining part of the panel materials, which are made of plastics, do not have much value. SOLARCYCLE is committed to zero waste, however, and the company has found off-takers who will use the plastic for secondary applications to avoid sending panel materials to a landfill.
Frequently Asked Questions About Silicon Ranch Solar Projects
