What is Regenerative Energy?
Regenerative Energy is our proven, holistic approach to designing, building, and operating our projects in alignment with natural systems to regenerate soil health, biodiversity, water quality, and habitat. It harnesses the potential of solar land to add value above and beyond renewable energy electricity from the power plant itself.
We asked: How can we use this valuable land that is home to our solar project for an even bigger purpose? How can we make it better than we found it?
Regenerative Energy makes the land better than we found it by promoting long-term, deep-rooted multi-species grasses and plant growth cycles. It 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, making our communities healthier for everybody and everything.
Regenerative Energy and Agriculture
At many projects, we partner with or employ in-house local farmers, ranchers, and land managers to keep solar project land in agricultural production. Agricultural production among solar arrays is called agrivoltaics. At our agrivoltaic projects, we produce two crops on one piece of land – renewable solar energy and pasture-raised lamb. The livestock are managed intentionally to restore our project sites to functioning grassland ecosystems.
Regenerative Energy benefits land, the environment, the economy, and people.
Healthy, valuable land and vegetation should be a product of the solar industry, not a casualty.
Land:
The Way We Manage Our Land Matters
We treat each piece of land as the unique environment it is. We tailor our land management practices and tools to the specific local cultural, ecological, and economic conditions of each region.
The High Plains ecoregion is characterized by a semi-arid climate with low moisture, silty and sandy loam soils, high elevation, and often, extreme temperatures. The water cycle, unique to this climate, results in droughts and floods. Drought-resistant grama and buffalo grasses (short grasses) are the predominant natural vegetation.
The Central California Valley ecoregion is comprised of flat, intensively farmed plains and has a hot, Mediterranean climate with long, hot dry summers and cool wet winters.
The Mojave Basin and Range ecoregion encompass a series of warm deserts, broad basins, and scattered lower-elevation mountains stretching from interior southern California through southern Nevada and into northwestern Utah. It has an arid climate with extreme temperatures during its two distinct seasons – extreme cold during winter nights and extreme heat in summer.
The Arizona/New Mexico Plateau ecoregion features varied topography from plains and mesa tops to elevated tableland side slopes, with associated varied climates ranging from warm, dry climates in the south and west to a colder, semi-arid climate in the east, and a temperate, semi-arid climate in the north.
The Sonoran Basin and Range ecoregion consists of large, flat areas and scattered low mountains with winter rainfall highest in the west, driven by storms moving in from the ocean, and summer rainfall highest in the east, resulting from more southerly storms pushed north and inland as part of the North American monsoon.
The Chihuahuan Deserts ecoregion comprises broad basins and valleys bordered by sloping alluvial fans and terraces, with isolated mesas and mountains, and has an arid climate with long, hot summers and short winters.
The South Central Plains is an ecoregion of irregular plains dominated by pine forest that has a humid subtropical climate with fairly consistent rainfall year-round.
The hot, low-lying Southern Coastal Plain ecoregion is nearly level and contains concentrations of swamps, marshes, and lakes. The region features a sub-tropical climate, with mild winters, hot, sunny summers, and a defined rainy season from May through October.
The Interior Plateau ecoregion, extending from southern Indiana and Ohio to northern Alabama, is a diverse landscape that generally consists of warm moist summers and cool winters, with rolling to deeply dissected rugged terrain and areas of karst topography.
The Piedmont ecoregion, stretching from south central Maryland to east central Alabama through portions of 6 states (Alabama, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Virginia, & Maryland), has varied topography and a broad climactic range, but generally features hot, humid summers with frequent downpours of short duration and warm, and frequently dry winters.
The Ridge and Valley ecoregion is a diverse region stretching northeast and southwest along almost the entire length of the Appalachian Mountains. The terrain is relatively low-lying and flatter than most of the Appalachians, with long ridges and valleys and rolling hills. It has a humid continental climate in the north, and a humid subtropical climate in the south; because it covers such a long distance, there is a significant difference in the severity of winters between its southern and northern ends.
The Northeastern Coastal Zone comprises terrain consisting of irregular plains, sometimes interspersed with tall hills, and has a humid continental climate with warm summers and rather severe winters and roughly equally distributed precipitation year-round.
Southwestern Appalachians
The Southwestern Appalachians ecoregion features a relatively mild climate year-round, with warm moist summers and cool winters. The ecoregion is characterized by open low mountains and rolling or hilly terrain, with ridges and ravines running southwest. The most common soils found are inceptisols in the mountains, which erode and leach easily, and ultisols elsewhere. Ultisols have an abundance of clay, drain poorly, and have low organic content.
The Silicon Ranch team built the Volkswagen Chattanooga Solar Farm in the Southwestern Appalachian ecoregion in 2012. The site is a former WWII ammunition and chemical fertilizer plant. Until 2021, our team sustained the land without pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, despite the high clay content of the soil. We expanded our eco-friendly practices at the site when, in 2021, we began managing the land to regenerate it rather than simply to sustain it, creating topsoil under our solar panels, enhancing biodiversity, catalyzing carbon sequestration, and improving soil water retention capacity, while maintaining vegetation to prevent shading of the solar modules.
Southeastern Plains Ecoregion
Generally humid and subtropical, the Southeastern Plains ecoregion features wet and partly cloudy weather year-round. The land is characterized by mostly flat to gently rolling karst topography with a mosaic of cropland, pasture, woodland, and forest.
Its soils typically consist of sand, silt, and clay, and are highly erodible and resistant to water retention.
The Regenerative Energy team manages several Silicon Ranch solar farms in the Southeastern Plains ecoregion, including including Selmer I and II, Hattiesburg, Snipesville I and II, Clay, DeSoto I, Terrell, Houston, Odom, Baxley, Cedar Springs, Lancaster, Arlington I, and Bancroft Station. In a region that receives high annual precipitation with generally unstable soils, we are beginning the land restoration process as early as possible by contracting farmers and ranchers to stabilize soils well ahead of construction using both cover crop seed mixes and a perennial species seed mix.
Mississippi Valley Loess Plains Ecoregion
A narrow region stretching north-south along the Mississippi River, the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains ecoregion has a humid and subtropical climate, with precipitation mostly equally distributed year-round. The area features oak-hickory-pine and natural vegetation, with thick loess—fine sediment that accumulates from wind-blown dust. The topography is hilly and irregular, with gently rolling hills and some bluffs along the river. The soils are deep, fine-textured, and easily erodible.
In Spring 2019, we partnered with Cabriejo Ranch to begin retrofitting four solar farms in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains ecoregion to Regenerative Energy, all in Tennessee — the Providence, Ripley, Haywood, and Millington Solar Farms.
Before the transition to Regenerative Energy, these sites faced typical post-construction erosion issues and struggled to establish healthy vegetation. With the introduction of Regenerative Energy management, including animal impact and holistic planned sheep grazing, these sites have seen significant improvements to the land, with both increased vegetative cover and greater diversity within the species composition.
High Plains
The Southwestern Appalachians ecoregion features a relatively mild climate year-round, with warm moist summers and cool winters. The ecoregion is characterized by open low mountains and rolling or hilly terrain, with ridges and ravines running southwest. The most common soils found are inceptisols in the mountains, which erode and leach easily, and ultisols elsewhere. Ultisols have an abundance of clay, drain poorly, and have low organic content.
The Silicon Ranch team built the Volkswagen Chattanooga Solar Farm in the Southwestern Appalachian ecoregion in 2012. The site is a former WWII ammunition and chemical fertilizer plant.; until 2021, our team sustained the land without pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, despite the high clay content of the soil. We began managing the land regeneratively in 2021, building topsoil under our solar panels, enhancing biodiversity, catalyzing carbon sequestration, and improving soil water retention capacity, while maintaining vegetation to prevent shading of the solar modules.
Environment:
Revitalizing Ecosystems
Healthy ecosystems cycle water, minerals, nutrients, and energy continuously through the process of plant and animal birth, growth, decay, and then return to birth.
It all starts with plants: Through grassland restoration, we carefully manage vegetation to support and improve nature’s basic cycles of nutrients, water, and carbon. Strategic land management enhances habitat and biodiversity on and around our project sites, improving and strengthening the ecosystem from the inside out.
Nutrient Cycling and Soil
Holistic land management increases nutrient cycling by boosting the number of soil organisms, such as fungi, earthworms, and bacteria, in soil. Soil organisms decompose plant and animal residue, and transform it into usable nutrients, allowing them to cycle through the ecosystem. This increases the amount of soil organic matter in soils over time, thereby improving water holding capacity, carbon exchange capacity, and bulk density of soils. These are all leading indicators of soil health and ecosystem function. Healthy soils hold more water, take in more carbon, and are more fertile.
Water Cycling
We manage solar farm land to promote forage, long-term vegetation, and plant growth cycles. This creates good vegetative cover and healthier, looser soils, which slow water flow, allowing for improved water infiltration, percolation, and retention. The right vegetation also improves nutrient retention and plant uptake, leading to more and healthier plants with deeper, broader root systems and more frequent growth cycles.
Carbon Cycling
When the land has a larger number of healthy plants, it leads to improved carbon cycling as the plants are pulling more carbon from the atmosphere and turning it into oxygen through photosynthesis. Carbon is stored in the plants, roots, and ultimately in the soil, reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Habitat Creation and Biodiversity
Restoring grasslands increases biodiversity and fosters continual plant growth throughout a site. Plants and animals are more diverse, hardy, and abundant. We build on the biodiversity that occurs naturally through grassland restoration by installing wildlife habitat corridors, partnering with regional organizations to create pollinator habitat and provide territory for endangered species, and creating soft buffer areas between the solar array and surrounding lands to create an “edge effect.” This buffer attracts wildlife, improving biodiversity and nurturing the habitat that supports native pollinators and ground-nesting birds.
Economy:
Strengthening Communities
Combining renewable power generation with regenerative land management practices creates economic benefits that go beyond what a solar power plant alone can deliver.
Investing in rural communities.
Making large capital investments in the communities where we operate often makes us the largest taxpayer in the county. As a result, significant new tax dollars are invested back in the community. We’re grateful to be able to play a major role in supporting local school systems, government services, and community organizations.
Bringing new jobs, training, and opportunities.
Our solar ranches open new doors that help your community thrive and compete without altering what makes your area unique.
“The thought of working with the land to put food on the table and being able to contribute to the resilience of the local economy and food system has given me a new lease on life…I have a team of 15 employees now and I’m bringing on a recent animal science graduate to help with the animal husbandry. I”ll be teaching her how to farm regeneratively.”
Tyler Menne, Appalachian Land Design
Making a long-term commitment.
Unlike other solar companies, we never sell our projects after committing to a community. Our solar energy projects create enduring, long-term value and deliver a meaningful legacy to their communities.
Supporting local businesses.
Silicon Ranch and our partners use local services and supplies whenever possible.
“I use a local farm vet, and I procured my fencing and water troughs, as well as the sheep themselves, locally.”
Tyler Menne, Appalachian Land Design
Investing in America.
Our operations are 100% US-based, supporting US manufacturing and job creation.
Water Cycles
Carbon Cycling and Renewal
High Plains
Habitat Creation and Biodiversity
People:
Big-picture impact
Our solutions impact individuals, through opportunities for employment and growth, as well as the broader community.
Providing Career Paths in Agriculture, Land Management, and Solar Energy
Our solar projects create high-quality jobs and new, long-term revenue streams for farmers, ranchers, land managers, and rural communities across America.
For experienced farmers and ranchers, that means finance-free access to land and opportunities to generate new revenue. It also means a new generation of family farmers carrying traditions into the future.
For people interested in land management or agriculture, we create new opportunities to enter the field as part of our in-house land management and shepherd teams. We recruit our agrivoltaic technicians from local communities and train them in regenerative land management practices, building new jobs for the rural generations to come.
For electric cooperatives, that means financial and hands-on support of their educational outreach programs, teaching students about the energy transition, regenerative agriculture, and solar industry career opportunities.
Our Land Managers and Producers
Appalachian Land Design
The Appalachian Land Design team, led by agriculture and plant scientist Tyler Menne, is bringing a passion for innovation, hard work, and adorable sheep to bear as they regeneratively manage the land at our Volkswagen Chattanooga solar farm, after nine years of maintaining it conventionally. Menne’s growing team also provides conventional and regenerative land management services at an expanding portfolio of Silicon Ranch projects. Menne’s recognition that everything comes full circle in this world has a strong influence on his enthusiasm for and approach to the work.
Cabriejo Ranch
The Cabriejo Ranch family, led by accredited Savory Holistic Management Professional Rueben Hendricks, implements the Savory Institute’s Ecological Outcome Verification methodology on select projects to track biodiversity, soil, and ecosystem outcomes.
Tall Oaks Farm and Land Management LLC
Trey Lawrence, a Jackson, Tennessee native, heads up Tall Oaks Farm and Land Management LLC. His extensive experience with and love of both animals and farm management led him to Silicon Ranch and Regenerative Energy. Lawrence’s company provides conventional and regenerative land management services at select projects in the West Tennessee region, including holistic planned grazing and other non-electrical operations and maintenance tasks. In his words, this work is “what he feels like he’s supposed to be doing.”
White Oak Pastures
The White Oak Pastures crew, led by Land Steward, Herdsman, and Savory Holistic Management Professional Will Harris, is pushing the innovation envelope at Silicon Ranch’s Georgia solar farms while conducting Ecological Verified Outcome evaluations on the land they manage to track and measure outcomes.
Regenerative Energy Team Spotlight
Lemuel Miller
Lem Miller is Agrivoltaic Technician I with Silicon Ranch at Snipesville Ranch. He supports the solar sheep grazing program and development of the in-house Regenerative Energy program at the ranch, located in his home Georgia county, Jeff Davis. Lem came to Silicon Ranch with a wealth of experience managing livestock, from swine to cattle. He began his independent journey in agriculture at the age of seven, when he first raised and exhibited swine in regional livestock competitions. He’s been growing his personal grass-fed beef herd for eight years now and four years ago he launched a hay farm in partnership with his father.
Benjamin “Zeb” Wilson
Zeb Wilson is Agrivoltaic Technician I with Silicon Ranch at Houston Solar Ranch in Houston County, Georgia. He calls Round Oak, Georgia home. Zeb will be supporting the Regenerative Energy team as they begin Regenerative Energy operations at Houston Ranch in March of 2023, assisting with maintaining our 300 head breeder flock of sheep. He will also work to maintain the vegetation under the panels. His passion for small ruminant genetics and education in agricultural business have prepared him well for a career path in Regenerative Energy. Zeb supported the Snipesville team for six months prior to moving to Houston Solar Ranch, where he developed the skills he’s bringing to Houston.
Jackson Yawn
Jackson Yawn, a born and bred lifetime resident of Georgia, is Agrivoltaic Technician I at Snipesville Ranch. He came to Silicon Ranch with no prior agricultural experience but with a passion for learning, health, and the outdoors. “I love every aspect of what Silicon Ranch is doing, the livestock and vegetation aspect is very interesting to me. I love everything about the outdoors, especially wildlife, hunting and fishing have always been something I have enjoyed. I am also very active — I am at the gym every day after work for 2-2 1/2 hours.” Jackson’s primary responsibilities at the Ranch are livestock and vegetation maintenance.
Verified Impact
We closely monitor, quantify, and verify ecological outcomes of our regenerative land management practices. Our third-party verified outcomes include soil health, biodiversity, habitat creation, water infiltration, and ecosystem function. At the option of the customer, we monitor and third-party verify additional environmental, social, and economic impacts of our projects.
Our Validators
Savory Institute
Savory Institute Accredited Holistic Management Professionals provide Ecological Outcome Verification monitoring and verification services at our projects. Ecological Outcome Verification is a protocol that evaluates land health using a combination of leading (aboveground) and lagging (belowground) indicators.
Restore the Earth Foundation
The Restore the Earth team, led by P.J. Marshall, Executive Director of Restore the Earth Foundation, and Ed Pinero, President of EcoMetrics LLC, provides the necessary expertise to track, assess, and capture the full value of environmental, social, and economic impacts of Regenerative Energy projects using the custom-designed Regenerative Energy EcoMetrics methodology.
Regenerative Energy FAQs
The US Department of Energy defines agrivoltaics as any agricultural production among solar arrays. This can include solar combined with crop cultivation, aquaponics, pollinator habitat, or livestock production. Silicon Ranch’s form of agrivoltaics, Regenerative Energy, marries solar with pollinator habitat and livestock production.
Silicon Ranch is at the forefront of efforts to keep solar land in agricultural productions. At 12,500 acres, and the first solar company with its own resident flock of sheep, we have the largest agrivoltaics portfolio in the country.
No. We manage solar land across a range of ecoregions, each with its own climate, biodiversity, and soil type, and each piece of land with its own history. Each project’s ecoregion and the local cultural, environmental, and economic conditions will determine how we can nurture the land. Regardless of the how, we manage the land to promote long-term, deep-rooted vegetation and plant growth cycles (rather than abating vegetation), soil health, and biodiversity and habitat creation.
For instance, we cultivate regionally adapted grazing seed mixes, install wildlife habitat corridors, partner with regional organizations to create pollinator habitat and provide territory for endangered species, and create soft buffer areas between the solar array and surrounding lands to create an “edge effect.” This buffer attracts wildlife, improving biodiversity and nurturing the habitat that supports native pollinators and ground-nesting birds.
We partner with or employ a diverse set of land managers, including ranchers and farmers, mowing partners, and agrivoltaic technicians recruited from rural communities.
No. Each project’s ecoregion and the local cultural, environmental, and economic conditions determine how we can nurture the land. At some sites, mowing is the most appropriate primary or secondary vegetation management tool. Regardless of whether or not we mow, we manage the land to promote long-term, deep-rooted vegetation and plant growth cycles (rather than abating vegetation), soil health, and biodiversity and habitat creation.
We know Regenerative Energy is working not only because we can see its positive impacts but also because we monitor, quantify, and verify ecological outcomes of our regenerative land management practices. The outcomes we verify include soil health, biodiversity, habitat creation, water infiltration, and ecosystem function. We verify through application of the Savory Institute’s Ecological Outcome Verification assessment methodology. This methodology is a tool for continuous improvement that measures the health of the land as a living system. It was developed in collaboration with leading soil scientists, ecologists, agronomists, and an extensive network of regenerative land managers around the world.
Regenerative Energy® projects are the first ever solar energy projects located on land that has been verified as ‘regenerative’ by the Savory Institute.
Yes. We always evaluate ways to restore natural ecosystems and increase our positive impacts on our local communities at every project. We always promote deep-rooted, multi-species perennial vegetation to revitalize soil, restore ecosystems and biodiversity, sequester carbon from the atmosphere back in the soil where it belongs, and improve water quality at our ground-mounted projects.
It depends. Our agricultural and regenerative ranching projects can be farmed by either local farmer partners or in-house agrivoltaic technicians.
At some projects, we partner with regenerative ranchers and local farmers to deliver full-service holistic land management, including planned livestock grazing, that keeps the solar land in agricultural production and restores our project sites to functioning grassland ecosystems.
At other projects, our in-house agrivoltaic technicians manage the land. We recruit our agrivoltaic technicians primarily from rural communities and train them to help manage our lands regeneratively, including to use holistic planned sheep grazing as the primary vegetation management tool and to restore grasslands. By employing and training agrivoltaic technicians, we are helping to build traditional jobs for the rural generation to come.
No. Regenerative Energy uses only native plants for dedicated pollinator habitat. Generally, we cultivate introduced (non-native) grass and legume species or cultivars. Cultivating these plants serves multiple purposes – it reduces soil erosion, improves water quality, improves soil quality and health, provides food and cover for wildlife, and, at our grazed sites, provides livestock grazing forage to improve animal nutrition and health and balances forage supply and demand during low forage production.
Silicon Ranch aims to refrain from the use of any pesticides at this project, as we do at all of our projects, unless required by state law where the 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 our 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 each community’s pride in the unique ecosystems that make them up, and we are committed to designing, building, and operating our solar facility in a way that continues that legacy, in partnership with those communities and surrounding areas.
Maintaining the land regeneratively typically generates more jobs during the operations phase of a project than an average, conventionally maintained solar plant generates. We partner with or employ a diverse set of land managers, including ranchers and farmers, mowing partners, and agrivoltaic technicians recruited from rural communities.
Regenerative Energy is a win-win for jobs and local economies. It provides new economic opportunities to farmers and distributes positive impacts to the broader community, through more work for veterinarians, seed and equipment purchases, and other local procurements.
