Regenerative Energy®:

A nature-based solution for the solar industry

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.

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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.

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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.

 

This photo shows the change in soil health at White Oak Pastures, where the soil organic matter increased from 1% (right hand side) to 5% (left hand side) on its regeneratively managed land. Over time, we can expect similar results on solar land that is regeneratively managed.

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.

Carbon Cycling and Renewal

 

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High Plains

Habitat Creation and Biodiversity

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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

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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.

Ryan Edwards

Director, Project Finance at Silicon Ranch

“You see the results at the end of the day, that a veteran that came to a company is able to really grow within that role and accrue more responsibility offload from their manager, help train other folks on their team – that pure leadership piece that is extremely valuable for military folks because they had to do it the whole time with their fellow officers or their fellow enlisted.

And that’s where you really get that synergy just by entrusting veterans to really come onto a team and embrace the culture, but also offer some unique perspective. They may not have the years of experience, but the solar industry is constantly evolving, right? So, years of experience could potentially lead you down a rabbit hole in a different direction from where the actual path of solar is going to be in the next five years. You bring in some unique perspectives, somebody that’s not afraid to speak up, but is tactful about it, then you really can have some good discussion on direction down the road…

I think that adaptability kind of lends itself to adversity. Veterans tend to see challenges as something they need to overcome, not as something that shuns them away from getting to the desired solution. I’m not saying that this is unique to the military, but I would say that the majority of folks in the military will definitely look at a challenge and say, this is something that we as a team shall overcome.”

Byron W. Smith

Managing Director, Mountain Group Partners

Byron is a Managing Director of Mountain Group Partners, an investment firm dedicated to investing in and actively guiding transformational businesses in the Life Sciences and Technology sectors. Founded in 2002, Mountain Group Partners principals have invested in more than 30 seed and early stage companies in these sectors. Within technology, Mountain Group Partners’ investments focus on Business Services and Consumer & Healthcare, targeting those ideas with quantifiable development risk and a rapid path to market.

Byron has also taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management and been an active angel and venture capital investor.

Jeff Mouland

Managing Director and Head of Global Infrastructure Investments

Jeff leads the TDAM Infrastructure Team and is responsible for investment strategy, asset sourcing and execution, and oversight of acquired assets. He was previously part of the Infrastructure Investments Team at Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments, with multi-sector responsibility for global deal sourcing and execution and developing emerging markets investment strategy for equity investing and project financing within the infrastructure and energy sector. Jeff received his B.Eng in Civil Engineering from Memorial University and an MBA in Finance from McGill University.

Matt Kisber

Chairman of the Board

Matt is a co-founder of Silicon Ranch and served as CEO of the company until becoming Chairman in July 2019. As Chairman, Matt works closely with the company’s executive leadership to set and implement its ambitious growth strategy. Under his leadership, Silicon Ranch has from an idea to become one of the top solar companies in America, with a reputation as a pioneering, innovative, and principled industry leader. Matt brings a unique background to Silicon Ranch having been a business owner and having served eight years as Tennessee Commissioner of Economic Development. He has also worked with industry leaders from across the U.S. and around the globe to bring investments and jobs to Tennessee. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Matt served 10 terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Pradeep Killamsetty

Managing Director, Power & Infrastructure Investment Group at John Hancock Financial Services

Mr. Killamsetty is a Managing Director in Manulife’s infrastructure investment group. He joined John Hancock / Manulife in 2012 and is responsible for origination, execution and asset management of investments in various infrastructure sectors. Over the last ten years with John Hancock, Pradeep has led investments in infrastructure equity and public/ private/ project finance debt of over $5 billion. Pradeep has worked in the infrastructure sector since 2006, as an investor, developer, and a financial advisor. After graduating from business school in 2006, he joined Credit Suisse’s power & utilities investment banking group. At Credit Suisse, he was involved in M&A advisory and financing assignments for various power sector clients. Prior to joining John Hancock, he was at Competitive Power Ventures where he helped develop and finance about 1,000MW of renewable energy and gas fired power projects. Pradeep holds an MBA from University of North Carolina and an M.S in Mechanical Engineering from University of Alabama.

Philip Bredesen

Founding Chairman

Philip Bredesen served as Tennessee’s Governor from 2003 until 2011 and Mayor of Nashville from 1991 until 1999. He is known for his bipartisan approach to problem-solving and his careful fiscal management. Among those who have served in senior elected positions, Governor Bredesen has a unique depth of healthcare experience in both the private and public sectors.

Prior to entering public service, Bredesen worked in the healthcare industry. Between research trips to the public library, he drafted a business plan at his kitchen table that led to the creation of HealthAmerica Corp. in 1980, a Nashville-based healthcare management company. The company eventually grew to more than 6,000 employees and was traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was sold in 1986. Additionally, Gov. Bredesen is considered a serial entrepreneur, having helped start and mentor several successful companies, many of which subsequently became publicly traded on various stock exchanges.

Laura Zapata

Clearloop CEO & Founder

Laura Zapata is the CEO and co-founder of Clearloop, a Nashville-based startup that helps companies of all sizes—from established companies like Intuit to innovative startups like Rivian—cut their carbon footprint and expand access to clean energy in the United States. Zapata made a career in crisis communications and reputation management having worked in Congress, political campaigns, and Uber. She’s now helping companies reach their net-zero and other climate goals with tangible climate action that ensures that the environmental, health, and economic benefits of new solar projects reach American communities getting left behind. Zapata is a strong believer that solar can do more if we’re intentional about the communities where we invest and is eager to tap into the economic power of more companies as they seek to tackle their carbon footprint and strive for an equitable clean energy transition. Zapata immigrated from Colombia, was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and is a graduate of Dartmouth College.

Steve Wozniak

Vice President, Engineering

Jen Randolph

Vice President, Human Resources

Jen is responsible for leading our HR function. People are our biggest asset at Silicon Ranch and the people strategies she is creating is helping grow and sustain our team. Jen joined Silicon Ranch with 22 years of HR experience in various industries, most recently in manufacturing with Bridgestone.

Amanda Nichols

Senior Legal Counsel

Amanda counsels Silicon Ranch’s business development, finance, and executive teams, where she supports the negotiation and management of significant transactions and execution of Silicon Ranch’s strategic plans. Prior to joining Silicon Ranch, Amanda practiced in a large regional law firm advising clients in M&A, corporate finance, and project finance transactions across an array of industries.

Morgan Day

Vice President, Projects

As Vice President of Projects, Morgan is responsible to oversee and execute the day-to-day operations of the LPC (Local Power Companies) and Clearloop portfolio of projects. Responsibilities include planning for projects, estimating, deploying and managing resources including labor, equipment, and subcontractors, and confirming proper close out of projects including ensuring the projects are achieving maximum resource efficiency and effectiveness. Morgan has more than 27 years’ experience with a proven track record of safe, high-quality project execution on time and under budget. His experience spans the power industry from gas turbines to coal fired boiler units and has been primarily focused in renewable energy and solar projects since 2017.

Kati Cook, CPA

Vice President, Controller

Matt Brown

Vice President, Business Development

Matt serves as Vice President, Business Development for Silicon Ranch and has been with the company for nearly 9 years. Prior to joining Silicon Ranch, Matt worked in various management capacities at TVA both in renewable energy program management and economic development. Matt and his team are responsible for developing community and utility solutions for distributed and utility scale solar projects across multiple geographies in the Southeast, developing win-win-win solutions for all partners.

Luke Wilkinson

Senior Vice President, Project Development

Luke manages the Project Development team at Silicon Ranch. His team is responsible for identifying greenfield assets, negotiating land agreements, community and economic development, permitting, and de-risking assets prior to handing off the projects to the engineering and construction teams. Luke ensures his team keeps projects on schedule and budget through the development lifecycle.

Tyler Whitmore

Senior Vice President, Process Improvement

Tyler works with the Executive Team and other members of the organization to develop and implement processes to support and streamline several of the Company’s initiatives, as well as addresses ad-hoc requests for the Executive Team during rotational assignments. Prior to joining Silicon Ranch, Tyler worked at Mountain Group Partners, a venture capital firm where he served as Vice President and either in board or visitor roles for multiple portfolio companies, and successfully executed on over 150 financings and transactions across more than 45 different companies. Before starting at Mountain Group Partners, Tyler worked as an Investment Banker at Sagent Advisors (now DC Advisory) in the Automotive and Industrial vertical groups. Tyler graduated Cum Laude from Vanderbilt University in 2010 with a BS in Engineering Science and a minor in Financial Economics.

Nick de Vries

Senior Vice President, Technology and Asset Management

Nick is responsible for managing all aspects of the company’s operating portfolio, as well as technology decisions for new projects. Nick has more than 20 years of diverse renewable energy, semiconductor, and military experience that inform his current work, including executive positions at SolarCity, Phoenix Solar, and Applied Materials.

Nick’s renewable energy industry expertise spans module and cell manufacturing, photovoltaic project design and operation, auxiliary grid services, as well as the prediction and demonstration of the energy harvest of novel PV technologies. He has also worked on manufacturing amorphous silicon modules, and on process machine control of cell splitting and cascading cell bonding processes with heterojunction crystalline cells. Silicon Ranch owns—and Nick now operates—projects that he himself designed nearly a decade ago, including the first transmission interconnected PV plant in the Southeast. Nick holds patents in both PV module manufacturing and design.

While at Applied Materials, he advanced the use of statistical process control to enhance the reliability of production equipment. He has led the commissioning of process equipment at Intel semiconductor factories in both the U.S. and Europe, and entire solar cell factories in India, Germany, Spain, and China.

Nick served his country on active duty as an Infantry Captain in the United States Army, with tours in Kuwait and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University.

Nick is a regular speaker at industry events and has authored several articles. His current passions are the use of predictive analytics to improve performance of solar power plants and the integration of solar farms with regenerative agriculture practices—mostly with sheep and cattle. Hear him talk about it about it on NPR.

Paul Russell

Senior Vice President, Project Delivery

Paul Russell oversees the procurement department at Silicon Ranch Corporation, a fully integrated provider of customized renewable energy, carbon and battery storage solutions. During his nearly six years at Silicon Ranch, Paul has worn many hats and been instrumental in Silicon Ranch’s growth during this period. Prior to joining Silicon Ranch, Paul worked as in-house counsel for a Fortune 500 energy company and an international law firm in Houston, Texas. Before attending law school, Paul taught high school special education in the Mississippi Delta through Teach for America.

John Marcarelli

Senior Vice President, Business Development

John leads the business development and origination efforts for Silicon Ranch and the expansion of utility-scale power plants, storage, and value-added energy services into new geographies. The origination team works electric cooperatives, investor-owned utilities, and commercial clients to achieve their economic and sustainability goals through cost-effective energy solutions. John has worked in the renewable energy industry for over two decades, covering all aspects of the value chain, from small-scale, off-grid power systems to heading up US origination for a global distribution company. John joined Silicon Ranch in 2015 following several years with the global engineering procurement and construction (EPC) firm that built Silicon Ranch’s early projects.

Gaurab Hazarika

Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning and Initiatives

Todd Aquino

Senior Vice President, Energy Delivery

As Senior Vice President of Energy Delivery, Todd’s primary responsibility is to oversees silicon Ranches Utility Planning, Interconnection, Substation Engineering and Development Engineering teams. Todd has provided quality leadership and electrical designs for electric utility, industrial and other clients for over 31 years. His leadership role encompasses directing groups of multi-disciplined engineers and designers in support of engineering and construction projects. His design work includes electrical renewable integration, energy storage, substation physical layout, equipment selection, bus design, grounding design, panel wiring, and control house design. He has field experience installing and maintaining large scale battery, inverters, and flywheel systems for industrial clients.

Andrew Katz

Executive Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development

Andrew works directly with the Executive Team to lead the development and implementation of the Company’s corporate strategic plan thereby enhancing the analysis of and response to market conditions, and ensuring proactive monitoring and identification of sources of capital to meet outstanding and planned commitments. Prior to joining Silicon Ranch, Andrew served as a VP in Morgan Stanley’s Global Power & Utilities practice within the Investment Banking Division where he played a lead role in Silicon Ranch’s 2020 equity raise. Andrew earned a BA in Economics from Rollins College in 2009 and an MBA from The Yale School of Management in 2016.

Richard Johnson

General Counsel

Richard is responsible for managing all legal functions for Silicon Ranch Corporation and its solar energy projects, including corporate governance matters, regulatory matters, financing and development transactions, construction and procurement, acquisitions, and project management affairs. Before joining Silicon Ranch, Richard was an attorney in the corporate transactional group at Venable LLP in Washington, DC, where he represented clients in connection with M&A and financing transactions as well as general corporate governance matters.

Boris Schubert

Chief Development Officer

Boris Schubert has been driving the energy transition for more than 20 years with a focus on global renewable power development. As Silicon Ranch’s Chief Development Officer and Chairman of Clearloop, Boris is charged with leading the future growth of Silicon Ranch by expanding its project inventory into new markets and use cases across the U.S. His role helps bridge together the unique offerings of Silicon Ranch’s carbon solutions provider Clearloop and its agrivolatics solution Regenerative Energy to meet growing customer climate ambitions and deliver tangible environmental, social, and economic impact for customers and local communities. Prior to joining Silicon Ranch, Boris served as General Manager of Renewable Power Development at Shell, globally leading a push to provide cleaner energy solutions.

Michael Payne, CPA

Chief Financial Officer

Michael is responsible for managing all aspects of Silicon Ranch Corporation’s finance and accounting functions. Michael oversees the company’s internal and external financial reporting, regulatory and reporting compliance, and accounting operations. Michael brings over 20 years of financial reporting and accounting experience in a wide variety of industries for both public and private companies. Prior to joining Silicon Ranch, Michael worked on the corporate finance team of Asurion and previously worked for Ernst & Young in Nashville and Brussels, Belgium.

Matt Beasley

Chief Commercial Officer

As Chief Commercial Officer, Matt manages the interface between Silicon Ranch and external stakeholders, including customers, local communities, and the broader industry, with additional focus on business development and corporate strategy. Matt is also a member of the Company’s Board of Directors. Since Matt joined the team in early 2015, Silicon Ranch has grown from an early-stage startup to become one of the largest and fastest-growing independent power producers in the country.

Matt brings more than twenty years of global communications expertise, business development leadership, and entrepreneurial experience to the company’s executive leadership team. Prior to joining Silicon Ranch in 2015, Matt held assignments in New York, Tokyo, and London to develop and implement marketing strategies for large multinational clients. He later led business development efforts across a range of strategic initiatives for one of the country’s premier infrastructure firms. From late 2015 to early 2019, Matt served as President of the Tennessee state chapter of the Solar Energy Industries Association (TenneSEIA).

Matt graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned his MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.

Erin Hanratty

Erin Hanratty

Project Manager II at Silicon Ranch

“Ryan, you mentioned the entrusting to other people – it was kind of wired within all of us while we were in the military. You had to learn how to trust the people you’re with, because you were working so closely on teams and with teams. At the end of the day, teamwork was the hallmark of success. So that’s just instilled in us to – not to automatically just trust everyone, but to learn how to cultivate that trust. Because at the end of the day, that’s what’s going to make an organization successful and what you really need for any sort of team to be successful. Especially, like we said, in this high-pace, changing environment…

I think it’s extremely important to be pulling in vets, not just at Silicon Ranch, but to the whole energy industry, because the soft skills and the adaptability are really key to the person doing well in that kind of volatile, robust industry. Those skill sets will help grow the industry through these volatile and robust times.

It’s been really refreshing also to see at Silicon Ranch that we’re not just pulling in from one branch. There hasn’t been one cliche or cookie-cutter pathway of the same community from the military where we’re recruiting from. It’s all across the board. We have several Navy, we have a bunch of Army, we have some Air Force. So that’s also a key thing to remember in the recruitment of vets – it’s such a wide spectrum of experiences that can be capitalized on, and can contribute from different branches and communities in the military. So that’s been really cool to see here at Silicon Ranch as well.”

Reagan Farr

President & Chief Executive Officer

As Co-Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Ranch, Reagan is responsible for ongoing operations and execution of the company’s strategic growth plan. Under his leadership, Silicon Ranch has grown from an idea to become one of the largest independent power producers in the United States, while successfully commissioning every project the company has contracted since it began operations in 2011. From developing the initial ambitious plan for Silicon Ranch to growing a company that has earned a global reputation as one of the premier solar energy providers in the industry, Reagan has been instrumental to the company’s growth. Reagan also serves on Silicon Ranch’s Board of Directors.

Reagan grew up in Baton Rouge, LA. He graduated from Louisiana State University in 1993 and from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 1998 with a law degree. He worked for both KPMG and Ernst & Young in the area of state and local taxes from 1998 until 2003, when he joined the Bredesen administration as Deputy Commissioner of Revenue. He became Commissioner of Revenue in 2006, and when Bredesen left office in 2011 joined with him and Matt Kisber in forming Silicon Ranch.