Wall Street investors are deploying flocks of sheep to trim the grass covering their solar panel installations as they seek to burnish their green credentials and win local support for sometimes divisive new renewable energy projects.
Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives and cash injections from the likes of subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway and quantitative hedge fund DE Shaw last year helped the US solar energy industry grow at its fastest ever pace, with enough capacity brought online to power roughly 6mn American homes.
Ranchers from New York state to California have been some of the projects’ first beneficiaries. The number of solar power sites using sheep to graze the grass and pervasive Russian thistle that grow around panels has risen tenfold over the past two years, according to not-for-profit trade body the American Solar Grazing Association.