Vermont farmer urges state incentives to pair sheep grazing with solar farms

Lewis Fox, a sheep farmer from Leicester and owner of Agravoltaic Solutions, told a legislative committee that pairing livestock grazing with ground‑mounted solar arrays can support farm viability and should be encouraged through state policy. "Solar grazing is not theoretical or a pilot program. It's not a prediction of what could be done. It is being done now at scale and it is growing rapidly," Fox said.

Fox said his business grazes roughly 700 sheep across about 650 acres of ground‑mounted solar sites in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York, and supports two full‑time local employees and a UVM summer intern. He described solar sites as "highly productive environments" for sheep because secure perimeter fences reduce predator losses and shade from panels lowers heat stress, which in his experience reduces animals' water needs.