About Agrisolar
Dubbo Solar Farm in NSW shows how well agriculture and solar can combine, bringing some unexpected benefits. Neoen are proud to be leading the way in ‘agrisolar’.
A short video about his experience can be found here Dubbo Agriculture and Solar Video
What is Agrisolar?
Agrisolar is the co-existence of agriculture and solar power generation on the same land.
All of Neoen’s solar farms including the Numurkah Solar Farm have partnerships with local landowners to graze sheep on the solar farms.
2017 Parkes Trial
Our first sheep grazing trial was conducted at Parkes Solar Farm in 2017 during a high rainfall and high produce year.
It was a joint exercise between Neoen, local landowners and solar construction company Bouygues.
The 3 week trial involved 400 sheep within a 15 hectares zone to help reduce dry grass under the solar panels in order to manage grass fire hazard.
It successfully showed that this combined land use had positive outcomes for farmers and solar operators.
2019 Expert Review
By 2019 sheep grazing had begun on all five of our operating
solar farms in NSW and Victoria. These activities were
assessed by an independent grazier expert to document
existing practices and make recommendations on how to
integrate grazing into each stage of the solar farm’s lifecycle.
concentrated feed growth.
Phil Graham
Livestock Specialist
2019 Dubbo Agrisolar
Tom Warren, host landowner at Dubbo Solar Hub has been
grazing sheep on the land under the panels since 2018 and has
learnt from this experience about how to make this work well.
A short video about his experience can be viewed at the top of this page or on YouTube by searching ‘Dubbo Agrisolar’
2020 CEC Agrisolar Report
We are leading a collaboration with the Clean Energy Council to
bring together research, case studies and lessons from across
the industry into a ground-breaking Agrisolar Report.
This will help to guide and inform farmers, solar farm operators and
government on how best to integrate agriculture and solar.
We are also continuing to explore other opportunities for
combined land use including biodiversity and conservation,
Tom Warren, Land Owner
Dubbo Solar Hub in NSW