Texas turned 68,000 acres of solar farms into sheep pastures to control weeds; the state now accounts for more than half of U.S. solar grazing

A solar farm may look like an industrial landscape from a distance. Up close, the ground tells a different story. Beneath rows of panels in Texas, sheep are quietly doing a job that once belonged almost entirely to mowing crews: keeping grass and other vegetation under control.

The scale is no longer small. The American Solar Grazing Association’s 2024 census found about 129,000 acres of solar sites being grazed across the United States, with more than 113,000 sheep working at more than 500 sites. Texas accounted for more than 68,000 acres, making the state the center of the American solar-grazing business.