Strathmore Solar Farm partners with local ranch
By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter
Strathmore’s new 41-megawatt solar facility is now operational and is partnering with a local ranch to sustainably maintain the 320 acres of land occupied by the solar farm.
Capital Power, which operates the solar farm, will be working with Whispering Cedars Ranch to host between 400 and 600 sheep to graze on site. The idea behind the partnership is to keep the grass height low and reduce the risk of fires.
Brad Cochrane, manager of Solar Canada with Capital Power, said Strathmore has been a very welcoming community and is excited that the facility will be working with local livestock.
“Besides the feel-good portion of being able to partner with a local family business, from our assessment it’s the best way to manage the vegetation on site that makes sense sustainably and financially for us,” said Cochrane.
Strathmore’s solar farm went into commercial operation earlier this month, though Cochrane explained the facility has been online and producing electricity since February.
“We’ve been making electricity for about a month now … and actually we were pleasantly surprised with the performance in February when we had good sunshine and snow on the ground. It has really worked out well here so far,” said Cochrane.
Capital Power has rented a local office in Strathmore to warehouse their spare parts and work out of locally.
Jana Greer, owner of Whispering Cedars Ranch, said she has had her eye on partnering with Capital Power on the site for a while.
“Once Capital Power got the go ahead with (the solar farm), we immediately were in contact with them and put the bug in their ear and said, ‘hey, what do you think about sheep grazing the site?’” said Greer. “They weren’t really sure at first, because it’s new for them, but it’s basically been a work in progress over the last little while to try and get the ball rolling on this.”
According to Greer, the concept of having livestock grazing on solar sites is not new, as the practice exists in Eastern Canada and in the United States.
Having sheep on site maintaining the grass will not only keep the foliage under control and reduce the risk of fires but will ideally eliminate the need for mechanical mowing and chemical spraying.
“We’re going to rotate the sheep throughout the site in a fashion that they’ll consume a lot of the plants that are growing and trample whatever they don’t eat, and basically keep the grass at an appropriate height just to reduce the risk of fires,” explained Greer. “It’s going to be a lot of manipulating the sheep through areas that require a little bit more mowing than others and then in subsequent years it’ll be based on doing an assessment of what the site shows us in terms of grass growth.”
The sheep on site will still be owned by and be the responsibility of Whispering Cedars Ranch. Though there is not an exact timeline for when they will be present at the solar farm, the goal is to have them placed from May until October.