Editor’s note: This story was updated on 8/9/24
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — The co-owners of New Slate Land Management were delighted when they signed a contract to manage vegetation at a proposed utility-scale solar farm in Knox County, Ohio.
Instead of mowers, they’d use sheep to keep the grass and weeds down under the solar panels at Frasier Solar, a 120-megawatt, 840-acre project being developed by Open Road Renewables in Clinton and Miller townships.
The contract was announced in March with fanfare by a public relations firm representing the developer. This dual-use of the land — creating renewable energy for the grid while maintaining the land’s agricultural use — seemed like a win in an industry that sometimes stirs controversy in the rural communities where it’s proposed.
For their part, with the agreement signed, New Slate co-owners Brad and Katie Carothers, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, could begin increasing their small sheep flock to be ready to graze in 2028, when the Frasier Solar project is scheduled for completion.
“This is an opportunity for us to farm,” Katie said. “Brad and I own 6 and ½ acres, but we can farm thousands by providing this vegetation management service. That’s what we’re getting paid to do. To keep the grass down and keep the solar working efficiently.”
But, two groups formed to try to stop the Frasier Solar Project: Knox Smart Development and Preserve Knox County Ohio. At the first local public hearing for the project in April, more than 140 people registered to give testimony before the Ohio Power Siting Board. Not all of them were in support of the project or the local entrepreneurial sheep farmers.
Residents opposed to the project wore matching yellow T-shirts featuring the message, “No Industrial Solar.” They heckled the Carothers, making “baaing” animal sounds when the couple offered testimony to the board.
The public comment went on so long that first night that the board had to schedule two additional hearings to accommodate all the speakers, something that’s never happened before.
The situation in Knox County underscores the complex and, at times uneasy, relationship between farmers, the land and the communities around them.
Who gets a say in how farmland can be used? For farmers with an asset of acreage but no family ready to take over, solar may be a viable economic option.
“Central Ohio is primed for development,” said Camren Maierle, Carothers’s partner in New Slate. “You can land bank your acreage for 30 years, get paid, have a sustainable grassland ecosystem — ideally have sheep on it — and in 30 years the next generation may come along and use the acreage for agriculture.”
City people try farming
The Carothers grew up in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio and attended Miami University of Ohio. When they decided to try a rural lifestyle, they had several ideas about crops and farming.
“I started raising cut flowers, mostly for weddings,” Katie Carothers said. A botany major, she shipped flowers as far as New York and Chicago and supplied local wedding venues.
They had horses but needed to control vegetation near a septic leach field. Cows and horses were too heavy for the area.
“There’s a lovely grove of locust trees that was hard to mow, so we got three sheep,” Katie Carothers said. “We immediately got hooked.”
They learned more about sheep, got involved with the National Sheep Improvement Program, which focuses on improving genetics based on various data points, and began raising Katahdin breeding stock. They had enough space on their small farm for about 80 ewes.
New connections
As they learned more and got to know other sheep farmers, they formed a partnership with a farmer in the Newark area. Camren Maierle raised his first lamb as a 4-H project when he was 10 years old.
“My grandmother called it an ‘I owe ewe,’” he said. His interest in farming grew throughout his childhood and he attended college with the idea of “farming on the side.”
“I know many individuals who do that,” Maierle said. While pursuing a degree at Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster, Ohio, he discovered opportunities in animal research, and pursued an advanced degree with West Virginia University in the Parasite Immunology Lab. After completing his doctorate, he worked for Penn State University Extension, specializing in sheep.
He now serves as sustainability director for the American Lamb Board. According to Maierle, about 70% of lamb purchased by consumers in the US is imported from New Zealand, Australia and other international locations. There is vast room for growth in the domestic lamb market.
Maierle and his wife Megan swapped rams with the Carothers and discovered they had much in common. While traveling together from Ohio to a conference in North Carolina, Maierle and Brad Carothers discussed forming a partnership to provide grazing sheep for vegetation management.
They created New Slate Land Management and currently manage a vegetation-control contract with Oberlin College, tailoring their sheep to the property when needed. They discussed ways to build their flock.
“Land is so expensive,” Brad Carothers said.
Then, the Carothers received a postcard from an opposition group in Mt. Vernon warning about a proposed solar farm. Katie saw the solar farm as an opportunity for them.
Providing vegetation management around the array of solar panels, known in the industry as solar grazing, seemed like a perfect chance for them to expand grazing to raise more sheep.
Solar grazing
Utility-scale solar farms use vegetation to protect soil from erosion, and the grass must be cut to prevent it from growing over the solar panels.
According to the American Solar Grazing Association, a group formed several years ago to promote the practice, sheep are the best grazing animals for maintaining vegetation. Sheep are small enough to go under and around panels, but not mischievous like goats, so they don’t chew on wires or jump on panels. They’re also ideal for clearing the areas around the posts that hold up the solar panels.
Solar grazing is also a way to keep farmland in agricultural use while producing renewable energy, which provides income for the farmers who own the property. This dual purpose use of the land is beneficial for farms and good for the environment.
After getting the postcard and discussing ideas, New Slate Land Management connected with Open Road Renewables about the Frasier Solar project.
Maierle said the developer was immediately interested in solar grazing. While Open Road Renewables knows energy and development, they had little experience with agriculture. Maierle was delighted when they asked how to make the Frasier Solar project “a grazing-friendly site.”
“It’s so encouraging to work with a company with a commitment to doing the right thing,” Maierle said. He sees the project as a “symbiotic relationship with two industries that can benefit multiple markets.”
Young farmers benefit from accessing land they can use for their livestock; consumers will benefit with a locally-grown protein source and generation of electricity.
Demand for electricity, particularly that which comes from renewable sources, is only increasing in central Ohio.
Development has exploded in the area, with construction underway for companies such as Intel, Amazon and Microsoft, all of which also have pledged to reduce carbon emissions and increase use of renewable energy.
According to Scott Blake, spokesman for local electricity utility American Electric Power, current peak demand for electricity in central Ohio is about 4,500 megawatts.
“We currently have requests for an additional 30,000 megawatts by 2030,” Blake said.
Solar and wind will be part of the future, Blake said but it will take all forms of energy to meet the coming demand, including natural gas, coal and even nuclear.
Opposition groups
None of this has assuaged the concerns of some local residents in Knox County who dread living near the solar panels after living for decades beside their neighbors’ farm fields.
Photos on Knox Smart Development’s website show flooded solar fields in Ohio, along with pictures of damaged solar panels from Texas. The group emphasizes the need to protect farmland from this potential damage. Preserve Knox County Ohio points to potential toxic chemicals in the panels themselves, along with declining property values seen around other solar fields.
Residents who spoke at the hearing against the Frasier Solar project expressed similar concerns, including worries about potential flooding risks. In addition, those who live near the area were concerned about the noise of construction and noise from the solar inverters that convert the sunlight to electricity. Solar inverters do make noise: about 65 decibels, which is about the level of an air conditioner or refrigerator. A gas-powered car traveling down the road at 60 miles per hour is about 73 decibels.
Others opposed to the project worried about potential harm to wildlife. Another concern was the loss of “prime farmland.”
None of the landowners who had leased land for Frasier Solar spoke during public hearings for the project, but they did submit written testimony in support of the project to the Ohio Power Siting Board.
Others spoke out in support of their rights as property owners. The lease for this project is 40 years, giving owners steady income for generations.
“People who say, ‘We’re losing farmland’ are missing the point that farmers are choosing what to do with their land,” Katie Carothers said.
One resident mentioned the possibility of the land being sold to developers for new houses instead of being leased for the solar project.
Other supporters spoke about the positive environmental impact of expanding the use of renewable energy like reduced air pollution compared with burning fossil fuels.
“I talk to a lot of people who are against these projects. They seem to think these projects aren’t regulated, but that’s not true,” Katie said. “We have all these conditions that we have to comply with, and we keep learning how to do this better.”
In Ohio, the OPSB established state laws that require soil testing along with other requirements to assure compliance with the most recent safety research.
What’s next?
The Frasier Solar project is pending, still working its way through the OPSB’s approval process. The next step is an Aug. 19 evidentiary hearing, held at the board’s office in Columbus.
The public is welcome to attend, but only interveners will give testimony. They will also be required to respond to cross-examination by lawyers representing Frasier Solar, Knox Smart Development and Preserve Knox County Ohio.
While that goes on, New Slate Land Management is leasing farmland in Kentucky to build their flock. The Carothers had to move south to get access to enough farmland to expand their operation.
“We hope the Frasier project goes through,” said Katie. “It would help the sheep industry to have a developer who is so keen to use agrivoltaics and it’s good opportunity for us too.”
This has problems.
1. They SOLD their home in the project area and moved to Kentucky.
2. Sheep need shelter, constant supervision to keep from dying, and water that will draw heavily on the neighbor’s water table.
3. The wool market is terrible right now to the point it can’t be sold for the cost of transportation.
4. The lamb meat market is not very large here, either. People don’t really cook with lamb.
5. All the farming journals I have read indicate the financials do not look right to make this more than a greenwashing marketing ploy.
Sheep do NOT need a barn, nor constant supervision, nor massive quantities of water. I raise a flock of 40 sheep (swells to over 100 when lambs are born) and my water usage is quite comparable to that of my neighbors who do not own livestock. The only time I use the barn is when lambs are being born and in the first 30 days of their lives. The rest of the time, they are outside and use trees for shade and shelter. Solar panels provide the same shade and shelter. The sheep that are sent to graze solar fields aren’t pregnant ewes. Your issue with the wool market doesn’t apply to many of the flocks used for solar grazing because they aren’t wool sheep. Just because you and your friends don’t cook with lamb doesn’t mean it’s a small market. As more and more immigrants from the Middle East arrive, lamb demands continue to increase. I get calls every month from the local Muslim community looking for lambs. Finally, the financial issues you mention have little to do with the sheep grazing there. Grazing the land increases the productivity of the space, decreases labor costs associated with managing the growing flora, and helps to improve soil health. How is it a bad thing?
Dear Ms. Dean:
Thank you for your comments. I always appreciate knowing people are reading what I write. The co-owners of New Slate Land Management are trying to make a living in a complex industry. They take good care of their animals, and Katahdin sheep aren’t raised for wool. I’m sure you saw Camren Maierle’s comment that most of the lamb consumed in the US is imported. Many people eat lamb and there’s an opportunity for that market to grow. You seem concerned for them and the success of their business; and we can certainly hope it all works out for them. Thanks again for your comments. -Melissa Weber (writer)