Hartford-based Verogy looking to pair solar and sheep at farms across the state
The solar energy company Verogy Inc. is looking to create solar farms in various parts of Connecticut, and for at least some of the projects envisions contracting with a farmer to manage sheep grazing on the grass beneath the massive panels.
Solar panels are starting to cover hilltop land that once was Minor’s Farm in Bristol, and Hartford-based Verogy expects to add a small flock of sheep there. If regulators approve, Verogy plans a similar mix of solar power and sheep grazing for farmland and ex-farmland in Southington and East Windsor, with more possible elsewhere, too.
Solar businesses in Europe, Australia, North Carolina and New York state use sheep as a regular part of their operations, and Verogy wants to bring the practice to several Connecticut towns.
Chief Executive Officer William Herchel sees it partly as a way to show that solar arrays are not an attack on agriculture or farming. The state agriculture department has shown concern in the past year that prime farmland may be threatened by 20- or 30-year leases for solar energy production.
“There’s a general misconception that the presence of solar will destroy agricultural soils. But empirical data gathered to date doesn’t show it’s a detriment,” Herchel said.
Like others in the solar energy field, Verogy constructs large arrays of panels on the roofs of commercial and large community buildings, particularly factories and schools. But recently it has been looking toward farmland for expansion, and currently has a half-dozen projects in the works.
The Connecticut Siting Council has approved its plan for a solar farm in Watertown, and Verogy has already started construction on one in Torrington. It seeks the Siting Council’s OK for others planned in East Windsor, Burlington’s Whigville section and Southington.
The Southington project has drawn pushback from some residents as well as the state Council on Environmental Quality, which argued that it shouldn’t be allowed to harm Karabin Farms.
Karabin leases the acreage where solar panels would go, but the landowner — the Catholic Cemeteries Association of Hartford — is ready to go forward with a Verogy deal instead.
Verogy said it ultimately preserves land for future farming by keeping it out of the hands of developers now. In some cases Verogy is storing rich farm soil on its properties, and said it could be put back after the solar leases end and the arrays are dismantled.
“Change is always hard. A lot of landowners and farmers looking to put in solar don’t want to sell their property to somebody else who would develop it for residential or commercial use. That would take agriculture out of the mix forever,” Herchel said. “Solar preserves it for future generations.”
In Bristol, Verogy expects to begin producing energy in June, with 36 sheep arriving in the summer.
Source: courant
