Overview
- A flock of 100 sheep began grazing beneath more than 31,000 solar panels on Wednesday at Volkswagen Poznań’s 18.3 MW photovoltaic installation to replace mechanical mowing.
- The solar array, built and managed by Quanta Energy, supplies about one-quarter of the plant’s annual electricity and can meet full factory demand on sunny days.
- Poznań University of Life Sciences has started systematic monitoring of animal welfare, biodiversity, soil, vegetation and microclimate to measure the effects of livestock-solar co‑use.
- Project partners say using sheep should lower maintenance emissions and costs and create habitat for insects and small wildlife while giving the animals shaded grazing areas.
- The pilot will run through the fall under breeder supervision, and its results will guide whether this agrivoltaics model can be scaled for large industrial renewable sites.