Caring for Land, Livestock, and Energy

During her first-ever visit to Washington, DC, Colorado-based rancher Dr. Anna Clare Monlezun stops by SEIA’s Good Energy Studio to discuss her work in pioneering the co-location of cattle grazing with solar arrays.

A Louisiana native and lifelong horse lover, Monlezun moved to Colorado early in her adulthood but didn’t take up ranching until years later. She went on to study Animal Sciences, where she further discovered her love for research. Today, she works to maintain the health of land used for solar projects, where she leads research efforts with solar project developer Silicon Ranch.

Monlezun points out that humans have been harnessing the sun’s energy since the beginning of time, with modern-day photovoltaic projects just being a new way to do so. Both agriculture and solar energy require the sun and utilize the land to capture solar energy for human needs. Monlezun sees herself as a translator between the agriculture and energy industries to help both sides see the common ground they share and the ability to use land for both activities.

The idea of agrivoltaics—co-locating agriculture and energy on the same parcel of land—is a relatively new practice, but Monlezun sees it as a new frontier that will become well-established in the next decade. She is currently collecting data on the weights of cattle that graze on land shared with solar arrays to compare with typical cattle weights.

When it comes to translating perspectives between energy project developers and ranching communities, Monlezun emphasizes the high priority placed on sociocultural values of the latter, and that prospective developers cannot just pitch financial benefits to get host communities on board. When she is in the field, Monlezun focuses the conversation on taking care of livestock; for example, she will point out to ranchers how the shade provided by renewable energy infrastructure helps cattle digest their food better and gain more weight.

Monlezun concludes by noting how solar projects are opening up new economic opportunities for farmers, including unlocking land access for ranchers. While the traditional grazing model saw ranchers pay landowners for grazing rights, solar developers—out of a need to maintain vegetation beneath solar arrays—are willing to flip the script and instead pay the rancher. Monlezun has personally talked to families whose farms were saved thanks to the opportunities provided by solar grazing.

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