A small solar farm in Christiana, Tennessee, is being used to test whether cattle can live and graze under solar panels.

Silicon Ranch opened the 40-acre site near Nashville in the week of April 27, 2026. The company said on May 1, 2026, that it would spend the following year showing farmers that cattle can also do well at larger solar sites. Most agrivoltaics projects in the United States have focused on crops or sheep. Supporters say cattle could help expand clean electricity production without adding climate-warming carbon emissions, while also helping farmers keep their land and income.

Cattle are harder to use than sheep because they are large and can damage costly equipment. Silicon Ranch said it solved part of that problem by raising the panels a little and using software to turn them closer to a flat position when cattle are grazing. Workers move 10 cows and their calves between paddocks every few days. The part of the site without cattle keeps producing power, about 5 megawatts, for Middle Tennessee Electric, a rural electric co-op.

For cattle, however, the industry still has to overcome site-design challenges and be able to scale up operations while also developing appropriate economic incentives for ranchers. Richardson, senior director of the American Solar Grazing Association, said, “Once we have that, I think we’ll see more solar sites using cattle or multi-species grazing with sheep and cattle.”