Sustainable management of the landscape of our solar farm is an important part of our overall plan for managing its environmental benefit. We have had to mow some of the grass within the field a couple of times this year to prevent the bottom of the panels being shaded by growth of thistles and other tall plants. Our intention is to minimise the use of motor mowers by using animal power in the form of sheep, and earlier this week the first sheep arrived on the field, delivered by their owners Pete and Victoria Niccolls.
We have installed protective fencing around vulnerable components such as the inverter cables and will be watching with interest to see how the sheep get on. We won’t be keeping them permanently on the site as springtime growth of wildflowers won’t be helped by grazing, but for short periods of time later in the year they should prove beneficial to the overall ecosystem and avoid the use of fossil fuelled mowers.
