FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary Mon Energy has introduced sheep in to take care of vegetation on the photo voltaic web site adjoining to the coal-powered Fort Martin Energy Station in Maidsville, West Virginia.
The 18.9-MW photo voltaic array with the coal plant to the proper. Credit score: FirstEnergy
“We’re managing this web site with an revolutionary method that blends renewable power and agriculture for the good thing about our group,” mentioned Dan Rossero, VP of FirstEnergy’s West Virginia Technology. “Photo voltaic grazing permits us to maintain the location working effectively whereas supporting native farmers and decreasing our environmental footprint. By partnering with sheep farmers and advancing solar energy, we’re making a optimistic affect that extends nicely past the fence line.”
On the Fort Martin photo voltaic web site, which went into service in early 2024, Mon Energy contracted with Sivic LLC, a photo voltaic grazing firm headed by Nate Dean and Luci Mosesso, farmers based mostly in Pocahontas County.
Roughly 350 sheep grazed on the web site by means of the autumn. Sivic moved the sheep across the property each four-to-six days, utilizing short-term fencing to make sure that vegetation was trimmed constantly all through the property. With the vegetation development now slowing, the sheep will spend the winter at their farm in Pocahontas County and return to the photo voltaic web site within the spring.
“It’s a regenerative method to handle vegetation on a web site that’s already regenerative itself as a renewable power supply,” Dean mentioned.
The 18.9-MW Fort Martin photo voltaic web site was the primary of three websites developed as a part of Mon Power and Potomac Edison’s solar program, which entails improvement of photo voltaic initiatives on brownfield or impacted industrial properties. With two further websites in Marion County and Berkeley County, the businesses have 30 MW of photo voltaic capability.
Via the solar program, Mon Energy and Potomac Edison prospects in West Virginia who help renewable power should buy photo voltaic renewable power credit (SRECs) – certificates that characterize the environmental attributes of solar energy and show photo voltaic power was generated on the purchasers’ behalf.
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