Agrivoltaic Farm Project in Virginia Hosts Solar, Sheep and 500,000 Bees

In Halifax County, Virginia, a futuristic farm is taking shape, where a 65-megawatt solar farm is sharing space with grazing lambs and a 10-hive apiary that is home to 500,000 bees.

The bees are taking flight at Crystal Hill Solar, an agrivoltaic site with the capacity to power 10,800 homes per year, according to the operator, Urban Grid. The farm spans 620 acres, and the new apiary will be positioned near an edge of the land, CleanTechnica reported.

Urban Grid said the 10-hive apiary, developed in partnership with Siller Pollinator Company, is expected to produce around 400 pounds of honey per year, with some of the honey being distributed to local schools, food banks and faith-based organizations.

The solar farm already accommodates lamb, which graze on the site to help maintain it and reduce the need for mowing, in partnership with Gray’s Lambscaping. According to Gray’s Lambscaping, the lambs can help cut mowing needs by more than half. 

As CleanTechnica reported, the lambs benefit from the grazing as well as additional shade provided by the solar panels.

“For more than a year, we’ve been grazing sheep on this facility to manage vegetation in a way that supports soil health and agricultural viability,” Val Newcomb, vice president of economic and community development at Urban Grid, said in a statement. “While Crystal Hill Solar quietly delivers much-needed power to the Commonwealth, local farmers there have been raising grass-fed lamb and helping to build a new sheep economy in southern Virginia. Honey production adds another layer of agricultural value to this site, deepening our connection to the land and community.”

With the addition of the apiary, the project will also become a research site, with experts from Siller Pollinator Company and Urban Grid studying the impacts, on both pollinators and vegetation, of adding pollinators to an agrivoltaic site. Near the hives, Sillar Pollinator Company plans to plant three acres of rotational crops for research purposes.

“We’ll be analyzing pollen to identify what species bees are foraging, measuring vegetation changes over time and comparing site conditions near and far from the hives,” said Allison Wickham, founding farmer at Siller Pollinator Company. “This kind of research can help shape smarter, more sustainable solar land use across the country and provide greater opportunities to a wider range of farmers and land managers.”

Urban Grid will then use the research to develop similar agrivoltaic projects elsewhere using optimized planting, pollinator and solar installations based on the data.

While Urban Grid is supporting agrivoltaic expansion through private partnerships, farmers hoping to pursue similar projects may face challenges in securing federal grants after the USDA froze REAP (Rural Energy for America Program) funding earlier this year. The USDA in March announced it would only approve applicants who revised their proposals to remove “DEIA and Far-Left Climate Features” from their applications.

A recent report by the nonprofit Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) found that under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has canceled more than $14 billion in clean energy projects, further threatening expansions for agrivoltaics and other renewable energy sources.