TUCSON, AZ — A Tucson power company isn’t burning fossil fuels to keep its solar panels free of desert brush and weeds, which can grow tall enough to block out the sun. Instead of using lawn mowers and weed trimmers — or chemical-filled sprays — Tucson Electric Power has acquired a flock of 25 sheep to chomp the brush at its Prairie Fire Solar Array, a 5-megawatt facility that produces enough solar energy to power 1,000 homes every year.
The four-legged landscapers appear to love their work. A video shows the sheep practically leaping out of the transport trailer and stopping briefly to nibble before racing toward the vegetation growing around about 17,600 solar panels.
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Ewe have to love it as much as they apparently do. Ewe really do.
The sheep provide a cost effective way to maintain the site while preserving the surrounding environment, TEP said in a news release.
The flock is managed by a company called — wait for it — Southwest Lambscaping, which also provides sheep for TEP’s Red Horse Solar, a 51-megawatt solar array near Willcox, Arizona.
The idea of using sheep for landscaping isn’t particularly new. Sheep have been keeping public lands in Ohio weed-free since at least 2011. Goats have more voracious appetites for weeds, according to Modern Farmer, which said 38 goats could mow a 50,000-square-foot section of grass in a day, but it would take 83 sheep to accomplish the feat in the same amount of time.
But there can be some, ahem, baaa-d consequences when goats are put in charge of weed control. Sheep don’t destroy solar panels and cables, as goats are wont to do.