This solar farm doubles as a sheep pasture, and it’s cutting Volkswagen’s costs

A photovoltaic farm powering Volkswagen’s manufacturing plant in Poznań, Poland, is now doing double duty as a sheep pasture, with a flock of 100 animals grazing beneath more than 31,000 solar panels instead of mechanical mowers trimming the grass.

The 18.3 MW site, built and managed by Berlin-based Quanta Energy, supplies roughly 25% of the plant’s power needs across a full year and can cover the factory’s entire electricity demand on bright, sunny days. The Poznań plant builds the Volkswagen e-Crafter commercial van among other models, making the solar field’s upkeep a genuinely large task.

Rather than sending machinery between the rows of panels, Volkswagen now relies on the flock to trim the grass naturally, including the vegetation growing directly beneath the panels — while the panels themselves offer shade that keeps the sheep cooler on hot days. The arrangement, according to Electrek, cuts machinery use and lets researchers study how large-scale renewable energy and agriculture can coexist on the same land.

The maths adds up for Volkswagen too: grazing trims maintenance costs and emissions while creating habitat for insects and other wildlife, all while the flock — supervised by experienced breeders through autumn — appears to be settling in comfortably, splitting into smaller groups across the site.