Alberta company blends solar energy production with agricultural activity [Video]

Jason Bradley spent 20 years of his career as ranch manager at a 50,000-acre grazing operation in west-central Alberta, so he understands why people react with skepticism to the idea of raising a herd of cattle on a working solar farm. 

“The first thing people think is, ‘You can’t put cattle on (a solar farm). They’re just going to rub on the panels and wreck them,'” Bradley said.

But as the CEO of Calgary-based Sun Cycle Farms, Bradley believes the doubters have already been proven wrong. This fall, Sun Cycle conducted a pilot project that grazed cattle inside a grid-connected solar farm in southern Alberta — something Bradley said proves that livestock production and renewable energy can successfully co-exist.

“It was not just to prove it to ourselves — I knew it could be done in an existing solar facility,” Bradley said.

“But we had to prove to the asset …