ASGA Call #48: Solar Grazing: Scaling Agrivoltaics and Associated Ecosystem Services
Call Replay Available
Presenters: Silicon Ranch’s Michael Baute & Loran Shallenberger will present their Regenerative Energy programs and Churchtown Dairy farm manager Michael MacDonald reports on Solar Grazing and Water Quality.
Speakers:
Michael MacDonald, Farm Manager at Churchtown Dairy, a regenerative farm, and ASGA Advisor. Working in the Hudson River Valley of New York State at a grazing dairy, with background in science and policy, he came to ASGA with an in land management at solar facilities. ASGA was awarded funding to conduct a literature review on grazing and freshwater quality, with a focus on solar grazing. Mike spearheaded the literature review & report Animal Grazing Impacts on Water Quality at Solar Electric Generation Sites. It can be accessed by clicking here or on the image below. A .pdf of the report is also linked below if you’d like to access that version.
Michael Baute and Loran Shallenberger at Silicon Ranch. Michael is the Director of Regenerative Energy and Land Management for Silicon Ranch Corporation, where Loran is a project manager. Silicon Ranch Corporation is a grantee of the 2020 Department of Energy awards for Solar & Agriculture.
Michael & Loran’s presentation will cover: Silicon Ranch’s current utility-scale agrivoltiacs platform, Regenerative Energy, and their new R&D efforts funded by the Department of Energy, which is focused on holistic managed cattle grazing under solar and a new ecosystem service quantification methodology for various solar land management strategies. They will present Scaling Agrivoltaics and associated Ecosystem Services- From R&D to Commercialization.
With thanks to our sponsor Hecate Energy
More about Our Presenters:
Michael MacDonald is the farm manager at Churchtown Dairy. Churchtown is a registered not for profit, community center, educational center, and foremost a 250 acre regenerative dairy in the Hudson River Valley, New York State. Michael MacDonald graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Science and Technology Studies and Government and at Moreau Seminary at the University of Notre Dame and received a Masters of Divinity from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology. He worked in science policy development at the International Center for Technology Assessment and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Michael is currently the farm manager of Churchtown Dairy, a center for regenerative agriculture in Hudson, NY.
Michael Baute and Loran Shallenberger direct and manage the regenerative energy programs at Silicon Ranch.
Silicon Ranch developed standards for solar plant operations that are “Nature-based, data-driven, and community focused” through their Regenerative Energy Program. Silicon Ranch Corporation was an awardee of the Department of Energy 2020 Solar & Agriculture Awards. Their project name: Integrated PV System Design and Management Platform for the Co-Optimization of Regenerative Cattle Grazing and PV Solar Generation. Read more here.
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