In this webinar, Dr. Todd M. Schmit of Cornell University introduced a new financial feasibility tool designed to help solar graziers evaluate the long-term viability of their operations. The tool provides detailed 10-year financial projections across a farmer-owned cooperative structure.

While originally developed to assess the profitability of farmer-owned solar grazing cooperatives, the tool can also be used by individual producers to analyze the financial performance of a standalone solar grazing enterprise separate from the rest of the farm business. For the purposes of the model, the Cornell team defines “financial feasibility” as achieving positive end-of-year cash flow by the end of year two, though users can adapt that benchmark to reflect their own goals, such as a target return on investment.

What Is the Financial Feasibility Tool?
The tool models the financial viability of a farmer-owned grazing service cooperative using a structured Excel workbook with integrated formulas that produce 10-year projected financial statements. In this cooperative model, member farms commit a defined number of sheep and share profits proportionally, allowing groups to evaluate whether collective ownership can sustainably service solar contracts.

What Are the Applications for Its Use?
The model supports co-op formation planning, bid development, and financing conversations. By adjusting assumptions such as array size, number of participating farms, and distance between sites, users can compare projected solar grazing returns to existing farm enterprises.

How Is the Tool Used?
Two primary input sheets drive the calculations, with color-coded cells indicating where users enter assumptions and all other sheets auto-populating based on those entries. Although designed for multi-farm cooperatives, individual operators can adapt the model by setting the farm count to one to approximate standalone solar grazing costs and returns.

What Are the Constraints of the Tool?
Certain site-specific and operational expenses — such as veterinary care, livestock guardian dogs, water hauling, mineral programs, and overwintering — must be manually incorporated into existing budget lines. Revenue streams from lamb sales or direct marketing are not included, requiring users to evaluate those income sources separately when assessing overall feasibility.

What Do Graziers Emphasize?
Practitioners stress the importance of fully understanding costs before submitting a bid and budgeting conservatively to account for weather variability and site differences. The cooperative framework was also highlighted as a potential solution to sheep supply constraints, while the model’s separation of core grazing costs from regionally variable expenses makes it adaptable across regions and operation sizes.

Access the Financial Feasibility Tool for Solar Grazing and Tool Instructions here.