CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Dominion Energy is “lambscaping” their solar farms. Yes, that’s right.

The company has partnered with a Virginia farm to bring in the sheep for some pretty hefty meals.

Dominion Energy started the pilot program last year. Now, they have hundreds of sheep spread across four solar farms. Their largest farm is their Bedford site in Chesapeake. Bedford is a 500-acre solar farm with 300 sheep. Their only job is to eat.

“This is called solar grazing and we have shepherds that we contract with to have their flocks come and live at these farms, eat the grass, eat the vegetation and keep it from getting in the way of the solar panels,” said Tim Eberly with Dominion Energy.

Jess and Marcus Gray of Gray’s Lambscaping are the shepherds.

“We use our collie dogs to gather them, we use our guardian dogs to keep them nice and safe. It requires a good team effort,” explained Jess Gray. “We probably have about nine of us to get everybody deployed onto site and then from there there’s two shepherds that are visiting about twice a week.”

The husband and wife duo spend anywhere from one to five hours or more driving across the Commonwealth checking on their grazers.

“Most of the time it’s pretty laid back,” said Marcus Gray.

The sheep live on the farm year-round taking shelter under the farm’s 150,000 solar panels. The Grays rotate their location every few days to lambscape the vegetation. The sheep don’t need to be sheared – -they shed instead.

“We don’t shear our sheep at all,” Jess said. “In fact, one of the things that Marcus and I look for is the ability to shed quickly.”

Eberly told us sheep and solar go hand-in-hand.

“They are environmentally friendly,” Eberly explained. “They deposit organic matter into the ground and they leave it better off than where it was.”

The goal is to keep the grass under 10 inches long. Not only does the farm support sheep and clean energy, but it’s also home to birds and insects.

“There’s wildlife habitat out here,” Marcus said. “This site has pollinator plantings all around it. There’s bees and butterflies. There’s bobwhite quail.”

A single sheep can eat 3% of its body weight or about 5-10 lbs. a day. All together, the sheep eat about 40 acres every few days.

“We absolutely love what we do and that’s what I tell everybody,” Jess said. “The best part about my job is when I get to come here and I watch the girls walk around. It’s so peaceful. Now, I know when people say when you can’t sleep, count sheep, we do it all the time.”

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