What is a community solar array?

In most cases, a community solar array is a large ground mount installation that spans one or many acres, usually in a field. Visually, these solar gardens resemble utility-scale solar farms, but they're often smaller in size.

What are the benefits of a solar array?

Benefits can include protecting the soil, improved pollinator habitat and livestock (primarily sheep) grazing performance and reduced maintenance cost for the solar operator. In observing recent installations of solar arrays, the pre-construction field conditions vary greatly.

Do solar arrays need vegetation management?

All solar arrays require vegetation management to prevent vegetation from affecting the solar system. The plant species present will impact the frequency, ease, and cost of managing this vegetation. Characteristics of common plant species for permanent ground cover in the northeast can be found in Appendix A.

How to manage undesirable plants before a solar array is built?

In many cases management of undesirable plants will face less hurdles before the construction of the solar array. Mowing – if time permits prior to the start of construction, frequent mowing can reduce the presence of some weed species and encourage the growth of more desirable species.

How do you manage vegetation under a solar array?

To date, the most common plans for vegetation management under solar arrays are mechanical control (mowing), grazing sheep, and pollinator habitat, or a combination of these three. In almost every scenario a mixture of different plant species will provide more desirable outcomes than a monoculture.

Do solar farms need energy storage?

Energy storage for solar farms can be costly. Solar panels only work when the sun is shining. So, like solar-plus-storage options for homeowners, utility-scale and community solar farms require storage technology like batteries to collect and preserve the excess energy generated by solar panels. This can get expensive.