It’s changing into a high-tech passion farm in Alberta Sun Box Facet

In this summer, a solar region in Alberta will not only generate about 40 MW of electricity on each sunny day, but also produce eggs, honey, meat and wool.

In addition to about 400 sheep, 40 boar and 100 chickens, there are 110,000 solar panels on 130 hectares of land. Bees are coming soon.

The solar project, which is owned by Edmonton-based capital power and is located near the city of Stratomore, resembles a hobby farm. But for the people involved, it is an important opportunity to test new technology and farming techniques.

As the demand for electricity increases every year, this site provides a glimpse in the future of the solar industry in Canada.

Chickens arrived this week and started laying eggs inside their new house, a mobile copy that slowly moves between long rows of panels.

The structure is a self-powered pasture barn designed by Ukko robotics, a Manitoba-based startup. This concept is meant to give animals home in a building, while equally provides fresh grass to graze and spread the compost on the ground. Several times a day, the coop slowly moves at a short distance, usually half a meter at a time.

The company has installed 50 of 50 roaming structures worldwide, but this is the first time it will work on a solar site.

“If it works, I think there are some great applications in the whole of North America because it is reducing agricultural land,” said Daniel Badiyu, co-founder and CEO of UKKO robotics.

Solar industry vs farming

As the solar industry has expanded, especially in Alberta, rural landlords have expressed concern about the impact on the farm.

They are part of critics as to why Alberta and Ontario governments have introduced new rules that restrict the development of solar panels on the main agricultural land and require solar operators to include some types of agriculture based on the quality of the land.

But sheep farmer Janna Grir said that he feels that solar farming and regular farming can actually go by hand. She is the co-founder of solar sheep, and is the fourth heat that she will manage vegetation in this solar region.

“Our vision is essentially cultivating under every panel,” said that Greer said, which started using sheep and has expanded To test on other animals.

“We want to prove the concept that we can increase more protein per acre and more local food,” he said.

“A ton of solar development is going on throughout the province, and so we are trying to keep that land in agriculture. But we are trying to leave it and leave it in a better place than to start it.”

‘How to reconsider beekeeping’

Bees will also be part of testing new technology, as they will be placed in a hunter-proof, climate-controlled building that is similar to the size of a garden shed. Mobile indoor epiary is designed and designed by a Calgary Startup B Cube.

Instead of a hive residence in a box, bee cube building can take home up to 20 urticaria. So far, seven structures have been constructed, including one in the solar region.

Each building has sensors to monitor temperature, humidity, weight and sound of bees.

“All he goes to the database so that the beekeepers know what is happening inside their urticaria at any time,” said Harman Van Rechem, the founder and CEO of B Cube.

The next step will integrate artificial intelligence to provide initial warning and management tips. The purpose of technology is to improve bee health, while also saving time for beekeepers.

In the solar region, bees will not produce honey only; They will help pollinate various types of flowering plants.

“It’s going to be a great learning experience,” said Van ReeKem. “Bees are dying at incredible rates, and so we are trying to do something through such reconsideration on how beekeeping is done.”

The main objective of the Stratomore Solar Field located about 40 km east of Calgary is to generate electricity, but agricultural activities are still important, solar managers for ved hassures, capital power, power generators who own the project.

The company is starting a 10-year soil-testing program to understand how livestock, rotational grazing and vegetation management are affecting soil conditions.

“One of the common issues is that we have taken this land and we have made it in a solar farm, and it is no longer usable for anything else. We are showing that there is a difference here,” Hyssure said.

“This is the future way. I think it is a partnership that all solar providers should do.”