This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WABE and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
An expansive former row-crop farm in Lee County, in southwest Georgia, is now home to a flock of sheep with a job to do: eat grass.
“My rule of thumb is if I can walk out here among the panels and still see my boots, then that’s effective grazing management,” said site manager Tyler Huber on a recent visit to the farm.
Shiny solar panels cover this land, providing shade and shelter for the sheep. The flock in turn keeps the grass chewed or trampled so it doesn’t interfere with the production of energy.
This modern pastoral scene serves a high-tech purpose: powering Meta’s data center complex in Social Circle, east of Atlanta.
When the company, then known as Facebook, announced its Georgia data center in 2018, it promised the facility would be totally powered by solar energy, part of the tech giant’s…
