By Fatos Bytyci
ROGANE, Kosovo (Reuters) – When workers at a solar energy farm in Kosovo got tired of wasting their own energy cutting the grass around their solar panels, they turned to a greener and much more powerful mowing machine: a flock of sheep.
More than 100 sheep and a few goats graze twice a week at the Rogane solar farm near the small town of Kamenica in eastern Kosovo where more than 12,000 photovoltaic panels are installed.
“The workers realised that mowing the fields was very hard, they asked me whether I could bring my sheep,” said 72-year-old shepherd Rexhep Rrudhani as he ordered his sheepdogs to manoeuvre the flock grazing under the panels.”The sheep eat all kind of grass here, good or bad grass, and they clean everything. We are all benefiting.”
Kosovo has between 12-14 billion tonnes of proven low-grade lignite coal reserves, the fifth largest in the world. More than 90% of its electricity is produced from coal and the rest is from renewables, mainly wind and solar.
The country aims to phase out coal by 2050.
“We are not spending any petrol running lawnmowers,” said Arber Maliqi, manager of the solar plant. “Producing power from the sun and cutting grass with sheep means things here go green twice.”
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Nick Macfie)
