TriplePundit • Mars’ New Solar Plan Could Help Save the Family Farm

Well known for its $55 billion candy and pet care business, the U.S. packaged goods company Mars, Inc. has big plans to decarbonize its entire value chain while making solar power available to more electricity users. In the process, the company behind M&M’s and Pedigree is joining with the emerging solar grazing movement — which deploys sheep as living lawnmowers around solar panels, benefiting the environment and U.S. farmers.

Decarbonizing the entire value chain

The heart of Mars’ new Renewable Acceleration program is a transaction called a power purchase agreement (PPA). PPAs enable businesses and other organizations to procure solar power facilities without the up-front expense of building their own. Under a typical PPA, a developer constructs, owns and operates a solar array on a company’s rooftop or other property, and the company benefits from a reliable supply of clean electricity at a guaranteed low rate for the life of the contract.

Mars has gone a step beyond to include the electricity demand of its entire value chain in the Renewable Acceleration program under the “virtual power plant” model for PPAs. Pioneered by Salesforce in 2018, this virtual model is free of the limitations that restrict the growth of traditional property-based solar PPAs — including size, location and regulatory obstacles. Under a virtual PPA, a contracted solar array can be located anywhere the need and opportunity for solar development exist, and the electricity goes to the regional grid.

Mars calculates that its direct operations globally account for 2 terawatt-hours (2 billion kilowatt-hours) of electricity demand annually, about the same as an island nation like the Bahamas (population roughly 403,000). Add in suppliers and consumers up and down the company’s value chain, and the total demand jumps to as much as 9 terrawatt-hours, about the equivalent of Estonia (population 1.34 million).

In effect, the Renewable Acceleration plan aggregates the demand of the company’s entire value chain into virtual power purchase agreements with solar installations across the United States.

“For Mars, Renewable Acceleration is a performance accelerator, cutting emissions at a scale and speed we could never achieve through traditional value chain engagement approaches,” Kevin Rabinovitch, global vice president of sustainability for Mars, said in a statement announcing the program. “It lets us bring demand for all the electricity used in our value chain to the clean energy market in a highly efficient manner.”

Farmers get into in the clean energy transition with solar grazing

Mars is bringing something new to the table as one of the first companies to support a PPA that scales up the newly emerging solar grazing industry.

Solar grazing is a fast-growing branch of the agrivoltaic movement, in which farm activities continue within and around solar arrays. Livestock grazing helps to keep vegetation from overgrowing the solar panels, reduces wildfire risk, and cuts down on diesel fuel for mowers and other heavy equipment. Sheep are especially well suited because they graze efficiently and are not likely to dig into the ground or damage the solar infrastructure.

Developers have a bottom-line motive to promote solar grazing because vegetation management accounts for the largest continuing expense in operating a solar project. Meanwhile, sheep farmers benefit from new pasture opportunities, and soil quality around the array improves from the addition of natural fertilizer.

The North American branch of the global energy firm Enel Group has made solar grazing the centerpiece of its U.S. projects, particularly in Texas, which leads the U.S. in sheep farming. As of last summer, the company hosted 13,000 sheep from the family-owned Texas Solar Sheep Co. on eight solar power plants in the Lone Star State. All eight projects combined cover 12,600 acres, more than 75 percent of the area of Manhattan.

“By prioritizing sheep grazing for land management, we demonstrate how solar and agriculture can coexist while ensuring optimal performance of our solar facilities. Additionally, our sheep grazing commitment supports ecosystem services and the local economy,” Marcus Krembs, head of external relations and sustainability at Enel North America, said in a statement last year.

Mars signed on with Enel for its first solar PPA under the Renewable Acceleration program. The agreement covers three new solar projects in Texas that will produce a total of 1.8 terrawatt-hours of electricity annually, coming close to the total Mars calculates for its own operations.

“The agreement means that Mars value chain will benefit from the entire output from Enel’s three solar plants in Texas,” the company wrote in a press announcement last week. “Vegetation at all three sites will be managed through sheep grazing, a sustainable dual-use solar practice that Enel expanded through the largest solar grazing agreement signed in the United States.”

Fostering new opportunities in agriculture

The American Solar Grazing Association estimates about 100,000 acres of solar facilities are now under grazing in the U.S. Run by sheep farmer JR Howard and his family, Texas Solar Sheep Co. has become a leading ambassador for the solar grazing movement — advising solar developers on best practices including the placement of solar panels, water lines, internal gates and other infrastructure to accommodate forage for the sheep.

For its part, Enel aims to ensure more sheep farmers can join the solar grazing industry on a successful footing. Earlier this year, Enel sponsored and hosted the American Solar Grazing Association’s first workshop for solar developers. “There’s no better way to ensure the growing success of the solar grazing industry than to arm solar companies with knowledge on how it works and the benefits,” Kevin Richardson, senior director of the Association, wrote in a blog post about the event.

The American Sheep Industry Association is also adding support to the solar grazing movement. Founded in 1865, the trade organization shared best practices developed by Texas Solar Sheep Co. and other expert sources in its June 2025 online magazine, providing detailed information on sheep health along with advice for follow-on opportunities.

The key word here is work. The energy buying power of U.S. corporations has been a key element in the growth of the U.S. solar industry and the more than 250,000 jobs it creates. The solar grazing movement demonstrates how that support can extend into the the U.S. agriculture industry. Even as U.S. farmers face a cascade of potentially business-destroying challenges including trade wars, inflation and the rising impacts of climate change, solar grazing and other agrivoltaic practices can provide new opportunities for farmers — and partnerships like these show it’s possible on a large scale.