One of the driest regions in the world is becoming partially green. The reason is 7 million solar panels and thousands of sheep. In China, the large project is expected to soon supply thousands of households with electricity.
What kind of project is it? The Chinese government presented a massive energy project in August 2025, which is expected to provide electricity to thousands of people in the future.
A facility is currently being built on the Tibetan Plateau that, upon completion, will be the largest solar farm in the world. With 610 square kilometers, the project is larger than the city and state of Bremen (420 km²) and slightly smaller than Hamburg (755 km²).
The large project is also ensuring that one of the driest regions in the world is becoming green. And sheep play an important role in this as well. This was reported by the magazine Associated Press (AP) on YouTube.com.
A dry region is becoming greener with millions of photovoltaic systems
What kind of region is it? The Tibetan Plateau is one of the driest large regions on Earth, particularly in the west and north, where average annual rainfall can fall to only 20 to 80 millimeters. This is mainly due to the geographical location of the region: The Himalayas shield the monsoon rains and create a typical continental, extremely dry alpine climate for many parts of the plateau (via Deutschlandfunk.de).
Why is the region becoming green again? The facility made up of millions of arranged solar modules acts like a windbreak, reducing erosion, slowing the advance of dust and sand, and primarily reducing the evaporation of water from the ground.
In the protective shade of the panels, vegetation has found a chance to thrive. Grass and small shrubs are beginning to grow, creating a greener ecosystem that attracts local wildlife. At the same time, climate change is also affecting the so-called “Third Pole” of the world. This was reported by Der Spiegel.
Sheep take care of the maintenance. To keep the vegetation under control, the facility has hired shepherds from the area. Thousands of sheep now graze under the solar panels. Wang Anwei, director of the energy authority in China, said about this on YouTube (from minute 0:53).
We have achieved a win-win situation in three ecological areas. As a company, we can generate energy at a top level. Below, we can let grass grow and take care of ecology. At the middle level, villagers can tend their sheep under the panels.
Sheep have long been used to maintain photovoltaic systems and keep the grass underneath short. A recent study in Australia suggests that Merino sheep grazing between solar panels not only contribute to the maintenance of the systems but also produce higher quality wool: In a country, 1,700 sheep were studied that grazed between solar panels – with surprising results
