Episode 34: Making Solar Do More with Nick de Vries, CTO, Silicon Ranch

Today, we’re speaking with Nick de Vries, Chief Technology Officer at Silicon Ranch, about the instrumental connection between solar power, agriculture, and economic development. 

This Nashville solar development company grew into a billion-dollar powerhouse for a reason.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Silicon Ranch being named #5 on TIME America's Top GreenTech Companies of 2026
• The company's 2026 SEAL Sustainable Innovation Award for its CattleTracker system
• How this technology is closing the gap between the industries of solar power and agriculture

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our podcast and don’t forget to leave a rating or review. It helps us reach a wider audience to champion Tennessee’s Advanced Energy Business Sector. 

Enjoy the episode!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to Energizing Tennessee, powered by the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council. We're your number one podcast for news about Tennessee's advanced energy sector. I'm your host, Courtney Piper. Today we're speaking with Nick DeVries, Chief Technology Officer at Silicon Ranch Corporation, about the instrumental connection between solar power, agriculture, and economic development. You may remember an episode from 2023 with Silicon Ranch Chairman Matt Kisber about solar's transformational power for rural communities. This Nashville-based solar development company grew into a billion-dollar powerhouse for a reason. The company has been named five on Time America's top green tech companies of 2026 and just received the 2026 SEAL Sustainable Innovation Award for its revolutionary patented cattle tracker system. The cattle tracker enables full-size cattle to safely graze among utility-scale solar arrays. This technology is a reflection of Silicon Ranch's commitment to long-term stewardship, proving that utility-scale solar can restore ecosystems, support agriculture, and deliver value to rural communities. Enjoy the episode. It helps us reach a wider audience to champion Tennessee's advanced energy sector. Energizing Tennessee would not be possible without the support of our TAEBC members. Thanks for sitting down with us, Nick.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Thanks for having me here, Courtney.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

All right. First question, and Nick, this is what I love about Silicon Ranch is your mantra is making solar do more. So tell our listeners about Silicon Ranch's approach to solar energy development.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yeah, making solar do do more is our mantra, as you say, one of our catchphrases. It really goes back to the company's founding. We are not saying solar for making just clean energy or uh solar to uh improve um uh utilities cost basis, but it's solar um for creating economic development. We see ourselves as an economic development company, a rural economic development company that uh uses solar as its vehicle. So the communities have choice in their electric generation, helps them reduce their cost basis for the energies uh generated for their utilities, um, and creates economic development opportunities for them. Um so that's making solar do more is how we take a solar power plant and create all this added value, whether in increasing uh jobs, manufacturing base, agricultural opportunity, uh, ecological opportunity. Um it's about extending the run after the catch, really making solar provide more value, create more value in different ways.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Well, and you've certainly done that by mixing ag and solar. And congratulations, by the way, on your recent SEAL award for your cattle tracking, cattle tracker system, which is what we're gonna talk about today. So, Nick, share with our listeners, because like I said, mixing ag and solar is not new to Silicon Ranch, and it's really in line with your mantra of making solar do more. So explain to our listeners how Silicon Ranch started in what's called agro voltaics. That's the fancy word for mixing solar and ag. That's right. And and then how the initial idea came about for the cattle tracker specifically.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Sure. No, I'd love to. This is a story that's near and dear to me. Um, we've been um you know building solar power plants and operating uh first in the Tennessee Valley and now across uh the United States and even in Canada for 15 years, right? And that's how long we've been operating and owning uh solar power plants, and more than half of that, um probably eight years now, we've been uh sheep ranching on on most of our land as well. Um, as a way that uh our solar power plants are better together with agriculture. We could see where conventional land management uh simply kept grass cut like you would see along the highway or at a utility power plant with maybe sprayed with harsh chemicals uh just to keep everything tidy, was not serving the land we own very well. And that we saw that agriculture, uh agricultural practices um could benefit our land, build value on our land, both agriculturally and ecologically by sheep ranching. So we've we've done this um for eight years now, and our leaders in uh the nation in uh sheep ranching uh under solar, uh probably five or six different states. We have our own flock of sheep in Georgia, and then work with ten um individual fam farm families um across five different states where they bring their sheep onto our property and um effectively have, you know, they they they they start their own ranch on our properties. So we have done this a long time and seen success with it. We can see that it makes a better energy power plant, we have less invasive species, uh, weeds growing into our equipment, um, we have better soil conditions, um and um and people like it. Uh we build social value, people see that we can identify with what we're doing better when we sheep ranch. Um but probably six years ago, um I was uh working with uh a friend Will Harris down in Georgia, and he's we were you know we were the pioneers in doing this together. But he said, you know, Nick, my family's business is is cattle. It's been for generations, five generations. We raise and sell cattle. And could you find a way that we could uh work with or work with cattle under your solar power plants? And I saw it just a bit of a challenge as a test between friends, um, but uh important one. Uh he wouldn't be asking if it didn't matter to him. Uh cattle ranching is very important for our nation, all the states. And so uh I saw it as uh call to arms to go figure this out and find a way that we could actually generate, you know, have a good, an excellent solar power plant with excellent economics, with our risks managed, but can we find a way to bring cattle into it as well and build value with it?

SPEAKER_01 7:17

So let's talk a little bit more about that. What makes the cattle tracker unique? I mean, the benefits to the farm, the community. Talk a little bit more about those benefits.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Sure. So I I I think of how we build value in in four different ways uh energy value, agricultural value, ecological value, and social value. And so all four of those. And this is where um cattle tracker hits on all four. We we produce electricity, uh, generate revenues from it, we pay taxes on our properties that that go to the local communities. So I think people can see a solar power plant and understand that it builds energy value for sure. Um agricultural value is you know how many dollars per acre uh can can you uh generate revenue from agricultural sales. And for agro voltaics, this is important. It's not just kind of looking like agriculture, it's actually performing agriculture and having an agribusiness that stands on its own. That's something important to us at Silicon Ranch. So so cattle uh definitely help help with that. Um, ecological value, uh are we um you know building organic matter in our soil? Are we allowing grass uh to grow, thrive, uh holding more water in our soil and not just running it, you know, having it run off? Those are our ecological values, and then social value, do see do people see themselves in our power plants? Do they see themselves in our company and our operation? Um are we reflecting the values of the community? Um these are all important, and so cattle tracker hits on on all four. Um and and then that's how you know this is a good idea. This is a hit and something that that we should pursue.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Now, cattle are quite large animals, and the cattle I've been around, I don't get a sense that they have a lot of spatial awareness coordination. So, what what was your development stage and field testing processes processes like for the cattle tracker?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Right. Well, my my friends in uh in the universities who are animal behavior specialists will tell you that they do have good spatial awareness and are uh incredibly actually flexible and maneuverable. Um but sure you can take a look at them and that they're large and uh you know bigger than humans. And um, and so it's I think it's a natural uh w wonder um uh about them. And so look, we had to design the power plant, uh uh the the design of the steel and everything to accommodate that. We've always started with sheep because sheep physically fit under most of the power plants that we're we're we're building. Cattle are larger. So we had to see how high do you they need to be. You need to understand that you know if a cow and a solar panel collided, who won? The answer is neither. Oh, neither. I mean, maybe the the the the solar panel gets damaged, the the cow could get hurt from hitting it. Um and so neither is good. We we had to find a design. We tried to multiple different heights uh in a trial um setup um in controlled environments, um, had students um from Colorado State University and uh my research partners there um study this and build statistical values uh of of how many cow interactions there were with the equipment at multiple different heights. So it's not just a looks right, feels good, maybe it's good enough, but we could build a statistical pack model of this to understand what are the risks, did we mitigate it with the with the different design options that we had available to us.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

So this it seems to me like Silicon Ranch has closed this gap between solar power and agriculture, or just the economics of agriculture in the state of Tennessee, and I'm sure this is not unique to Tennessee, we have lamented the loss of farmland. And you all have seemed to found found a piece of the puzzle where you can improve the economics of farming by incorporating solar energy. So can you talk, can you talk a little bit more about that? Because at its core, Silicon Ranch is an economic development company.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, sure. Um getting the economics of the agricultural piece right without damaging the economics of the power plant is the key. That's how you have a successful program. Um and uh this this was made clear to me right from the start from from executive management at the company, is to to get it it seems wonderful to put the two pair to peanut butter and jelly. This is this is great. Put the two together. But the two had to be able to stand on their own as as businesses. Um and when you have that, this is something that can endure. You can you can afford to do this every project that you you work on for multiple years, it's not just a one-and-done showpiece uh operation. So uh yes, uh we use we buy land and um we build solar power plants on it. How can we create the most value? It's just not a one thing, one trick pony. But if you can incorporate agriculture, ecological conservation in them together, you're building this is making solar do more. You're building something um uh honestly quite special. Uh so uh the economics of our sheep ranches are are uh honestly exemplary. They they they do very well, they provide a needed service to our operations that would have been done with mowing. Um uh we are grown our flock, you know. Lawnmowers, you two to if you have two lawnmowers, three lawnmowers at the end of the year, after the end of two years, you might only have two because one breaks down. Two, three, four sheep, they multiply over over time. And so we're building value, agricultural value in our flocks and soon our herds of cows.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Now, one of the things that I love about Silicon Ranch, and especially interacting with your your founders with Matt Kisper and Reagan Farr, is they always have a good story to tell. Always have a good story to tell. So, do you have any stories from working with rural communities that you would like to share with our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Well, um, first would be one in Georgia when we were down in Early County working white white oak pastures. Um the county was excited that we were coming in and building a power plant. Um, it it really mattered for their schools. Uh they um they could see immediately how the revenues were going to come into the county and uh allow their schools to uh have a slightly larger budget, maybe give their teachers a pay raise. Um they were then you know tickled pink to learn that we were doing this with agriculture, reflecting the values of their their county and and pulling them into the project more than they had seen. They see maybe we were an outside company bringing revenues to the county, that's nice, but they maybe hadn't seen themselves in the project. And so that's with Early County in in Georgia. Um also great stories and uh East East Tennessee with Brightridge. Um, they use the savings. Um Jeff Dykes, the CEO of Brightridge in um East Tennessee, they look at the savings that they get from um uh purchasing solar power and then recognize those savings and then contribute those savings back to the county as well. So uh back to the county and to the school system. So I think in both of those cases, the schools are winning uh because the utilities in that area had chose to uh add solar to their mix of generation.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

You know, at the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council, we we chose that term advanced energy because we wanted this organization to represent the totality of energy solutions. And Matt Kisper was a uh and Matt has held several positions with Silicon Ranch, but uh I like to refer to him as one of your co-founders. Well he is a co-founder, right? And he was very fond of saying, look, we don't need another organization that's gonna debate whether a particular technology is clean, green, or sustainable. We need to look at energy innovation as a means to economic development and job creation. And it sounds to me like Silicon Ranch Corporation has cracked that nut. So what else do you want people to know about solar energy and how it how it can work for them? I know I like to tell people that when we're doing this, you know, solar energy is no longer rainbows and kittens and and butterflies. Yeah, there is real economic value and social value and ecological value that you get out of solar. So, what else would you like people to know about solar energy?

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Sun shines across the United States, all the states. And if you can grow a crop uh of of some kind, you can you can generate electricity from solar power. Um and in so many uh ways um in the past, you know, where you could generate power was limited. Maybe it was if you had a river, okay, or if you had a a forest and could burn the wood, or if you had coal, you had these resources. And that was where uh cities took off or industries took off because they there there was mills on the water. Uh or from my home country in the Netherlands, they had you know windmills uh pumping water out to create to to dry land for agriculture. But it was all after harnessing those resources, and either you had them or you didn't. Solar power, we all have that resource. We all have the sun. And so it isn't just like oh, that's gonna work in the desert southwest where there's a ton of sun. No. Shines cross United States, and it can be sized at different sizes. So I can build a solar power plant um for a community, we can for a small town, for a small utility with just a few megawatts for what their energy needs. We can do it for large all of TVA and and and how much energy they purchase and consume and generate. Um, it can be sized differently. So it's something that can fit every community and bring them benefit. Just as if, wow, we're we're on the river, we've we've got the rapids here, we can build a water mill. Every city in America can now have that with solar power.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

We started this conversation talking about your 2026 SEAL Award, and SEAL stands for sustainability, environmental achievement, and leadership. So, what has the reaction been to the award announcement and just the broader impact of this cattle tracker technology?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yeah, that was a a great a great win for us. Uh, and honestly, one that sort of humbled me. Uh the reaction has been been an amazing outpouring of support, sort of a stamp of approval that you know what seemingly six years ago was kind of an odd idea. Why are you trying to put cows under solar panels, Nick? Uh well, I'm doing it because my friend put me up to it. Well, no, that that this was indeed a good idea. This was something that people were looking for. Um, it's not just uh say a solution looking for a problem, but but something that people honestly care about. So the uh the award uh meant a lot to me personally that that more people than just me thought this was uh was a neat thing to do. Um we've been building off of that of of late. Uh Time magazine just um uh recognized this as one of the top five green tech companies in America. And that's a the that's that's there's a lot of companies. And to be in the top five position is is you're doing something right um on all on all these fronts, right? You have a s solid financials, you are innovating, and you're having uh ecological impact uh results that that people can see and and recognize.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Well, let's talk more about what y'all are doing right because you are doing a lot right. Silicon Ranch is responsible for attracting a rather sizable domestic manufacturing supply chain to the United States, to the Tennessee Valley, to the state of Tennessee. So tell our listeners a little bit more about that economic impact you've had by bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Yeah, uh, thank you for mentioning that. So our you know, our company success is is is is is great to see, um, but it's not really meaningful if we aren't doing it with the communities we serve across the nation. And so to say like off, we found this way to to produce electricity and make some money doing that, and found a way to uh incorporate agriculture, but if you're not doing it with goods produced in our own counties, in our states, um by our family members, something's missing. We're missing out on that economic driver that factory production provides and the jobs that they provide uh across our country. Um so from the start, building with domestic product mattered. One of our very first projects in Memphis, Tennessee was all built with steel from the Big River um facility uh across the Mississippi and Arkansas, and solar modules built there by the Sharp Corporation in Memphis. That was 15 years ago. But then things sort of dried up. There weren't many other suppliers that we could go to. And that sort of left a hole in our hearts. Um and we had to source material where we could to build our business, but never lost sight of the fact that the All of this equipment could be produced in America if there was just enough other customers for it, but if there was the investment in it. And so as our company grew, we could see where we could we have a choice with with how we spend our dollars. Every consumer does on what where do they where do they buy material, where do you buy your food? We chose America. Very simple. And so by with our purchasing power, we're able to help some of our long-time key suppliers, Next Power, First Solar, just to name a few, and say, we're gonna buy a lot of equipment from you, but only if you build it here in the United States. And they wanted to, they needed the investment, they needed that catalyst that we could provide. So this has resulted in factories across the United States being built. First Solar in Ohio. Next Power is a California-based company, but bit by bit move them towards where we build so that they could be close to us, their customer. So now First Solar has built facilities in near Huntsville, Alabama, within the Tennessee Valley. And then NextPower has uh has a factory producing the specific steel we need to build the trackers in Memphis. Um, you know, think things are moving fast in this front. Our goods are made in the United States now.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

That is fantastic. Well, Nick, tell our listeners where they can learn more about you and Silicon Ranch.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Well, okay. Um, well, I'm a podcaster just like you, Courtney, so you can listen to uh Silicon Ranch Radio. I'm the host and um talk about more of these subjects in detail. We had a nice long set um series of uh podcast episodes on domestic manufacturing. Uh first my first interviewee ever as the podcast host was our chairman, Matt Kisper. He's a great interview, great interviewer. Get started with him. Um, our website, uh siliconranch.com and then slash cattle tracker is where you can learn uh more about that.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Great. Well, Nick, thanks for coming on the show.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Appreciate you having me, Courtney.