Healthy Soil, Productive Solar

Nick de Vries (0:08)

Welcome to Silicon Ranch Radio. I'm Nick de Vries, and thanks for joining us. This episode continues our ongoing exploration of CattleTracker, Silicon Ranch's patented approach to integrating cattle grazing with solar energy generation in ways that benefit the land, the animals, and the communities we serve. One of the questions that has guided this work from the very beginning is a simple one. How do we know that CattleTracker is actually good for the land? To help answer that question, I'm joined by Dr. Taylor Bacon, a scientist who recently earned her PhD from Colorado State University. Taylor has spent the last four years as a member of the CattleTracker research team studying the ecology and soils beneath the working solar systems we own.

During our discussion, Taylor shares the path that led her from a childhood fascination with climate change through engineering and environmental policy, and ultimately into the world of soil science and agrivoltaics. Along the way, we unpack what soil science really is, why healthy soil is fundamental to functioning ecosystems, and what her research is revealing about the interaction between solar, infrastructure, grazing animals, and the ecosystem that soil ties together. This is a conversation about curiosity, discovery, and the value of asking hard questions. It's also a conversation about how careful research can help us build energy infrastructure that works in partnership with nature. I hope you enjoy the discussion.

Hey, Taylor, thanks for coming on the show.

Taylor Bacon (1:59)

Hi, Nick. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Nick de Vries (2:02)

Yeah.

Well, introduce yourself to some folks. We got some longtime listeners of Silicon Ranch Radio. They might know you from our website or some of the work that we've published together. But tell folks a little bit about yourself.

Taylor Bacon (2:16)

Yeah. My name is Taylor Bacon. I guess at this point, officially Dr. Taylor Bacon.

Nick de Vries (2:20)

Dr. Bacon.

Taylor Bacon (2:23)

Yeah. Still feels a little surreal every time I put it down on a form or something. But I just finished my PhD in soil science at Colorado State University this spring. And I've been involved in the CattleTracker Research Project for the last four years focusing on research on the soils and ecology of solar grazing systems.

Nick de Vries (2:46)

Well, congratulations on earning your PhD, Taylor. That's so huge for yourself and for your supporters and for the school. That's really quite an accomplishment. And before we just say, do anything more, congratulations on that.

Taylor Bacon (3:02)

Thank you. Yeah, it's been a really cool project to get to work on. And you and the Silicon Ranch team have been a big part of it.

Nick de Vries (3:09)

All right. Thanks.

So CattleTracker Research team, we work together. You have been studying the soil and not just from a researcher, but also sort of as a student, right? That this is something you've been learning a bit as you go and then applying what you've learned to our program. What exactly is soil science, maybe? Could you start there and tell us what is it? And then how does this apply to a solar system?

Taylor Bacon (3:38)

Yeah, it's a great question. I think soil science can sound like a really niche field, but I think it's actually pretty broad and interdisciplinary and encompasses everything from how soils are formed on kind of a geological time scale to the role soils play in cycling carbon and nitrogen and water to how you make the best decisions for managing soils from an agricultural perspective. So there's this huge scope that kind of falls within the field of soil science, but really trying to understand the roles that soil play in all of these different ecosystems.

Nick de Vries (4:14)

Okay. I studied engineering, you know, and remember Intro to Civil Engineering, and they really I thought they talked about dirt and rocks and clay versus sand.

It's much more than just those that sort of inanimate, right? What was the difference between dirt and soil?

Taylor Bacon (4:33)

I think the my favorite explanation I've heard is that dirt is soil that has been kind of taken out of its context, that soils are inherently part of a system. They are kind of living, breathing things that have all these microorganisms and support all these lives and play these really essential roles in a full ecosystem and are tied to plants and water and nutrients. And dirt is kind of soil that has been removed from the context it originated from and has kind of lost that life almost.

Nick de Vries (5:04)

So life, life is the difference then really between dirt and soil. And I think of structures and our solar foundations, the piles we drive down in, and will this hold things, right? Will it shift around?