Sheep graze and help farmer expand under fully electrified Honeysuckle solar panels in St. Joseph County

One day you see the flock. Another day they’re hidden, as they truly seek greener pastures, er, paddocks within the utility.  

The unique sight at the now fully electrified Honeysuckle Solar farm — and its blend of money making known as agrivoltaics — adds to the quickly changing geography just east of New Carlisle, where fertile farms are turning into Amazon data centers and GM/Samsung battery factories.  

Almost two years after construction began, Honeysuckle Solar hit its full, 188-megawatt electricity generating capacity by mid-October, according to its owner, Lightsource bp.

The company and Google have signed a power purchase agreement so that Honeysuckle would feed electricity to the $2 billion data center campus that Google will be building in Fort Wayne, Lightsource bp said. 

South Bend-based Inovateus Solar served as the construction contractor for Honeysuckle, drawing 85% of its labor locally for the workforce of about 200.