The same GPS technology that increasingly triangulates our lives is helping scientists study the pronghorn antelope that roam the Carrizo Plain near the 3,500-acre Topaz Solar Farms project, currently under construction in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.

This fall, Topaz Solar Farms is conducting its fourth annual census of the San Joaquin kit fox on the project site in San Luis Obispo County, Calif. The effort is part of the 550-megawatt solar project’s effort to avoid, minimize and mitigate environmental impact.

First Solar works hard to avoid, minimize and mitigate environmental impacts from its solar power projects, in line with its mission to generate energy in a sustainable way. Case in point: the 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farms project that the company is building in San Luis Obispo County, Calif. for MidAmerican Solar. First Solar developers collaborated with public resource agencies and with national and local environmental organizations on a plan that will preserve in perpetuity 22,000 acres of the Carrizo Plain as habitat for species such as the San Joaquin kit fox, pronghorn antelope and tule elk.

First Solar’s utility-scale PV solar projects are providing good jobs for U.S. Armed Forces veterans returning from combat overseas. Case in point: the 550 megawatt Topaz Solar Farms project in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., which First Solar is constructing for MidAmerican Solar. Topaz Construction Manager Raymond Christian, a former U.S. Marine, has a number of veterans on his crew who returned from tours in Iraq to a challenging job market at home.

Cattle have recently been added to the workforce of over 500 construction workers at the 550 megawatt Topaz Solar Farms project in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., that First Solar is building for MidAmerican Solar. The bovine contingent, a hand-selected herd on loan from a local rancher, is charged with vegetation management on several thousand acres of project and stewardship land, helping to reduce fire hazard in the hot, dry summer months. The approach, which is both traditional and unconventional, aligns with First Solar’s commitment to sustainable development: avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating environmental impacts.  First Solar worked closely with local and national conservation groups to ensure Topaz addressed all environmental concerns in developing and constructing the project. Sheep grazing is also being considered as a similarly benign vegetation control method during the wetter winter growing season.