diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index 4488f4cee1..81490a9780 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -1 +1,4 @@
 pvlib/version.py export-subst
+
+# reduce the number of merge conflicts
+docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v*.txt merge=union