Pollinator-Friendly Solar Installations Benefit Wildlife, Farmers, Climate

It’s no secret that solar energy is growing at an incredible pace. From 2013 to 2018, the rate of solar jobs increased 11 percent per year, and the price of solar panels has decreased by 88 percent over the past decade. The United States now has 71.3 gigawatts of photovoltaic (PV) solar capacity—enough to power 13.5 million houses. Such a high level of growth raises an important question: How are we treating the land solar is deployed on?

Some solar installations require land to be transformed by grading, vegetation reduction, fencing, or road construction. However, existing environmental impact regulations such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) work to prevent solar farms from being directly harmful to the land. Under NEPA, solar companies must provide the Bureau of Land Management construction plans, conduct studies on the project’s environmental impacts, develop environmental impact statements, and prepare strategies to mitigate impacts. But even within the framework of NEPA, projects can still be disruptive to local wildlife. For example, clearing land to install a solar farm may fragment the habitats of local species and inhibit species movement.

United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) biologist Bryan Tompkins explained that many of the solar projects awaiting FWS environmental review are essentially PV panels on “a big lawn providing zero wildlife benefit.” Tompkins suggested that one way to enhance the ecosystem around solar panels is to plant native vegetation on solar farms to encourage local and migratory pollinator health.

Pollinator-friendly solar installations have the potential to create a variety of benefits—the most direct of which is the preservation of pollinator habitats. Habitat loss and climate change have caused pollinator populations to decline around the world. An estimated 35 percent of global crop production is dependent on pollinators, so declining populations have detrimental effects on food systems worldwide. Using solar installations as an opportunity to plant native vegetation would increase the amount of habitable land for pollinators such as bees. In 2018, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory found in a desktop modeling exercise that stable pollinator populations facilitated by pollinator-friendly solar farms would allow nearby agricultural land to be pollinated and, potentially, boost crop yields.

Six states, led by Minnesota, have implemented voluntary standards for pollinator-friendly solar beginning in 2016. These regulations have helped local energy providers, such as Community Choice Aggregations (CCA), improve pollinator habitat by incorporating pollinator-friendly practices onto their solar farms. CCAs allow municipalities to buy energy in bulk from alternative sources while still receiving distribution and transmission services from their normal utility companies. In February 2020, MCE in California became the first CCA to adopt pro-pollinator policies.

Planting pollinator-friendly vegetation in solar farms provides multiple ecological and economic benefits to stakeholders. Using native plants as ground cover can help recharge groundwater, reduce erosion, and improve soil carbon sequestration. Farmers in Minnesota have also seen economic benefits from leasing farmland to install pollinator-friendly solar farms. Agriculture is Minnesota’s second-largest economic sector, but many farmers have been losing money as degraded land and changing markets have made farming less profitable. By leasing land to solar developers, farmers can let their land lie uncultivated while still making a profit. This provides an incentive for farmers to prioritize land restoration, which will eventually pay off in healthier soil and higher yields.

Planting vegetation underneath solar panels may provide benefits for the solar industry as well. Plant cover creates a cooler microclimate around the solar panels, and this cooling effect increases the panels’ efficiency. Local communities may also see solar projects as more attractive if the transition of land use from farmland to solar generation provides an economic benefit to farmers.

As the global energy mix continues to move toward clean and renewable sources, energy generators need to consider the overall environmental impact of their installations. In the case of solar energy, simple actions to promote pollinator health alongside PV panels make solar not only carbon-free, but also beneficial to native ecosystems and the surrounding area’s agricultural economy.

Authors: Abby Neal and Uma Atre