Courtesy Prairie Restorations.
Renewable energy is all the rage right now, with solar farms – huge acreages of thousand-panel solar grids – seeing an explosion in many countries. But are they taking over otherwise useful, productive land? Not if we let the insects and wildflowers in, say the experts. By Jeremy Torr.
Tasmania, December 2021. Recent EU research estimated that if solar power was promoted to providing something around 80% of our overall power needs, up to almost 5% of available land would be needed for solar farms. That’s a lot of land that would be unavailable for farming.
Prof. Matthew O’Neal, Iowa State University. Courtesy ISU.
But here’s the thing – just because there are lots of solar panels around doesn’t mean the land is unproductive - as long as we look at the big picture, says Prof. Matthew O’Neal from Iowa State University, and stop seeing land as a crop-producing factory.
“Currently, (there are) many solar energy farms in development projected to cover more than 1,000 acres. One is even planned to cover 4,500 acres,’ he says. Which to conventional faming commentators will simply be ‘dead’ land.
But O’Neal argues that if the solar farms are allowed to act as native plant and insect reservoirs, they can contribute noticeably to the overall output of surrounding farmlands.
Revealingly, a recent Argonne National Laboratory study of 2,800 planned or existing solar farms estimated significant financial benefits from increased soybean, almond, and cranberry yields – if bees and pollinating insects were encouraged at the sites. It argues that if bees and similar insects boosted crop yields by a mere 1%, then crop values would surge by $4 million for almonds, $1.75 million for soybeans, and $0.25 million for cranberries. That’s a huge effect from just letting ‘weeds’ grow around the solar panels.
Raised panels with grass and native grasses underneath are a pollinator’s dream. Courtesy Bee2Bee.
But this needs a change in thinking by some solar farm owners, says Dirk-Jan Van de Ven of the Basque Centre for Climate Change. “When using either cropland or pastures for solar energy … there are ways to integrate solar energy into agricultural systems instead of clearing them prior to the construction phase.” He goes on to say that although integrated panel/flora sites are not common nowadays - and may be more technically complex - they could easily avoid many of the negative impacts from solar energy land occupation.
“At present, solar parks tend to be cleared of vegetation, with gravel often placed on (under the panels), and panels installed close to the ground. Instead of this destructive practice, solar panels should ideally be elevated above the ground and vegetation left to grow underneath.”
And research shows the pollinating insects and bees really don’t mind a roof of panels over their heads as they forage. “Pollinator abundance, diversity, and richness were similar in full sun and partial shade plots,” says a study of solar farm plant introduction and use in Nature’s Scientific Reports. “Pollinator-flower visitation rates did not differ … this demonstrates that pollinators will use habitat under solar arrays, despite variations in community structure across shade gradients.”
“Vegetation, not gravel should be left under the panels.” - Dirk-Jan Van de Ven.
Right now, some estimates are saying that while up to 80% of flowering plants and fruit orchards depending on insect pollinators, a decline of up to 40% in pollinator numbers could be lost due to farming practices, pesticide applications, and climate change is on the cards.
“We’re at an inflection point with energy production and we’re seeing more opportunities to provide extra benefits (from solar farms) that wouldn’t have been considered with older methods generation,” says O’Neal. “Farmers can identify unprofitable areas, such as low-yielding, highly erodible lands, as candidates for a pollinator-friendly solar farm (instead of just leaving it fallow and unused)”.
And as van Ven notes, “In addition, when it comes to arable land and pastures, the previous function of the land should be maintained as much as possible, for example, by allowing sheep or cows to continue to graze around the solar installations.”
Could it be that in the not too distant future we will take a picnic basket out to the local solar farm instead of the dairy fields, and munch on cucumber sandwiches to the buzzing of drowsy bees? Maybe.
As O’Neal notes, there seems to be a refreshingly different approach to business from solar farm operators. “When did you hear of a coal mine planning pollinator conservation?” he asks.