Examining the Potential for Agricultural Benefits from Pollinator Habitat at Solar Facilities in the United States

Abstract

Of the many roles insects serve for ecosystem function, pollination is possibly the most important service directly linked to human well-being. However, land use changes have contributed to the decline of pollinators and their habitats. In agricultural landscapes that also support renewable energy developments such as utility-scale solar energy [USSE] facilities, opportunities may exist to conserve insect pollinators and locally restore their ecosystem services through the implementation of vegetation management approaches that aim to provide and maintain pollinator habitat at USSE facilities. As a first step toward understanding the potential agricultural benefits of solar-pollinator habitat, we identified areas of overlap between USSE facilities and surrounding pollinator-dependent crop types in the United States (U.S.). Using spatial data on solar energy developments and crop types across the U.S., and assuming a pollinator foraging distance of 1.5 km, we identified over 3,500 km of agricultural land near existing and planned USSE facilities that may benefit from increased pollination services through the creation of pollinator habitat at the USSE facilities. The following five pollinator-dependent crop types accounted for over 90% of the agriculture near USSE facilities, and these could benefit most from the creation of pollinator habitat at existing and planned USSE facilities: soybeans, alfalfa, cotton, almonds, and citrus. We discuss how our results may be used to understand potential agro-economic implications of solar-pollinator habitat. Our results show that ecosystem service restoration through the creation of pollinator habitat could improve the sustainability of large-scale renewable energy developments in agricultural landscapes.

Techno–ecological synergies of solar energy for global sustainability

“…For example, in the UK, active management for wildlife across 11 solar energy power plants (on predominantly former grazing land), increased diversity and abundance of broad-leaved plants, grasses, invertebrates, and birds, compared to control plots 31 . A recent study in the US identified 3,500 km 2 of agricultural land near existing and planned ground-mounted solar energy power plants that could benefit from nearby indigenous pollinator habitat 32 . Lastly, restoration actions may confer a positive feedback to PV module efficiency.…”

A summary of bird mortality at photovoltaic utility scale solar facilities in the Southwestern U.S.

“…A new estimate of average annual per MW bird mortality for southern California was calculated using the PV solar (only) dataset presented in our study. In addition, we also extrapolated avian fatalities to all of California and Nevada, using updated solar buildout statistics from Walston et al [8].…”

“…Including the estimate from CC1-2 raises the average fatality rate to 2.49 birds/MW/year, or 14,940 bird fatalities/ year in Southern California. We also took updated estimates of USSE development in California (14.562 GW) and Nevada (2.458 GW) from Walston et al [8] to derive an updated range of known and unknown cause estimates for all of California and Nevada: 30,976 (excluding CC1-2) to 42,193 (including CC1-2) bird fatalities per year.…”

“…Current PV technology requires approximately 1.5-3 hectares of land per MW of production, and vegetation is often removed in regions such as deserts in the southwestern U.S. [6]. However, the benefits of site restoration to pollinators and other wildlife has been recently recognized [7], and developers in some regions of the U.S. are moving towards ecologically-based site restoration and low impact site restoration [8]. Compared to impacts from wind energy development, direct impacts to birds from PV solar development are not well studied [5].…”

The Land Sparing, Water Surface Use Efficiency, and Water Surface Transformation of Floating Photovoltaic Solar Energy Installations

“…Alternatively, land sparing can also be achieved with an intensification of energy generation that increases its land use efficiency [36,37]. The use of water bodies as a recipient environment for solar energy infrastructure may be particularly attractive considering its potential for land sparing [2].…”