It’s called “Conserv-voltaics”, and I’m seeing more examples every week.
Go Wild with Annette on X:
Ecologists walked matching 200-meter transects across solar farms planted for wildlife in England’s East Anglian Fens and counted 35 birds on each solar pass against 12 on the cropland beside it, corn buntings and yellowhammers among the birds now working the rows between the panels
Solar farms designed for wildlife are harboring nearly three times more birds than the conventional crops they replaced, challenging long-held assumptions about renewable energy and nature.
Journal of Arid Environments – Desert kit foxes use solar energy facilities in southern California:
Our results show that the desert kit foxes we tracked ranged into solar facilities and used habitats there extensively, even daily, both during and post-construction. Thus, solar energy development may be compatible with conservation for this subspecies. Active management of solar facilities that increases their accessibility to wildlife may produce further conservation benefits for desert kit foxes.
Yahoo:
In addition to supplying clean energy, solar panels have a surprisingly positive impact on degraded land and local wildlife. The panels block the sun, allowing the soil to retain more moisture to the point where China’s largest solar farm is changing the desert around it, turning a once dry landscape green with plant life. Animals can also benefit from solar farms, including the San Joaquin kit fox, an endangered species that lives in central California, whose population faces many threats, including habitat loss and predators.
Continue reading “Conserv-Voltaics Another Benefit of Solar”
