If “agrivoltaics” became the new solar buzzword in the last year or so, a group from New South Wales (NSW) wants to make “conservoltaics” the concept of 2024, and help resolve worries about land use change at the same time.
Instead of just running sheep under solar panels, the Community Power Agency wants developers to also think about farms as artificial reefs, allowing biodiversity to flourish by offering shelter and habitat for wildlife.
So the group has issued a guide to help developers do just that.
“We know good ground cover reduces heat, reduces dust and improves solar panel efficiency. There are a lot of ecosystems service that developers can benefit from,” says guide co-author Heidi McElnea, regional coordinator at Community Power Agency.
McElnea has been working with ecologist David Carr for the last year on the issue after seeing a pattern of concerns around land use change in New England, which lies under the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).
“The more we spoke to people and observed what was happening at different solar farms, it became clear that land didn’t need to be exclusively used for only solar or only for farming or only for conservation,” she says.
“People in regional areas do care a lot about the land. If they’re seeing [solar] as a semi-industrial use of the land, that picture doesn’t coincide with the countryside as a place for pollinators, for birds, for wildlife, for agriculture.
” I think there is a real sense of loss if those things can’t be incorporated. I do hope the guide will help people understand that it’s possible.”
But while McElnea says she’s had positive conversations with developers around the country about conservoltaics, as they try to improve community relations and meet changing legislative requirements such as the biodiversity loss reforms in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), policy must change.
“We’d like to see the review of the EPBC to contain clear guidance for developers to achieve biodiversity net gain in their projects, and we’d like to see the planning laws in each state rewarding developers who are taking positive steps towards responsible stewardship of the land,” she says.
“At the moment the planning system, particularly in NSW where planning and assessment frameworks operate on the idea that all biodiversity in a solar farm will be harmed, doesn’t incentivise developers to consider shared land use.”
Land can do more than one thing at a time
The realisation that the untended land underneath solar panels could be biodiversity hubs is just beginning to emerge, with research coming from the US and UK showing just how much a boost these areas can deliver.
Just last year, a five-year study by the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory showed that planting native grasses and flowers under solar panels helps insect populations to massively improve – by up to 20 times in the case of native bee populations.
Researchers had planted native grasses and flowers at Enel Green Power North America’s Atwater and Eastwood solar farms, in southern Minnesota and conducted 358 observational surveys at the two sites to map flowering vegetation and insect communities.
The results show that insect abundance tripled and diversity rose by 150 per cent, with the team counting improvements in the populations of native and exotic insects such as honeybees, native bees, wasps, hornets, hoverflies, other flies, moths, butterflies and beetles.
And of course, these insects spread to areas outside the solar farm, effectively sharing the benefits.
University of New England researcher Dr Eric Nordberg, has been researching the biodiversity potential of solar farms for some time.
Last year he co-wrote a paper published in Austral Ecology introducing the concept to Australia, which he says is “urgently needed” given the wide scale spread of solar worldwide.
“We are, however, lacking research on appropriate locations, configurations and management schemes on solar farms to enhance biodiversity retention and recovery,” Nordberg and co-author Lin Schwarzkopf wrote.
“We urgently require empirical data on wildlife use of solar farms and adjoining areas to successfully identify land sharing opportunities of hybrid landscape designs, or ‘conservoltaic’ systems.
“A collaborative approach across industry, land managers and research organisations is needed to facilitate land management schemes that promote energy production and conservation actions simultaneously.”
This year, new research shows that while artificial habitats aren’t a long term solution to the ongoing encroachment of built environments on the natural, solar farms are a major opportunity to meet some needs of wildlife.
The how-to guide
With so little data available to guide conservoltaics in Australia, McElnea and Carr put together their own guide NSW Better Diversity on Solar Panel Farms, for NSW developers outlining how to do it.
The guide outlines what types of flora can be used and where on a solar farm site to ensure that it still meets bushfire and flood mitigation requirements while providing conservoltaic benefits.
Slower growing native grasses and groundcover not only provide habitat and food sources, but they don’t need to be mown as often, are more bushfire resistant that exotic plants, and help to reduce the ground temperature for better panel efficiency.
McElnea believes the vexed issue of community engagement can be resolved with this approach as well.
In the guide she and Carr point out that First Nations organisations can advise on managing vegetation, while neighbours may be able to enter into biodiversity stewardship arrangements.
And solar farms can also act as wildlife corridors, if shrubs and tree plantings are planned well enough to allow animals to hide and move safely and fencing is mitigated, such as by not using barbed wire and lifting the base slightly off the ground to allow smaller animals to pass under.
