Utilities developing large-scale solar installations are taking a second look at how they affect the fragile natural ecosystems that surround them, and insect pollinators may be the beneficiaries.
Minnesota electricity cooperative Connexus Energy recently secured permission to build a utility-scale solar project by having experts on insect pollinators, as well as ecologists, testify that “this wouldn’t be just any solar development,” Utility Dive reports. It’ll feature a carefully-reconstructed pollinator paradise, underneath and amongst the solar panels, of native species and their companion bees and other beneficial insects.
Currently the biggest energy storage co-op in America, and now “the first integrated bee farm and solar site in the country,” Connexus Energy realized that “land is valuable,” said Rob Davis, director of both the Center for Pollinators in Energy, as well as the Media and Innovation Lab at Fresh Energy in St. Paul. With utility-scale solar expected to take up three million acres of land by 2030 and six million by 2050, he added, companies and policy-makers are looking to pre-empt opposition by designing their projects with habitats in mind.
“A refrain that I’ve heard often is that the solar industry needs to learn the lessons of the wind industry,” Davis said. “When you build projects that people just complain about over and over again, you’re building a base of opposition.”
In this case, that learning was jump-started by a 2016 state ordinance that established “voluntary solar site management practices” that provided for native perennial vegetation to support pollinators, while also reducing stormwater runoff and erosion caused by non-native plants, gravel, or turf grass at solar sites. Since then, Utility Dive notes, “five other states have since enacted similar legislation.”
Davis pointed to the advantage for solar project proponents. “Having legislation to set standards and oversight to ensure developers ‘follow the lead of expert’ can create additional community trust,” he said. And that trust becomes a “’competitive advantage’” for utilities that want to “maximize their speed and agility” in gaining community support for new projects.
While native vegetation is more expensive to install than standard turf grass, maintenance of the fully self-sustaining ecosystem is far less costly. Moreover, conventional solar installations which demand wholesale removal of vegetation and flattened landscapes “lead to high preparation and labour costs, expected to account for 20% of the price of photovoltaic installations by 2020.”
And then there is the fact that “seeding solar grounds with native plant species provides agricultural and ecological benefits that gravel and turf cannot, such as better stormwater control because of plants’ deeper roots,” said Gavin Meinschein, lead civil engineer at ENGIE Distributed Solar. “Seeding can also boost solar efficiency by creating a cooler microclimate around the panels.”
Such seeding will grow ever more common as utility-scale solar expands, Utility Dive states, citing a study published this spring which found that “over 3,500 square kilometres of agricultural land near solar facilities in the United States could benefit from pollinator-dependent vegetation.”
Indeed, the study found that a failure to embrace the integrated bee farm + solar site model could have disastrous consequences. “In California,” for example, “70% of utility-scale solar sites are in rural areas, and a ‘number of potential adverse impacts have also been indicated with these large-scale developments, including altered hydrologic patterns, habitat loss and fragmentation, impacts to cultural and visual resources, and direct mortality of wildlife.’”
Kampuni za umeme zinazotengeneza mitambo mikubwa ya jua zinaangalia tena jinsi zinavyoathiri mazingira dhaifu yanayowazunguka, na wadudu wanaoingiza chavua wanaweza kuwa wananufaika. Shirika la umeme la Minnesota Connexus Energy hivi karibuni lilipata ruhusa ya kujenga mradi wa jua kwa kiwango cha huduma kwa kuwa na wataalamu wa wadudu wa kupandikiza, pamoja na wanasaikolojia, wanatoa ushahidi kwamba "hii haingekuwa maendeleo yoyote ya jua", ripoti za Utility Dive. Itakuwa na paradiso ya pollinator iliyojengwa kwa uangalifu, chini na kati ya paneli za jua, ya spishi za asili na nyuki wao wa mwenzake na wadudu wengine wenye manufaa. "Kuna kampuni ya Connexus Energy, ambayo sasa ni kampuni kubwa zaidi ya kuhifadhi nishati nchini Marekani, na sasa ni ""shamba la kwanza la nyuki na tovuti ya jua nchini,"" iligundua kwamba "" ardhi ni muhimu, "" alisema Rob Davis, mkurugenzi wa wote wa Kituo cha Pollinators katika Nishati, na pia Media na Innovation Lab katika Nishati safi katika St. Paul." "Kwa kuwa nishati ya jua inatarajiwa kuchukua ekari milioni tatu za ardhi ifikapo 2030 na milioni sita ifikapo 2050, kampuni na watunga sera wanatafuta kuzuia upinzani kwa kubuni miradi yao kwa kuzingatia mazingira ya mazingira. """ "Msemo ambao nimesikia mara nyingi ni kwamba sekta ya jua inahitaji kujifunza masomo ya sekta ya upepo", Davis alisema. "Wakati wa kujenga miradi ambayo watu wanalalamika juu yake tena na tena, unajenga msingi wa upinzani. ""Katika kesi hii, kujifunza huko kulianzishwa na amri ya serikali ya 2016 ambayo ilianzisha ""mazoea ya kujitolea ya usimamizi wa tovuti ya jua"" ambayo ilitoa mimea ya asili ya kudumu ili kusaidia wapigaji cha mvua, wakati pia kupunguza maji ya mvua na mmomonyoko unaosababishwa na mimea isiyo ya asili, mchanga, au nyasi ya nyasi kwenye tovuti za jua." Tangu wakati huo, Utility Dive anasema, "majimbo mengine matano tangu wakati huo yametunga sheria kama hiyo". Davis alionyesha faida kwa watetezi wa mradi wa jua. "Kuwa na sheria ya kuweka viwango na usimamizi ili kuhakikisha watengenezaji 'kufuata uongozi wa mtaalam' inaweza kuunda imani ya ziada ya jamii", alisema. Na kwamba uaminifu inakuwa "faida ya ushindani" kwa ajili ya huduma kwamba wanataka "kuongeza kasi yao na agility" katika kupata msaada wa jamii kwa miradi mpya. Ingawa ni ghali zaidi kuanzisha mimea ya asili kuliko nyasi ya kawaida, kudumisha mazingira yenye kujitegemea ni ghali zaidi. "Kwa kuongezea, mitambo ya jua ya kawaida ambayo inahitaji kuondolewa kwa jumla kwa mimea na mandhari ya gorofa ""inaongoza kwa gharama kubwa za maandalizi na kazi, inatarajiwa kuwa asilimia 20 ya bei ya mitambo ya jua ya umeme ifikapo mwaka 2020"" na kisha kuna ukweli kwamba ""kuweka mbegu za jua na spishi za mimea ya asili hutoa faida za kilimo na ikolojia ambazo mchanga na nyasi haziwezi, kama vile udhibiti bora wa maji ya mvua kwa sababu ya mimea iliyo na mizizi ya kina." "Umbegu wa jua unaweza pia kuongeza ufanisi wa jua kwa kuunda hali ya hewa ya baridi karibu na paneli. ""Umbegu wa jua utaongezeka zaidi na zaidi kama kiwango cha matumizi ya jua kinaongezeka, ""Uboreshaji wa Dive inasema, ikitaja utafiti uliochapishwa spring hii ambao uligundua kwamba "" zaidi ya kilomita 3,500 za mraba za ardhi ya kilimo karibu na vifaa vya jua nchini Marekani inaweza kufaidika na mimea ya pollinator. "" Kwa kweli, utafiti uligundua kwamba kushindwa kukumbatia mfano wa kilimo cha nyuki na tovuti ya jua inaweza kuwa na matokeo mabaya. """ "Kwa mfano, katika California, 70% ya maeneo ya nishati ya jua ya matumizi ya kiwango ni katika maeneo ya vijijini, na idadi ya athari mbaya za uwezekano pia zimeonyeshwa na maendeleo haya ya kiwango kikubwa, ikiwa ni pamoja na mabadiliko ya mifumo ya maji, hasara ya makazi na kugawanyika, athari kwa rasilimali za kitamaduni na kuona, na vifo vya moja kwa moja vya wanyamapori. """