Powering the Future Through Plants, Panels, and Pollinators
By Kelley Northam
From your first sip of morning coffee to your late-night bite of chocolate, pollinators such as bees and butterflies are crucial to the food we enjoy every day. In fact, one out of every three bites of food, such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts, was brought from the field to your plate by these insects. Across industries, busy bees bring in billions, as pollinators’ annual ecological value is estimated at 200 billion dollars.
Unfortunately, pollinator populations and overall biodiversity have decreased due to habitat loss, pesticide usage, and climate change. However, researchers have begun to restore these insects' homes and fight climate change by building photovoltaic solar arrays on rehabilitated farmland.
Harvesting Sunlight and Data
Photovoltaic solar cells, also known as solar panels, convert sunlight to electricity and are a carbon-neutral energy source. Aside from sunlight, the main requirement of these panels is land, and lots of it. The United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Futures Study estimated that approximately 10 million acres of United States land is needed by 2050 to achieve solar development, decarbonization, and climate change goals. Research has also revealed that former farmland is ideal for housing solar panels. These insights have created a unique opportunity to study how agricultural practices and solar energy production interact, also known as agrivoltaics.
Described in a press release on anl.gov, researchers at the DOE Argonne National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory planted native grasses and wildflowers at two southern Minnesota solar sites in early 2018 to further understand agrivoltaics. Operated by Enel Green Power North America, both solar farms were built on retired agricultural land. They concluded their study in August 2022 and conducted a total of 358 observational surveys where they recorded and assessed changes in the abundance and biodiversity of flowering fauna and insects each visit.
Buzzworthy Breakthroughs
By the end of the study, all habitat and biodiversity metrics increased, including native plants and pollinators. There was also growth in the biodiversity of plants and insects such as honeybees, butterflies, beetles, and many more. Native bees increased 20-fold, and scientists observed these bees and other pollinators visiting nearby soybean fields, providing extra pollination.
These findings suggest a promising future for pollinators and restored farmland solar energy facilities and may even soothe concerns about the adverse effects of converting agricultural farms to solar farms. This study suggests that agrivoltaics can actually preserve farmland and make it more fruitful through additional pollination.
While more research is needed to confirm these conclusions, many scientists have already begun. In Georgia, land owned by former U.S. president and clean energy advocate Jimmy Carter has become a solar field that’s also restoring pollinator habitats. While researchers have been focusing on stormwater runoff and soil types, the pollinator population has flourished. SolAmercia Energy currently owns the land, and its vice president, John Buffington, noted that pollinator-friendly solar energy could change the industry. In the “Pollinator-Friendly Solar in Plains, Georgia” case study published on fresh-energy.org, Buffington stated that these sustainable practices also “help contribute to better management of a site by reducing the amount of our budget that goes to mowing and other maintenance.”
Although there is more to discover, these agrivoltaic studies have revealed new ways to restore environments, reduce emissions, and fight climate change. By protecting pollinators and creating habitat-friendly solar fields, we can create a brighter future for insect-kind and humankind.
Kelley Northam is a Thermo Fisher Scientific staff writer.
