Countries across the globe are working toward decarbonization, leading to an increase in solar farms as they transition to more renewable energy.
However, despite the benefits of solar farms, they occupy vital land at a time when biodiversity loss and land degradation are rampant.
According to a study shared on Wiley, though, solar farms could become refuges for bumblebees, thereby aiding biodiversity conservation.
British researchers from the U.K. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster University, and the University of Reading explored how solar farms could be used in future biodiversity conservation efforts, particularly investigating how their management could attract more bumblebees.
To do this, the researchers utilized a process-based pollinator model and a Geographic Information System to assess how varying management strategies could support bumblebee populations on Britain's 1,042 existing solar farms. The team studied the two most common current management strategies under various potential socioeconomic futures, including a sustainable future, one dependent on dirty energy sources, and a middle-of-the-road scenario.
As AlphaGalileo reported, one of the authors of the study, Dr. Hollie Blaydes, explained, "We took existing land use futures maps and downscaled them to a resolution that is more relevant to bumblebees. Then, we added features […] which are important landscape elements for bumblebees and combined the maps with a pollinator model. The model predicts how bees use these landscapes […] This aspect of the work was particularly novel — it is unusual for modeling like this to be done in such detail."
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The researchers discovered that when solar farm management involved wildflower patches rather than plain turf, bumblebee populations on solar farms could more than double. However, the study also showed that these effects would likely be limited, as the quantity of foraging spaces found in the landscape around these farms had a greater impact on bumblebee numbers.
Additionally, all the predicted futures indicated that agricultural land around solar farms was likely to decrease due to factors such as increased urbanization and changing diets.
However,the sustainable future model in the study accounted for the multifunctionality of agricultural land. If this method were to evolve, farmland could be used not only for raising livestock and growing crops, but also to host solar farms and conserve biodiversity.
Utilizing agricultural land to boost renewable energy in this way could conserve natural resources, benefit local communities by lowering utility bills, and generate extra income for small farmers. It could also go a long way toward meeting the sustainability goal of cleaning up the agricultural industry while curbing pollution, reducing pollution-related illnesses in nearby communities in the process.
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As Dr. Blaydes said, according to AlphaGalileo, "Solar farms can be refuges for bumblebees in the present day and in the future and could play a part in mitigating habitat loss — if managed well. But, solar farms alone will not be able to counteract the effects of all future land use changes on bumblebees and other biodiversity."
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