Incentives needed for solar farm developers to consider biodiversity

It is expected that, over then next ten years, an additional 70,000 hectares of land will be used for solar farms, prompting the authors of a new study to call for policy change to ensure such installations are as beneficial to their host ecosystems as possible. 

Much has been made of the negative impact of land use change when that change involves the creation of a solar farm but the team from Lancaster University believe that solar farms can sit happily with nature and developers should be incentivised to make sure they do. 

At the moment, there are financial incentives that encourage the UK’s landowners and developers to manage land for biodiversity but these generally exclude land given over to solar.

It would not take a great deal of effort to minimise the impact of a solar farm on the land and developers should be encouraged to incorporate environmentally responsible elements to the design and installation of the farms. 

Areas the study highlights include the management of soil health to provide diverse habitats for wildlife during operation; allowing low intensity, rather than high intensity, grazing; using hedgerows, rather than fences, and moderate levels of mowing to maintain wildflower meadows.

Professor Alona Armstrong of Lancaster University and co-author of the paper said: ‘If located in the right places and managed correctly, solar farms have great potential to restore degraded habitats and help meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, although not every species may benefit. Some in the solar industry embed nature benefits into the design of solar farms and their management, but this approach is not universal.’

Professor Piran White of the University of York and co-author of the paper added: ‘There is considerable potential for more solar farms to be managed for the benefit of nature, so that existing solar farms and any new solar farms, such as those recently approved by the new Government, can contribute to mitigating the ecological crisis as well as the climate crisis.’

The team make six recommendations for policymakers to consider:

1. Formulate ecological and socio-economic indicators and metrics that are appropriate to underpin the development, implementation, and assessment of public policies
2. Adopt a cross-sectoral and cross-government approach to form public policies
3. Ensure solar farms can access public financial incentives that encourage sustainable land use
4. Implement land use policies that incentivise funding from non-government sources (e.g. private sector) into nascent nature markets
5. Embed solar farms in biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning policies and decision-making
6. Build equity and clarity into responsibilities and benefits for all actors involved

Hing Kin Lee, of NextEnergy Capital and co-author of the paper said: ‘Renewable energy, together with strategic land use and management, is essential to address the climate and nature crises. The right cross-sectoral policies and incentives can enhance nature on solar farms, providing long-term stable returns and measurable environmental benefits.’

Dr Fabio Carvalho, a Senior Research Associate at Lancaster University and lead author of the paper, said: ‘In order to deliver dual benefits for climate and nature, solar farms not only need to be well managed, but also supported by appropriate public policies that take a more coherent joined-up approach.

‘Unless policies aimed at boosting biodiversity on agricultural land include solar farms, we risk missing opportunities to enhance nature through land use change for solar farms, and perhaps even exacerbate the biodiversity crisis if solar farms are not properly built and managed.’