Solar farms could be the saving of insects and birdlife

Photo by Bango at Morguefile.com 
  

Here’s the thing: to our untrained eye, a corn field looks more "natural" than an array of solar panels. But a corn field is a biological desert - basically there are no pollinators there at all (corn is self-pollinating) because they are sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. Put up some solar panels, and add some plants that only need to be mowed once a year or so (sometimes with sheep) and you see an explosion of life.

That's Mike Kiernan talking. He's set up a small non-profit business that grows plants that native pollinators like between the rows solar farms in Vermont and is a neighbour of Bill McKibben, who writes The Crucial Years blog.

And Bill has some more good news about solar farms from pv magazine:

Biologist Matthias Stoefer said the high density of breeding larks in one of Germany’s largest solar parks in Brandenburg, north of Berlin, is astonishing. In his breeding territory mapping, he counted 178 spots within the solar park and surrounding areas. 

On average, there are 21 to 47 breeding pairs per 10 hectares. This is the highest lark density he has ever encountered. The reference area on a nearby field has only 33 spots, equivalent to 7.6 lark pairs per 10 hectares. Whether they can breed successfully there when the farmer sprays, fertilizes, and harvests throughout the summer is questionable, however.

The high numbers in the ground-mounted PV systems are also surprising because larks avoid vertical structures. The birds prefer open, wide landscapes away from forests and forest edges. However, the long photovoltaic rows with six modules stacked on top of each other do not seem to bother them. Instead, they benefit from the advantages of the location.

People rarely visit the fenced-in facility. The vegetation is kept short by sheep, which are currently lying in the sun with their lambs between the rows of modules. The sheep’s droppings and a changing selection of flowering herbs provide the birds with a varied insect buffet.

I'm not one to rage against Nimbys: people are bound to be attached to green spaces where they walk their dogs or played as children, and there are other villains in the housing debate who get off too lightly.

But much of the debate about development and the environment is wrongheaded. Suburban gardens are usually much richer in life than the fields they replace; while everyone's favourite target for development - brownfield sites in towns and cities - can be ecologically valuable too.

And now is sounds as though solar farms, properly managed, could be the saving of wildlife on farms.