Can solar technology save the bees?

Bees have been in great danger in the past few years and researchers are discovering important links in the relationship of the bees to their environment. Due to the decline of pollinating insects, such as wild bees and monarch butterflies, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are investigating methods to use solar power to potentially save the bees’ precious habitat.
Researchers hope to rehabilitate pollinator populations of bees that play a crucial role in the national and global agricultural industries. Loss of such vital species could devastate crop production, costs, and nutrition on a global scale.

Though physically small, insects are at least somewhat responsible for pollinating nearly 75 percent of all crops worldwide that are consumed by humans in their daily diet. As man-made environmental stressors – including pesticides and land development – have increased, insects have lost habitats and species have declined alarmingly.

Utility-scale solar operations

However, a team of Argonne researchers has been examining the potential benefits of establishing pollinator habitat at utility-scale solar energy (USSE) facilities to conserve pollinators and restore the ecosystem they provide. Analyzing over 2,800 existing and planned USSE facilities in the United States, researchers in Argonne’s Environmental Science (EVS) division have found that the vicinity around solar panels could provide an ideal location for the plants that attract pollinators.

Often filled with gravel or turf grass, this land otherwise goes unused. Research has shown that in some locations these places offer an ideal place to establish native plant species, such as prairie grass or wildflowers, which are prevalent pollinator habitats, in hopes of encouraging population growth.

Helping to conserve declining pollinator populations, EVS researchers Lee Walston, Heidi Hartmann, Shruti Khadka Mishra and Ihor Hlhowskyj, along with National Renewable Energy Laboratory researchers James McCall and Jordan Macknick believe that growing pollinator habitat around solar sites will also help improve the sustainability of solar energy development in agricultural regions. By increasing the ability of pollinators to pollinate adjacent agricultural fields, solar-sited pollinator habitat may increase farmer’s crop yields and make solar farms a welcome neighbor to agricultural farms.

Solar energy developments provide hope

The researchers examined whether solar-sited pollinator habitat could benefit agriculture in a recent study published in Environmental Science & Technology. The study found over 3,500 square kilometers of agricultural land near existing and planned USSE facilities that could benefit. Walston believes this way of rehabilitation could help reinstate the declining pollinator population with few negative side effects.

“Solar-sited pollinator habitat can help optimize the land-use efficiency of solar energy developments, while not compromising solar panel efficiency,” he said.
“We’re also looking into whether the high upfront costs for seed mixes and establishing the pollinator habitats will be offset by lower facility maintenance costs,” added Hartmann.

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