r/UpliftingNews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 4h ago

Two Minnesota solar farms planted native grasses and wildflowers beneath their panels. Five years later, flowering plant species had increased sevenfold, native bee numbers more than 20 fold and total insect numbers had tripled, while more bees were also visiting nearby soybean fields.

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/two-minnesota-solar-farms-turned-the-ground-beneath-their-panels-into-habitat-and-native-bee-abundance-rose-more-than-20-fold/36680/
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u/BasicReputations 3h ago

I am curious ho they keep the brush down. Autumn olive has been our nemesis in our prairie and panels must be a pain to mow.

18

u/ClearRefrigerator519 3h ago

Goats and sheep

19

u/Hamaczech13 3h ago

Goats and solar panels are unfortunately not a good combination. They will try to climb on top of them and also chew on cables. Sheep on the other hand are great for keeping most of the vegetation low, sometimes too low though, which isn't good for the flowering plants. Sheep also won't eat sone plants like nettles and woody stemmed bushes so some manual mowing is necessary from time to time (my job btw). Honestly the best thing to do (from the ecosystem's perspective) is to mount the panels like 0.5-1 meter higher, divide the area with fences and rotate where it's graized, letting the flowering plants bloom before the sheep snack on them.

11

u/Onrawi 3h ago

Which is also already a thing.  Sheep like the solar panels too https://solargrazing.org/what-is-solar-grazing/