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/MyCoffeeIsCold 3h ago

Solar is great and has a place in our energy portfolio in the right locations.

We have had proposals to clear cut 60-70 acres of FOREST for solar projects here in New York. One of the dumbest things I have ever heard.

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u/Hamstafish 2h ago

Forests are not universally something great though. Lots of forests around the world are essentially just monocrops with as much biodiversity as a cornfield. I wouldn't be supprised if a wildflower medow under a solar farm is a more biodeverse and valuble habitat than most forests. Even "natural" forests, can be essentially dead places, with the boreal forests of the north being far less productive and lacking in biodiversity compared to the grasslands they replaced. Today must forests are just biomass farms for heating and lumber, and solar panels are orders of magnitude more efficent at turning sunlight into energy than forests are. If you cut 70 acres of forest for solarfarms you need 700 acres less forests for biomass powerplants.

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u/goda90 2h ago

Plantations can be turned into diverse forests by strategically pulling trees over, roots and all, which provides new habitats and creates variation in the canopy so more niches can be filled.