An upcoming study will look at the impact of solar farms on nature by deploying artificial intelligence (AI) technology alongside acoustic monitoring to assess pollinator levels.
Led by renewable energy company Low Carbon in partnership with Lancaster University and the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the research will combine AI with acoustic monitoring devices to provide near continuous assessment of pollinators on solar farms, in order to gauge how solar farms can boost pollinator biodiversity compared to traditional farmland.
The study will mark the first time that both technologies are deployed in tandem in a renewable energy setting and will be carried out at Westmill Solar Park in Oxfordshire, which was developed by Low Carbon in 2011 and operates as a cooperatively run, community-owned solar project.
Low Carbon invests in, develops, and operates solar, wind, energy storage, and energy from waste projects across the UK, Europe, and North America, aiming to operate 20 GW of new capacity by 2030, and with over 15 GW of new renewable energy currently in development worldwide.
The research aims to provide key evidence for emerging policies such as the UK’s Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) policy, which became mandatory in February, and for how renewable energy firms measure the impact of development on nature.
England’s BNG market requires new development projects to achieve a net biodiversity improvement of at least 10% as of Feb. 12, 2024, with nature restoration ventures popping up to serve the market.
Low Carbon expects to generate thousands of surplus BNG units from improving biodiversity on sites in England by allowing them to naturally rewild, and would like to sell these units onto a large developer who needs them, the company told Carbon Pulse.
Low Carbon is required to meet the biodiversity uplift requirement in order to receive planning permission but expects to easily meet the threshold, with estimated 80-150% biodiversity uplift across its portfolio of sites so far.
The developer expects to generate about 2,000 BNG units from 10 of its upcoming projects, most of which will start operating this year, with the team so far quoted in the region of £25,000-35,000 a unit.
The study at Westmill Solar Park will deploy acoustic monitoring devices that measure pollinator activity, alongside Automated Monitoring of Insects (AMI) traps that assess moth biodiversity, and undertake traditional field surveys within the solar farm and the adjacent land, the parties said in a press release Wednesday.
By doing so, it aims to investigate how microclimatic variation within solar farms might impact bees, hoverflies, and other invertebrates.
The study is being funded by Low Carbon and the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Impact Acceleration Account, with Low Carbon and Lancaster University also undertaking a separate study looking into the behaviour of queen bumblebees at solar sites.
“By harnessing these emerging technologies alongside carrying out traditional monitoring techniques, we hope to gain insight into what the future of biodiversity monitoring might look like at solar farms.
The data we collect will also tell us more about how pollinators respond to solar farms, compared to similar land uses, which is key when trying to embed biodiversity benefits into solar developments,” said Hollie Blaydes, researcher at Lancaster University, who is leading the study.
By Bryony Collins – bryony@carbon-pulse.com
