The Illinois-based Argonne National Laboratory has published two studies highlighting an increase in bird and bat activity at ecovoltaic solar installations in the midwestern United States.
Both studies involved the researchers using passive acoustic monitoring to investigate animal behaviours around ecovoltaic solar installations in the Midwestern US. The team set acoustic recorders on 12 ecovoltaic sites as well as 12 nearby agricultural fields representing pre-solar land use. Bird and bat activities were monitored at the sites between May to September, months that are peak nesting season for grassland birds and peak active and pup-rearing season for bats, in both 2023 and 2024.
The monitored PV sites in the studies ranged between 7.5 hectares and 550 hectares in size, with capacities between 3.5 MW and 200 MW. Most of the facilities consisted of single-axis tracker technologies and features planted seed mixes consisting of grasses and forbs beneath the panels.
The research paper “Ecovoltaic solar energy development can promote grassland bird communities,” available in the British Ecological Society, found that the richness of grassland bird species was nearly two times greater on the ecovoltaic sites than in the agricultural reference fields throughout most of the monitoring season.
Most grassland bird species also showed greater occupancy at the ecovoltaic sites. The research team found over 230 bird nests at the solar sites throughout the study period, with most belonging to species including the American Robin, Barn Swallow and Mourning Dove.
In the research paper, the team writes that birds may be attracted to ecovoltaic systems for refuge or as habitat for foraging and nesting, with some species maybe also looking to nest on or within the PV infrastructure, in order to shelter nests from predators and extreme weather.
The researchers add that the paper is the first to empirically report on avian community responses to ecovoltaic sites in the U.S. and suggest future work should investigate whether increased bird occupancy at ecovoltaic solar sites results in improved fitness and population viability through studying metrics such as nest success and collision mortality risk.
The research paper Bat activity at ecovoltaic solar energy developments in the Midwestern United States, available in the research journal Global Ecology and Conservation, highlights that bat activity was greater on ecovoltaic solar sites than on offsite control fields during the first half of the summer monitoring season.
Species such as the Big Brown Bat and Haory Bat were noticeably more active on the ecovoltaic sites. Throughout the monitoring season, bats never showed greater activity levels in the reference agricultural fields.
These findings lead the researchers to conclude that ecovoltaic sites may provide early-season habitat for bats at a time of year when resources may be limited in the surrounding landscape.
The research paper’s conclusion adds that it remains difficult to discern whether bat activity was driven by PV infrastructure, on-site habitat establishment, or a combination of both. It adds that further investigations of the types of bat calls being recorded at PV sites, and the relationship with insect prey abundance, are needed to understand the underlying drivers of species-specific responses to solar developments.
The research team told pv magazine that, as the vast majority of PV developments are sited on previously disturbed lands formerly used for agricultural production, the intentional establishment of habitat at these PV developments can have meaningful biodiversity benefits.
“Encouragingly, a growing number of PV sites in the Midwest are implementing ecovoltaic principles, as demonstrated by the InSPIRE Agrivoltaics Map, showing promise that these innovative PV designs can offer a nature-based solution to reconcile energy development with biodiversity conservation,” the team added.
“Our results show promise that birds and bats can benefit from ecovoltaic designs on previously disturbed lands. But we still need to make sure these sites are managed in a way that ensures long-term biodiversity benefits. This is why continued monitoring and adaptive management are so important.”
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.