Balancing biodiversity with food & energy production

Project Overview

 

The prospect of integrating farming, conservation, and clean energy could simultaneously reward farmers for producing food and energy, while protecting natural resources. Project SAgES (Solar, Agriculture and Ecosystem Services) is a collaboration with researchers at the University of Minnesota that aims to enable farmers, energy developers, governments, and communities to quantify the environmental benefits of deploying solar technologies in agricultural landscapes and identify opportunities to align the costs and benefits solar could provide to each stakeholder group. Natural Capital Insights is quantifying solar’s technical potential as well as its potential to improve ecosystem services based on where the array is sited. We are finding that the potential to support improved water quality and pollinator conservation using solar largely depends on its location within five miles of a substation. This work shows that with thoughtful planning, solar energy deployment could be used to support other conservation and environmental goals.