To avoid the worst effects of climate change, we need to stop burning the fossil fuels that are warming the planet and rapidly transition to carbon-free forms of energy like solar, wind and geothermal.
Meanwhile, climate change, along with habitat loss and pesticide use, is causing populations of pollinator insects to crash, imperiling plant life, including some plants humans use for food. Some estimates put the rate of decline at about 2% per year or 45% over the last 40 years.
There’s hope that efforts to solve one problem might help with the other: Recent research by scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory found that the conscious design of solar farms can help reverse the decline of pollinators. In Minnesota, two solar sites planted with native plants had their pollinator populations triple in just four years.
The results “tell us that it is achievable and you can see pretty quick results at the solar sites within four years or so,” said Lee Walston, an ecologist at Argonne National Laboratory and an author of the published research.
The problem for pollinators
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Problems for pollinators could translate into problems for people, too. Research published in 2022 found that declining populations of pollinators and the resulting decline in crop production could contribute to more than 400,000 premature deaths each year. Pollinators add billions of dollars to the economy each year.
How solar farms can make room for pollinators
The two solar installations the Argonne scientists studied were formerly working farmlands that were then filled with solar panels and native plants. Pollinators came flooding back with the reappearance of plants that provide habitat and food.
Over the study both the number and type of flowering plants and insects increased, with some types more than tripling. There were twenty times more native bees present at the solar installations at the end of the four years.
In 2024, these aren’t new results, but they match the findings of other studies.
“We saw that within these other studies there were pretty rapid responses. Within five years you noticed a big increase in that plant community and a big increase in the pollinator community,” Walston said. “Our results sort of fit in with that.”
That timeline is likely to vary based on region. While five years fits a typical timeline for the region, hotter, drier areas might take longer, Walston said.
Solar farms on farmland
Large-scale solar installations on agricultural land have been something of a flashpoint recently, with local opposition stopping individual projects or barring such developments wholesale. It’s a challenge that makes achieving climate goals more difficult.
Solar installations may require 10 million acres, or 0.5% of the country’s surface area by 2050, according to a 2021 report from the US Department of Energy. The same report says disturbed lands (a category that includes developed areas and areas impacted by invasive species) make up 8% of the contiguous 48 state’s surface area, while agricultural land makes up 43%. Paved and urban areas (that include a lot of rooftops) make up another 5%.
