The planet needs solar power. Can we build it without harming nature?
But for a nation racing to adopt renewable energy, the land is prime for something else: solar panels. The sun shines strong, the terrain is flat and high-voltage transmission lines are in place from a decommissioned coal plant. Energy collected here could speed to major metropolitan regions across the West, part of a colossal wave of clean power needed to stave off the worst effects of global warming.
Animals need humans to solve climate change. But they also need places to live. Loss of habitat is the top driver of a staggering global decline in biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth. The boom in solar power, set to be the fastest-growing energy source in the United States, is predicted to fence off millions of acres across the nation, blanketing them in rows of glassy squares.
The good news for wildlife is that there are ways for solar developers to make installations less harmful and even beneficial for many species, including fences that let some animals pass, wildlife corridors, native plants that nurture pollinators and more.
But at this pivotal moment, as solar farms sprout nationwide, those measures often go unused. Among the reasons: a patchwork of local and state regulations governing large-scale solar, not enough research on how animals interact with it and an absence of federal guidelines on siting or design.
«We're faced with two truths: We have a climate change crisis, but we also have a biodiversity crisis,» said Meaghan Gade, a program manager at the Association of Fish & Wildlife
