This document summarizes a presentation about using pollinator-friendly vegetation at solar sites. It discusses how incomplete pollination impacts 70% of crops and costs hundreds of billions per year. Maintaining pollinator habitats can help address this at a very low cost compared to other solar options. The presentation provides examples of large solar installations in Minnesota and Ohio that have used pollinator-friendly seed mixes, and discusses considerations for what constitutes an effective pollinator-friendly standard at solar sites. Benefits include community support, reduced maintenance needs, and protecting solar panel performance. Questions around risks of fire or endangered species are mentioned. Conservation grazing is also discussed as a method to actively manage vegetation diversity and soil health at solar sites

1. Solar Sites, Pollinators, and
Performance Vegetation
10:30 am – 12:00 pm, July 30
• Rob Davis, Fresh Energy
• Robin Ernst, Ernst Pollinator Services
• Heidi Hartmann, Argonne National
Laboratory

8. Incomplete Pollination
• 70% of crops
• 100’s of billions / year

11. >99% Cheaper
NREL, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Energytrend.com

12. Photo: Janelle Patterson, Marietta Times
Solar array, Ohio

20. Guy Parker

22. Bee the Change

23. Minnesota Native Landscapes

24. © Rob Davis

25. September 2016
Engie & Prairie Restorations

26. Engie & Prairie Restorations Inc.
September 2017

27. Engie & Prairie Restorations Inc.

28. Denison University,
Photo by Susan Studer King

29. Minnesota Power solar
Prairie Restorations

30. University of Dayton
Photo by Terry Levy

33. Aurora Solar
100 MW distributed
solar array
16 sites
1,000 acres
Pollinator-friendly seed
mix used on all sites

34. North Star Solar
100 MW solar array
1,000 acres
Largest single-site array
in the Midwest
Pollinator-friendly seed
mix from Minnesota
Native Landscapes used
throughout

35. Newsletter

39. Co-location of solar & agriculture

41. “…will adopt pollinator-friendly solar standards...”
Once complete, these meadows, filled with native flowering
plants and grasses, will create as much bee and butterfly habitat
as if 30,000 families were to each plant six-by-twelve-foot
pollinator gardens.

42. What constitutes “pollinator-friendly”
in the context of a solar array?

44. Pollinator-Friendly Solar
Incremental <> Meaningful
Solar site vegetation that helps bees
and beneficial insects

45. Flexible Standard
• Percent wildflowers
• Percent native species
• Diversity of species
• # seasons flowering
• Nearby assets
• Signage? Mgt plan?
• Insecticide risk

46. Benefits / Questions / Issues
Benefits
• Community support
• Soil benefits
• Permit approval
• Reduced mower/solar contact
• Reduced grading/stormwater
• Resilient landscaping
• Brand / enhanced reputation
• Solar energy performance
• Reduced frost heave risk
Questions
• Burn/fire risk
• OSHA
• Endangered species act
• Seed supply
• Unfamiliarity / training

47. John Jacob of Old Sol Apiaries
Pine Gate Renewables Solar
Medford, Oregon

48. Dustin Vanasse of Bare Honey
IPS Solar, Minnesota
Photo by Dennis Schroeder

49. Conservation Grazing
• Controlled rotational grazing
• Benefits plant diversity
• Benefits soil health
• Actively managed grazers
keep animals focused on
vegetation

51. Thank you!
Rob Davis
Director, Center for Pollinators in Energy
Fresh Energy
davis@fresh-energy.org
www.fresh-energy.org

52. Robin Ernst
CEO
Ernst Pollinator
Services