Solar-Wildlife Field Research Advancing in 2025
The Renewable Energy Wildlife Research Fund (REWRF, the Fund), an industry-led initiative advancing scientific research on solutions to mitigate solar and wind-wildlife impacts, shares two project portfolio updates for 2025.
Avian Richness and Use of Utility-Scale Solar Facilities in Agricultural Environments, originally funded by REWRF as a 1-year study, is extending to include a second year of field study beginning in April 2025. Conducted by Environmental Consulting and Technology, Inc. (ECT), in collaboration with Michigan State University (MSU), this project seeks to understand how the development of utility-scale solar facilities constructed in agricultural environments in the Midwest impacts avian communities, a taxon of agency and public concern.
This project analyzes potential differences in bird community composition at utility-scale solar sites with varying attributes – vegetation structure and composition, seed mix, residential and commercial development proximity – as well as differences between bird communities in solar facilities compared to primarily agricultural landscapes. Researchers utilize autonomous recording units (ARUs) to monitor bird calls and conduct manual vegetation surveys.
The research team collected nearly 30,000 audio files and identified over 200 species of birds across all sites in the first year of study and looks forward to building on those results in year two.
Examination of Vertebrate Biodiversity Outcome Patterns at Solar PV Facilities Across Regions will kick off its first field season in April 2025. Conducted by Tetra Tech, the University of Arkansas, and the Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute (REWI), this project aims to build on baseline vertebrate biodiversity data at photovoltaic (PV) solar sites across the United States and expand the possibilities for understanding both wildlife interactions with solar and the impacts of specific development approaches.
Researchers will use a suite of well-established wildlife sampling methods to collect vertebrate biodiversity data across sixteen different solar sites in the Northeast, Southeast, West, and Texas, USA, with two objectives:
- Document and provide baseline data for the onsite biodiversity of standard, operating PV facilities across multiple regions.
- Use community occupancy modeling to explore on-site and surrounding landscape factors that affect biodiversity outcomes at various levels.
In addition to these updates, research continues across the other active projects in REWRF’s portfolio. Several studies will be wrapping up this year, including investigations of bat collision risk using acoustic exposure, spatiotemporal patterns in sex ratios of bat fatalities, and lek persistence of lesser prairie chickens in the vicinity of wind energy infrastructure. Open access manuscripts are expected to be made available at the culmination of each of these projects.
REWRF thanks its 25+ industry Partners and Friends, including two trade organizations, for supporting this work studying critical questions around renewables and wildlife.
REWRF is managed by the Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute (REWI) and steered by an Executive Committee led by Allison Poe, Repsol Renewables North America (Chair), Jodie Eldridge, NextEra Energy (Vice Chair), and Adam Cernea Clark, Pattern Energy (Secretary).