Demand for solar energy continues to accelerate. Signed power purchase agreements exceeding 70 GW will result in more than 500,000 acres of new PV solar by the end of 2024. Analysts predict nearly 2 million acres of PV solar by 2030 and 6.6 million acres by 2050. Meanwhile, bare ground or turfgrass are common practices on solar facilities and climate change and habitat loss are accelerating widespread decline in biodiversity—causing new challenges to the sustainability of ecosystems and agriculture.
March 4, 2021, 2-3 p.m. CST
Register for free here.
PV solar design and land management practices offer the potential to amplify the sustainability and biodiversity benefits of solar. For PV solar projects on arable land, enhanced vegetation under and around the solar panels that use a combination of deep-rooted perennial grasses, forbs, and legumes can deliver additional ecosystem services, climate resilience, and system benefits.
Though renewable energy procurement and project selection focuses on financial criteria, forward-thinking energy buyers are using procurement to accelerate innovation in the solar industry and realize additional environmental lift for their projects and brand.
If you can’t tune in live, please register and we will email you a link to access the archived webcast footage and resources, available to you on-demand after the webcast.
In this webcast you will learn:
- How the vegetation under and around solar projects can provide numerous system and ecosystem service benefits, including additional sequestered carbon and increased abundance of pollinators, and how Fresh Energy has advocated for these practices in the Midwest and around the country
- Why Clif Bar & Company and Bank of America decided to pursue these practices
- How you can ensure responses to your RFPs include projects with amplified sustainability and biodiversity benefits
Guests
- Joel Makower, CEO, GreenBiz Group (moderator)
- Elysa Hammond, SVP of Environmental Stewardship, Clif Bar & Company
- Beth Wytiaz, SVP Global Environmental Operations, Bank of America
- Rob Davis, Founder, Center for Pollinators in Energy, Fresh Energy