Changes to how solar PV park land in the UK is managed could see sites support four times as many bumble bees, new research has found.
Specifically, this can be achieved by managing land as meadows rather than turf grass, with researchers at Lancaster University coming to this conclusion through the use of a model that simulated bumble bee foraging in UK solar parks.
The researchers looked specifically at ground nesting bumble bees, also finding that large, elongated and resource-rich solar parks could boost bumble bee density up to 1km outside of the parks themselves, delivering pollinator services to crops in surrounding agricultural land.
However, barriers to solar parks being managed in ways that benefit bumble bees were also identified, including the costs associated with establishing and managing habitats for pollinators, with no economic incentives for the solar industry to do this.
Read more: Solar Power Portal
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