Event Description

Solar PV is now the fastest growing form of new energy in the US. We could produce 100% of our total energy demand by converting 1 to 2 percent of the landscape to solar. Farm land and old fields are being converted to solar farms across the US and around the world. While this transition in land use from Ag to Clean Energy is essential for making the clean energy transition, it is in everyone's best interest that solar farms are planted with seed mixes that are insect and wildlife friendly while also adding ecological services like reducing stormwater runoff and improving ecological health of the soil and land.

Join Tim Montague, solar expert and ecologist, for a discussion about how the solar industry and allied professions are expanding the use of pollinator and wildlife friendly solar installation. Some projects are growing other cash crops like honey, strawberries and other foodstuffs. The goal is to improving the industry's ability to meet growing demands and opportunities across the US and Canada to develop high quality wildlife, pollinator, and agribusiness habit inside and adjacent to solar farms.

Key Questions Addressed Include:

• Understand the difference between pollinator friendly and industrial monocrop vegetation cover
• What is agrivoltaics? How is it similar and different than pollinator/wildlife friendly?
• Learn what are the current best practices for planting and maintaining pollinator and wildlife friendly solar farms
• Get a an overview of some successful projects and case studies
• What are the challenges and opportunities for the renewable energy industries?
• Large vs. small scale project impacts on the environment