Monthly Archives: October 2021

Conservation

Solar arrays – what’s the problem?

                       Solar arrays – what’s the problem?

Villagers, including ramblers, are increasingly expressing concern about solar arrays in the community. Here are the ecology issues.

But first, here is my background: I was the ecologist on 60 of the 1000 large scale solar farms in England in Wales. Locally in East Sussex I was the ecologist for the Pashley Farm (Ninfield) solar farm.

Solar Ecology Facts:

  1. All these large solar farms are becoming nature reserves in their own right.
  2. This is because they were only granted planning permission on the basis of addressing ecological planning Conditions.
  3. The Conditions were for enhancements such as ponds, beetle banks, reptile and amphibian shelters, bird and bat boxes, badger swing gates, log piles, hedgehog homes, new hedgerows, buffer zones, wildflower meadows.
  4. Note: Even without enhancements the biodiversity goes up from year one, as the solar farms are all fenced and secure and wildlife moves in naturally.
  5. Solar farms / arrays should only go on poor grade soil land, or brownfield, not Grade 1 or 2 (so as not to take away any food production). And never in protected areas such as AONBs, SSSIs or nature reserves (e.g. such as the one proposed inside the Hastings Country Park nature reserve). There are advices and codes (see bibliography).
  6. There is little adverse environmental impact from solars, as they above the ground on posts, and in many cases grazed by sheep below, so farming continues as normal.  Soil conservation is assured.
  7. There appears to be no adverse environmental impact on wildlife (birds) from ‘glare’ (see refs).
  8. Planning permission for solars is granted for 25 years in most cases (some exceptions).
  9. There is usually a Condition to restore the site back to what it was – ‘to revert it to its original condition’ (typically oilseed rape, or winter wheat); it will be a conservation nightmare as it will have become biodiverse through the conditioned enhancements.
  10. Thus solar farms are nature reserves – all 1000 of them. Fenced and secure, where wildlife thrives naturally and has been deliberately encouraged.

Access – Rambling

Solar farms are mostly not open access as they are on private land.  With the loss of the Feed in Tariff (FIT), many local authorities are maximizing their own council land, realising they could provide community electricity and sell it. Similarly, villagers are also creating their own community solar arrays. Where footpaths and bridlepaths are beside, or through, a solar farm, then this can always be accommodated in the design – creating a safe and fenced-off walkway. Remember all solar farms are dangerous ‘power stations’.  See aerial Google.maps for walkways through solar farms as in the Fareham area of Hampshire. Ecological interpretive boards were provided there to help observe flora and fauna.

Monitoring planning applications – what you can do

There is no ecological objection to solar arrays on private land – they can only be good for biodiversity especially with enhancements.

Pros:

i) clean, sustainable energy;

ii) land protected from other development for 25 years – a benefit! Solars are temporary.

Cons: eyesore??  See below – participate in the planning process

When consulting planning applications for solar arrays then it is best to:

  • Ensure that the site has a Phase 1 Habitats Survey to determine any protected species present e.g. badgers, newts.
  • If protected species present, what avoidance or mitigation is applied?
  • Ensure that application design plan incorporates each enhancement.
  • Ask for a bund to restrict visual intrusion where necessary.
  • Ask for a screening hedgerow (native species – oak, holly, field maple, hornbeam).  (great opportunity here for insisting on filling gaps in hedgerows – good for wildlife corridors).
  • Remind LPAs to have a generous buffer (e.g.10m) between arrays and protected areas such as Ancient woodland (local policies often apply), and instigate wildlife enhancements such as in 3) above.
  • Protect all single trees on site – they can be accommodated on most solar farms,
  • Ensure badger gates are incorporated where badgers are present (see 1,2).
  • Ensure developer adheres to best practices (see Biblio).
  • Does the connection to the grid go through badger setts (can be up to 1km long), or through or past protected habitats etc.
  • Ask for an Interpretive board to explain what wildlife there is to be seen.

Publications on solar arrays and biodiversity by John Feltwell (2013-2015)

Feltwell, J. 2013a.  Are photovoltaic solar arrays an influencing factor in avian mortality? The Newsletter of The Kent Field Club. February 2013. Number 77, p.18-27.

No impact on birds

Feltwell, J. 2013b Solar Farms and Biodiversity. Guest blog on Solar Power Portal. 16  September 2013.     http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/guest_blog/solar_farms_and_biodiversity_2356

                    Solar farms boost biodiversity, even make nature reserves.

Feltwell, J. 2013c Résumé of solar farms in England and Wales.  Briefing given at National Trust roundtable, 17 September 2013. http://www.solar-trade.org.uk/solarFarms.cfm

Feltwell, J. 2013d. Solar farms for bumblebees. Buzzword, The Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s  Members Newsletter. November 2013. Issue 23, p.13-14.

                   Solar farms excellent for bumblebees and other insects

Feltwell, J. 2013e. Biodiversity on solar farms – building tomorrow’s solar farms.  Solar Business  Focus UK. Volume 10 – 2013. 6-7.

                    Solar farms boost biodiversity, even make nature reserves. Solar are the new ‘fallow’

Feltwell, J. 2013f.  A comparative biodiversity study of a working solar farm and a wheat field in West  Sussex, July- November 2013. (Unpublished Report, dated 7 December 2013).

Increased biodiversity on a solar farm compared to an organic wheat field

Feltwell, J. 2014a. Solar farms: gain or grain? Solar Business Focus UK. Volume 11 – 2014. p.40-41.

           Solar farms do not take more than 0.14% away from the UK’s agricultural crops

Feltwell, J. 2014b Observations on the effects of photovoltaic solar panels on invertebrates at Ebbsfleet Farm, Sandwich, Kent 2010-2012. The Newsletter of The Kent Field Club. Number 79.

February 2014. p.4-17.  No impact on invertebrates  (there are 32,000 terrestrial inverts in Britain)

  1. E. Parker and L. Greene (with Feltwell, J. 2014c as co-contributor) BRE (2014) Biodiversity Guidance for Solar Developments. Eds. G. E. Parker and L. Greene. 9pp.

                      Essential reading for all developers and planners….  Introduction of the BMP  (Biodiversity Management Plan).

Feltwell, J. 2014d, reviewed by John Arthur LLP. Solar farms and eco-law. E-Law, Issue 84 (September-October) pp.27-30. An On-line publication by UK Environmental Law Association.       

                       An up to date résumé of solar farms and UK and EU law

Feltwell, J. BLOG on solar farms and biodiversity http://www.britishrenewables.com/landowners/blog/

13 Nov 2014 Thoughts on Biodiversity,    15 Dec 2014 Sustainable Solar Farms,     15 Jan 2015 NPPF and Biodiversity

 

Bibliography

BRE (2014) Agricultural Good Practice Guidance for Solar Farms. Ed J Scurlock, http://isea.co.com/news-docs/Agricultural-   Good-Practice-Guidance-for-Solar-Farms.pdf

(retrieved 28 Oct 2021)

Evidence review of the impact of solar farms on birds, bats and general ecology 2016 (NEER012)   file:///C:/Users/John/Downloads/NEER012%20Evidence%20review%20of%20the%20impact%20of%20solar%20farms%20on%20birds,%20bats%20and%20general%20ecology%202016.pdf (retrieved 28 Oct 2021)

       Dr John Feltwell, A Wildlife Matters Flier  dated 29 Oct 2021  http://wildlifematters.com   – free to circulate

Book reviews, Conservation, Insects

Death’s Head H/Moth … 2021

Howse, P.  2021, Bee Tiger: The Death’s Head Hawk-Moth through the Looking-glass. Brambleby Books. pp119. ISBN  978-1-908241-62-7  9-781908 24 1627  £13.99

 

                         

There have been precious few books on a single moth, with the exception of perhaps the Silk moth, Bombyx mori or one of the moon moths or emperors or some of the glamorous day-flying moths. This is not so much an entomological treatise on the Death’s head hawk-moth than a comprehensive discourse on skulls, bones and all interpretations of these patterns and messages as we may see them;  it is all in the sub-title, ‘through the looking glass’. Mimicry, which is the author’s passion, and nature’s gift, is full of visual interpretation of the dynamic living world and thus subject to vagaries in our understanding. There is a tendency to anthropomorphosise. And so it is with this hawk-moth. It is a large lumbering moth which has evolved to be a honey thief within honeybee colonies. For a large lumbering moth it must have an acute sense of smell to search out and find honeybee colonies, and as for its large size, it does need this to go deep in a hive and plunder the goods. It may of course be too big for bats to handle, as bats weigh less.  Unusually for hawk-moths the death’s head has a very stubby proboscis which it pierces the capped brood and feeds unmolested by the bees. Philip Howse, describes how the morphology of the moth, and its sounds, mimic the piping of the queen bee and it may thus sooth the behaviour of the colony.  Of the bright colour of this moth, the contrasting yellows and black we are told mimic the warming colours of wasps and hornets – more for the daytime predators, birds and reptiles than bees.  And, as for the scary death’s head, this is also for daytime predators – especially if seen from in front, rather than as we conventionally view a moth as settled or set. The classic medusa head of ancient Rome and Pompeii are invoked, especially with hair entwined with snakes. Photos of heads and skulls are shown, including Picasso’s ‘In Voluptate Mors’. Philip Howse is a poet and he publishes a few of his lines as well as many others, and cites quotations from a host of others including Homer, Faust, Proust, Jung, Darwin and more recently Miriam Rothschild who also was enthralled by the moth.  The book is relatively short with nine blank pages at the back (printing problem?) and there is a bibliography, index and glossary of 28 colour plates.   There are nine chapters, three of which are linked, the honeybees’ tale, the bat’s tale and the bird’s tale – all expressing how mechanisms have evolved in these groups over millions of years to feast and forage. The author goes to extraordinary lengths to describe the colour vision of birds and then at the end of the chapter to show how birds might view the moth. The same for the bat’s tale chapter, and exposé of the bat’s capabilities in detecting prey on the wing, all backed up with up to date technical research and discoveries.  With an exciting cover, and a good in-depth read around the subjects, this book will appeal to entomologists, naturalists and members of the general public. The author is Professor Emeritus in Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton and is the author of a number of general natural history books.