Solar Farms - An Unexpected Ally for Wildlife?
Solar Farms - An Unexpected Ally for Wildlife?
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Feb '26
Feb '26
Even the most casual observer will notice the harsh juxtaposition of sharp, cold solar panels, amongst the rolling green of the British Countryside. The sight can invoke uneasy feelings; an instinctive revulsion and mourning for the loss of yet more precious habitat, with grim acceptance that something must be done to change our energy sources. We have a collective responsibility to make it work.
Observing, photographing and learning about wildlife has been a lifelong passion of mine. Weekend mornings often find me out and about somewhere, camera or binoculars in hand, wondering what I’ll see; I never come home feeling empty handed.
Recently, I had the opportunity to conduct such a morning expedition on a local farm in Warwickshire, which has undergone a transformation in the last few years - converting circa 200 acres to solar farms. It's not a simple task, with a long period of archeological surveying, groundworks and then finally the assembling of the panels and their fencing. Given the amount of disturbance, construction and changes to the landscape, I was curious to see if there had been a noticeable impact to the wildlife on the farm.
As the dawn broke, I felt at ease. The woods and hedgerows erupted into their usual song. The brown hares, which had become more and more established prior to the solar farm project beginning, were more numerous than I had remembered - and the deer were there in the same number. On a 2 hour walk around the farm, I counted well over a dozen deer, and innumerable tracks. The badger setts seemed as active and occupied as I could remember, and the large mammals on the farm seemed unaffected. I had expected this population to suffer the most, given how the fields were now fenced in, and was pleasantly surprised to notice no discernible effect.
The need to move away from traditional sources of electricity is well understood, and solar is a critical renewable to explore. Even in the UK, with its weather, one acre of solar panels can generate 350,000 to 450,000 kWh of electricity per year - enough for over 100 households, according to eOn energy.
Successive UK governments have put funding and grants into the industry, but the biggest change came into effect in January of this year, when the National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure (EN-3) came into force. Under EN-3, solar farms are designated “Critical National Priority” infrastructure, and therefore applications for them have an established “presumption in favour of consent”. Local authorities cannot decline planning applications on the basis of local concerns, such as habitat loss; we now solely rely on the installers to protect our habitat - and they have no obligation to do so.
Given how challenging it is for farms to turn a profit since Brexit (which removed the Basic Payment Scheme, created higher export costs and a higher labour bill to boot), you can see why farmers have little choice but to explore the lucrative guaranteed income solar farms can offer. It’s not uncommon for solar farms to promise ten times the income farmers would achieve per acre of arable farming, often signed on a 30 year lease, using profit per acre from Solar Energy UK and the expected yield report in Farmers Weekly. It’s not fair to criticise farmers for signing up to these agreements; the farming industry for years has been at the forefront of our conservation efforts as a nation, but as a society we’re backing them into a corner - everybody has to make ends meet.
Our countryside is facing a perfect storm; our farmers are being presented with an irresistible financial opportunity, and our local authorities’ power to control the planning process has been hamstrung. The combination of these spell only one outcome - we are going to see more and more solar farms.
However, the landowner on the farm I visited is a passionate environmentalist. When working with the solar farm installers, he imposed many stipulations - the woods were not to be cut down, sufficient drainage ditches to be dug to ensure limited flooding and plenty of fields were left to still be used for arable farming. The effect is such that while at the first glance, the solar farm looks alien - the wildlife is unaffected. A recent study by the RSPB and the University of Cambridge showed that when managed with wildlife at the centre of attention, solar farms can actually increase biodiversity. 30 years of untouched soil, free from pesticides and intensive farming, create opportunities for a whole host of animals to thrive.
My conclusion is clear; despite their unnatural appearance, solar farms have the opportunity to create nature reserves right under our noses. When installers take measures to protect the environment and habitat, they can produce a financially lucrative installation - while also growig biodiversity compared to the arable land there before. I am excited to return and document this process!
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