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Plants grow among solar panels at the Gemini Solar Project, near Las Vegas.<\/span> A rare desert plant is flourishing at a solar farm near Las Vegas, a new study finds.<\/p>\n The ostensibly barren Mojave Desert is in fact teeming with plants and animals, including a rare species known as the threecorner milkvetch. It\u2019s a member of the pea family, splaying across the ground instead of climbing up a garden trestle. Given the harsh desert conditions, it waits until the arrival of rains to burst from the earth \u2014 flowering, fruiting, and reproducing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though hardy, the threecorner milkvetch \u2014 which is under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act \u2014 and its fellow species in the Mojave are still sensitive to disturbance, like when solar farms literally break ground. Traditionally, energy companies \u201cblade and grade\u201d habitats, meaning they cut out vegetation and even out the soil, which disrupts the seed banks stored within the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the desert outside of Las Vegas, the Gemini Solar Project took a gentler approach, instead trying to preserve the ecosystem. According to a new study, it paid off for the threecorner milkvetch: Before the development, scientists found 12 plants on the site, and afterward, in 2024, found 93, signifying that the seeds survived construction. Compared to a nearby plot of land, the plants at Gemini grew wider and taller, and produced more flowers and fruits. That might be because the solar panels shade the soil, slowing evaporation, which makes more water available to the plants to grow big and strong.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo you just have the potential for a lot more plants,\u201d said Tiffany Pereira, an ecologist at the Desert Research Institute and lead author of the paper, which was published late last year. \u201cThere\u2019s seedlings of so many other species coming up as well. And so the fact that seed bank survived is phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n A threecorner milkvetch.<\/span> It\u2019s yet more evidence that solar farms can be built in ways that minimize disturbances to ecosystems. (The company behind the Gemini project, Primergy, did not respond to requests for comment.) This technique is called ecovoltaics: Instead of blade-and-grade, facilities are built with native species in mind. To give the ecosystem a boost, for instance, a crew can seed the soils with native grasses and flowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSome of those seed mixes do quite well at solar facilities, and they attract pollinators, birds, and other wildlife as a result,\u201d said Lee Walston, an ecologist at Argonne National Laboratory who was not involved in the new paper. \u201cSort of asking that umbrella, Field of Dreams, question, right: If you build it, will they come?\u201d<\/p>\n In Minnesota, at least, the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d Walston led a study of two solar sites on converted cropland there, observing the growth of biodiversity over the course of five years. The researchers found that the number of unique flowering plant species increased sevenfold, and the abundance of insect pollinators tripled. Native bees alone increased by 20 times. In a follow-on study across a dozen solar sites, grassland birds flocked to the areas, likely attracted by the abundance of insects \u2014 same goes for bats. Birds could also nest among the panels, hiding from predators.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen positive outcomes sort of across the board,\u201d Walston said. \u201cAnytime that you\u2019re seeing increases in insect prey, you\u2019ve got at least a really strong potential for also seeing greater bird activity and bat activity, as they are attracted to those sites.\u201d<\/p>\n Such a significant boost to biodiversity is not a given, though. Certain plant species will need more or less shade from the panels: In the Mojave, Pereira only found one threecorner milkvetch, for example, growing directly under a panel. The rest were popping up in the sunnier spaces between them. Young plants of other species, by contrast, might prefer shadier spots, because too much sunlight can stress them.\u00a0<\/p>\n A solar project in Minnesota hosts native flowers.<\/span> Panel height is a major factor, too: Taller ones let bigger plant species grow to their full potential \u2014 but the higher the supports, the more a solar company must spend on materials. A facility might also set a specific height to accommodate livestock like sheep and goats, used for \u201cconservation grazing\u201d to clear out invasive weeds, which in turn reduces the fire risk of dead plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to work with developers,\u201d Walston said, \u201cto say, \u2018OK, well, if all you can do is 2 feet, what might be the best mix of seed mixes and management styles that could really optimize the habitat?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That mowing might sound destructive, but it mimics the natural order of things, as grazers like deer and buffalo, in addition to wildfires, have historically served the same purpose. Ecovoltaics can also return former agricultural fields to more of their natural state. \u201cI think there is real potential for solar farms to be especially good for biodiversity in prairie ecosystems, since prairies evolved over time to require repeated disturbance,\u201d said Johanna Neumann, senior director of the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy at the nonprofit Environment America, who wasn\u2019t involved in the new research.\u00a0<\/p>\n The blade-and-grade alternative, on the other hand, doesn\u2019t just disrupt a habitat. With native plant species cleared out, the earth loses the root structures that keep soils from blowing away. Then, opportunistic and fast-growing invasive species can take over, muscling out the natives. And their flowers might not be as enticing for indigenous pollinators like bumblebees.<\/p>\n Just as endemic plants can grow among solar panels, so too can crops, a technique known as agrivoltaics. Researchers are finding, for example, that things like cucumbers grow like crazy on rooftops. The panels create a unique microclimate that keeps crops from getting too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, and uses about one-third of the water compared to growing in full sun. Now scientists are trying to figure out which crops \u2014 especially high-value ones that can make up the cost of installing solar \u2014 will do the best growing under panels, both on rooftops and on the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to grow something, you want to grow something that a potential farmer could sell for decent profit,\u201d said horticulturist Jennifer Bousselot, who studies rooftop agrivoltaics at Colorado State University but wasn\u2019t involved in the new paper. \u201cYou name the crop, and there\u2019s interest.\u201d<\/p>\n All told, ecovoltaics and agrivoltaics have the potential to bolster biodiversity and the food supply while generating clean electricity. \u201cRather than a moonscape of invasive species and dust blowing into cities, why not strive for something better?\u201d Pereira said. \u201cIt\u2019s a wild and beautiful place that we live in, and it\u2019s our job to look out for these species as well.\u201d<\/p>\n As Jaguars Recover, Will the Border Wall Block Their U.S. Return?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plants grow among solar panels at the Gemini Solar Project, near Las Vegas. Courtesy of Tiffany Pereira A rare desert plant is flourishing at a solar farm near Las Vegas, a new study finds. The ostensibly barren Mojave Desert is in fact teeming with plants and animals, including a rare species known as the threecorner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[12754,10564,15919,22642,1869,485,1887],"class_list":{"0":"post-43219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-desert","9":"tag-farm","10":"tag-haven","11":"tag-mojave","12":"tag-plant","13":"tag-rare","14":"tag-solar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Courtesy of Tiffany Pereira<\/span><\/p>\n
\n Courtesy of Tiffany Pereira<\/span><\/p>\n
\n Courtesy of Lee Walston<\/span><\/p>\nALSO ON YALE E360<\/strong><\/h2>\n