Soil and Solar Development: Uncovering Ecosystem Impacts
Soil and Solar Development: Uncovering Ecosystem Impacts explores a question that is becoming increasingly important as utility-scale solar expands: What happens to the land underneath and surrounding large solar installations? Presented by the Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute, the webinar highlights emerging research on how solar development affects soils, vegetation, carbon cycling and broader ecological processes on agricultural and rangeland landscapes.
The webinar features Noah Krasner of the University of California, Davis, whose research focuses on ecovoltaics, soil carbon sequestration and native California grassland restoration, and Taylor Bacon of Colorado State University, whose research examines ecological impacts of solar development, carbon cycling and soil biogeochemistry. Bacon’s field research has examined solar arrays across the southeastern United States, including how microclimate, vegetation, soils and management practices such as livestock grazing interact. REWI Senior Scientist Josh Ennen moderates the discussion.
At its heart, this is a whole-system solar conversation. Renewable energy infrastructure doesn’t exist separately from agriculture, soil, biodiversity, water and land management. Related research supported by REWI has found that solar construction can alter some aspects of soil health while also showing that thoughtful construction and management practices could help preserve land for concurrent or future agricultural use
Additional Details
What You'll Learn
Participants will learn how utility-scale solar development can affect soil health, soil carbon, vegetation, microclimates and other ecological processes. The webinar will also examine how different approaches to managing solar sites—including grazing and other forms of multi-use or agrivoltaic development—interact with the land, and how emerging research can inform better solar siting, construction and long-term land-management decisions.
Why This Matters
Solar energy can reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but large solar facilities occupy substantial areas of land—often agricultural or rangeland. How those projects are designed, constructed and managed can affect soil structure, carbon storage, vegetation, biodiversity and the ability of land to remain productive over time. Research published in 2026 examining three Pennsylvania utility-scale solar sites found that construction produced modest but measurable changes in some soil-health indicators. The researchers concluded that construction and management practices should continue to be refined to support concurrent agricultural uses and the potential future return of sites to agriculture. That makes the central question bigger than "How much renewable electricity can we generate?" It becomes: How can we produce clean energy while simultaneously protecting—or even improving—the living systems on which food, water, biodiversity and communities depend?
Action Level - LEARN
What You'll Leave With
A better understanding of how solar development affects soil and ecosystems. Insights into soil carbon sequestration and carbon cycling at solar sites. An understanding of interactions among solar panels, microclimates, vegetation and soil. Greater awareness of ecovoltaics and agrivoltaics as ways of thinking about multi-use landscapes. Insights into how grazing and other management decisions can influence solar landscapes. Research-based questions to ask when planning, approving or managing solar developments. A stronger understanding of why renewable-energy planning should consider energy + agriculture + land + ecology as an interconnected system.
Best For - Community Leaders, Social Entrepreneurs, Systems Designers, Researchers, Educators, Students, Journalists / Media, Businesses, Investors / Funders, Local Governments, NGOs / Civil Society, Technology Professionals
Systems It Connects To - Circularity & Whole-System Design, Personal & Digital Democracy, Clean & Renewable Energy, Food Production & Distribution, ICT & Cybersecurity, Public & Planetary Health, Smarter Cities & Communities, Mobility & Transportation, Ethical Finance, Media & Storytelling, Water, Infrastructure, Supply Chains
Languages - English
Replay / Resource URL - https://rewi.org/webinars/soil-soilar-development/
Practical Next Step - Before supporting, approving or developing a solar project, ask what happens to the land—not just how much electricity the project will produce. Map the proposed site across five dimensions: 1. Energy: How much clean electricity will it generate? 2. Soil: How will construction and operation affect soil health and carbon? 3. Food: Can agricultural production continue alongside solar? 4. Ecology: Can vegetation, pollinators and biodiversity be supported? 5. Future use: What condition will the land be in when the solar installation is eventually removed? Then ask the larger systems-design question: Can we design solar infrastructure so that producing renewable energy also strengthens the ecological and agricultural systems sharing the same land? That is the opportunity this webinar helps participants begin to understand