view more
Researchers in Germany have found that solar panels on rewetted peatland provide a unique habitat for bird species along with generating green energy and potentially locking up carbon. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society journal, Ecological Solutions and Evidence.
Installing solar panels on rewetted peatlands is a new type of land use, providing a way to generate green energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now, research from the University of Greifswald has found that this novel land use may also benefit nature.
In the study, researchers compared bird diversity at a solar park on a rewetted peatland site in Northern Germany. The site was surrounded by intensively farmed and drained peatland. They found the solar park was home to several threatened bird species and contained an unusual mix of species associated with agricultural, wetland and even woodland ecosystems.
Hanna Rae Martens, a peatland ecologist at the University of Greifswald and lead author of the study, said: “The presence of wetland species like reed bunting and the endangered meadow pipit shows that the solar park is truly re-wetted and has peatland species returning.
