Queequeg Renewables and Biodivervse collaborate to enhance biodiversity in solar projects.
Renewable energy developer Queequeg Renewables has teamed up with environmental consultancy Biodiverse Consulting to enhance biodiversity efforts across five solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects.
Biodiverse Consulting will specifically assist Queequeg in meeting the required biodiversity net gain (BNG) for projects, as mandated by The Environment Act of 2021, which came into effect in February 2024.
This law ensures that developments impacting wildlife habitats leave them in a significantly improved state, with at least a 10% increase in biodiversity.
The partnership also highlighted the potential for solar panels to enhance local biodiversity by enabling the establishment of wildflower meadows and grasslands, supporting new hedgerow growth, and creating new wetland habitats.
Chris Binns, UK planning director at Queequeg Renewables, emphasized the positive impact of well-designed and managed solar farms on ecosystem features such as sustainable agriculture, air quality regulation, flood risk mitigation, habitat generation, and carbon emissions reduction.
partnership between Queequeg Renewables and Biodiverse Consulting reflects the growing importance of biodiversity in UK solar and BESS projects.
Their efforts align with the findings of a survey released by Solar Energy UK in March 2024, which highlighted the role of solar farms as safe havens for biodiversity and their contribution to nature restoration based on the analysis of 87 solar sites in 2023.
Source Queequeg Renewables
