Buy solar power for bees

Can solar farms Save the Bees?

Here's how solar panels can make space for more pollinators just when we need more of both. Milkweed -- food for this monarch caterpillar -- grows near solar panels. Solar farms can grow more than just clean energy. They can be a cradle for a struggling but essential population: pollinators.

Can solar panels save bees from extinction?

If we instead grow plants of some kind under the panels (even if the main goal is just to cool them off), the availability of food can actually increase in the solar farm’s area and help save wild bee populations from extinction.

Do solar panels have more bees?

Over the study both the number and type of flowering plants and insects increased, with some types more than tripling. There were twenty times more native bees present at the solar installations at the end of the four years. In 2024, these aren't new results, but they match the findings of other studies.

Should bees have flowering plants under solar panels?

In other words, it’s good for the bees and the panels to have some flowering plants under the panels, especially between the rows where shade will be partial and not full. There’s no reason to not do this. The loss of bees worldwide is an extinction-level risk for humans.

Are solar farms pollinator-friendly?

Over the past few years, solar farm developers have increasingly been encouraged to transform the space underneath their solar panels into a safe haven for bees, butterflies and other endangered pollinators. When done right, pollinator-friendly solar farms can do much more for the environment than just generating clean energy.

Should bees be able to eat under solar panels?

The limited light under panels, one might naturally think, would reduce the pollen and thus reduce the supply of food for the bee colonies. It turns out that this has been studied, and it’s something that can work out not only OK, but quite well for the bees. The researchers put some plants under panels where they’d always get shade.