Eastern Indiana’s Randolph County has adopted a first-ever solar energy regulation that includes a bee-friendly provision. The move comes ahead of the construction of EDP Renewables’ Riverstart Solar Park, which will be Indiana’s largest solar farm.
Riverstart Solar Park will install a capacity of 200 megawatts, which can power roughly 36,000 homes. The development will cost $180 million and will provide hundreds of full-time jobs throughout construction and several permanent jobs once complete.
All future solar farms in Randolph County, including Riverstart, will embrace a land stewardship provision that requires the groundcover of the farms to be native meadow grasses, clovers, and pollinator-friendly wildflower plants.
Dr. Brock Harpur, from Purdue University, wrote to county officials:
A recent study found that more than 50,000 acres of our Indiana conservation lands — healthy habitat for wildlife — were converted to row crop fields over an eight-year period. During this same time, the health of Indiana pollinators has plummeted. Native pollinator species numbers are lower than the number needed to pollinate crops and managed species, such as honey bees, experience greater than average losses each year (as many as 63% of colonies are lost annually in Indiana). Among the primary causes of pollinator decline is habitat loss.
This initiative kills two birds with one stone by providing clean energy for thousands of homes while efficiently using the land for growing bee-friendly plants to save the bee population.
Bees are vital for human existence. In the latest meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of London, the Earthwatch Institute declared bees the most important living species on this planet. “Seventy out of the top 100 human food crops — which supply about 90% of the world’s nutrition — are pollinated by bees,” confirmed Greenpeace USA. Honey bees perform most of the work out of all the pollinators, as they are responsible for around 80% of all pollination worldwide.
Sadly, humans are mainly responsible for the destruction of the bee population with habitat loss and pesticides. This idea of combining vast lands that would otherwise be considered a part of habitat loss, with a pollinator-friendly habitat, is ingenious and should be encouraged all over the world.
