The impact of photovoltaic panels on bird ecology

Do solar PV panels affect birds?

Birdlife International suggests five potential negative impacts that solar PV arrays may have on birds. These are habitat loss/fragmentation, collision risk, disturbance, barrier effect, and change of habitat function.

Are birds and bats affected by solar PV developments?

Natural England has identified birds and bats as the taxa most urgently requiring an evidence base for potential impacts relating to solar PV developments. The focus of this review will be on these taxa, however general ecological impacts will also be v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. considered.

Do solar PV developments affect bird collision risk?

No peer reviewed experimental scientific evidence exists relating solely to the ecological impacts of solar PV developments. Some scientific and grey literature data, based upon carcass searches around solar PV developments suggests that bird collision risk from solar panels is very low.

Are solar panels causing Bird casualty?

In terms of collision risk, DeVault et al (2014) observed no obvious evidence for bird casualty caused by solar panels, despite conducting 515 bird surveys at solar PV sites.

Are bird droppings a contaminant in solar panels?

Indirect evidence of bird presence is often presented in the engineering literature, where designs for solar panel cleaning devices often cite bird droppings as a contaminant. xii. Solar panels have the capacity to reflect polarised light which can attract polarotactic insects, which has the potential to impact their reproductive biology.

Do utility scale solar PV developments have ecological impacts?

The BCT provides no readily available information on the ecological impacts of utility scale solar PV developments. However, the BCT is attempting to collect data on incidents involving bat and solar PV installations with reference to the construction industry.