Harvie Agnew

We welcome the opportunity to respond to NatureScot’s Biodiversity Metric for Scotland’s Planning System consultation. We want to highlight the role of solar energy in achieving biodiversity targets whilst being a key element in Scottish Governments plans to decarbonise.

Solar Energy UK welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Welsh Governments consultation ‘Securing a Sustainable Future: Environmental Principles, Governance and Biodiversity targets for a Greener Wales.’ As the trade association representing solar and storage technologies in the UK, we are committed to ensuring that solar plays a central role not only in the clean energy transition, but also in tackling the twin challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Monitoring solar farms across the UK has needed more consistency for too long, hindering our ability to draw meaningful comparisons between sites. In response to this challenge, Solar Energy UK, in collaboration with Lancaster University, Clarkson & Woods, and Wychwood Biodiversity, spearheaded the introduction of a standardised approach to biodiversity monitoring on solar farms.