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EPRI and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) launched a brand new collaborative venture that goals to revive prairie land and pollinator habitat underneath photo voltaic arrays and alongside different parts of 20 acres of land at SMUD’s Rancho Seco web site in Sacramento County, California. The restorative energy project is on the web site of a decommissioned nuclear energy plant and a part of native tribes’ ancestral lands. It additionally helps SMUD’s 2030 Zero Carbon Plan.
The venture crew will create a pollinator habitat underneath established photo voltaic panels and measure modifications in vitality, soil carbon and administration prices on the Rancho Seco restorative vitality web site. Anticipated outcomes embody the institution of native plant species selling pollinator habitats and soil carbon monitoring.
Collaborators embody the College of California, Davis, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, and NovaSource Energy in its four-year, multi-phase venture. The two,000-acre property is now residence to the Cosumnes Energy Plant, a utility-scale photo voltaic venture nature protect, a regional recreation space, and the federally protected California Tiger Salamander.
“The Rancho Seco venture is a novel collaboration on the intersection of communities, biodiversity and climate-friendly vitality,” mentioned Jessica Fox, senior technical government and conservation biologist at EPRI. “Profitable demonstration may present the blueprint for future renewable vitality tasks all through the nation which can be restorative not simply of their kilowatts, but additionally for native individuals and biodiversity.”
“We’re attempting to create a mannequin that different photo voltaic builders can observe,” mentioned UC Davis Affiliate Professor Rebecca R. Hernandez, Wild Power Middle director. “This is a chance to stack California prairie with photo voltaic vitality and start to revive the 98% of prairie habitat that’s been misplaced.”
SMUD is a part of EPRI’s Power-In-Pollinators initiative. Launched in 2018, the initiative is the biggest collaboration of energy firms in North America working to grasp pollinators.
“We’re excited for this venture to contemplate a number of ranges of vitality together with solar energy, the vitality wants of the organic ecosystem, and the restoration of cultural vitality for our communities,” mentioned Kathleen Ave, SMUD’s senior local weather and ecosystem strategist and co-chair of the Energy-In-Pollinators initiative.
Information merchandise from EPRI
