{"id":674369,"date":"2026-05-16T08:41:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674369\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T08:41:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:41:32","slug":"solar-farms-can-help-to-regenerate-land-while-generating-energy-new-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674369\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar farms can help to regenerate land while generating energy, new study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study has demonstrated the regenerative effect that solar farms can have on degraded and depleted land, by sheltering it from harsh winds, pushing down surface and soil temperatures, and boosting soil moisture. <\/p>\n

The study<\/a>, published in the journal Geography and Sustainability, synthesises 147 individual studies on a range of different land types and across a range of climate variables, to see how solar farms interact with their immediate environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike the pollutant-dominant environmental impacts of fossil fuels, solar power exerts climate- and ecology-dominant influences on the entire environment,\u201d the study finds.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy changing land surface radiative properties, solar photovoltaic (PV) systems create new energy interaction interfaces with original ecosystems, thereby modifying land surface processes and associated climate variables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the 147 total studies analysed in the report\u2019s meta-analysis, 609 solar farms were examined, the vast majority of which were located in the Northern Hemisphere, with the largest number in China (316), the United States (104), and India (44). This is consistent with their global rankings as the top three countries in terms of installed solar PV capacity.<\/p>\n

Of the surfaces underlying these 609 solar farms, systems located on grassland were the most frequently studied (208), followed by bare land (173) and cropland (159).\u00a0The majority of solar farms studied were located in arid climate conditions.<\/p>\n

The meta-analysis showed \u201cnon-significant positive effects\u201d on air temperature, air temperature during the daytime, and air temperature during the night time, though this varied depending on underlying surface types.<\/p>\n

However, significant effects were recorded for other statistics, such as a 29.96 per cent overall reduction on wind speed. Specifically, solar PV systems on cropland, grassland, water bodies, and bare land saw \u201csignificantly reduced\u201d wind speeds of 38.33 per cent, 32.67 per cent, 31.54 per cent, and 22.00 per cent, respectively.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image supplied under a Creative Commons license<\/a><\/p>\n

Similarly, solar farms significantly reduced albedo \u2013 the measurement of how much sunlight\/solar energy that a surface reflects back into space rather than absorbing as heat \u2013 across all underlying surface types and in the overall effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlbedo within PV systems was 82.51 % of that in non-solar reference regions (a 17.49 per cent reduction),\u201d wrote the authors. \u201cThe significant reductions of albedo were 9.51 per cent, 13.57 per cent, 18.17 per cent, and 19.89 per cent over PV systems on cropland, grassland, water bodies, and bare land, respectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compared to non-solar reference regions, therefore, daily land surface temperature and land surface temperature during the daytime were significantly reduced in PV systems by 0.44\u00b0C and 0.90\u00b0C, respectively, though no significant overall effect was observed for land surface temperature during the nighttime.<\/p>\n

PV systems significantly reduced daily land surface temperature by 0.84\u00b0C and 0.30\u00b0C on grassland and bare land, respectively. During daytime in particular, PV systems on grassland, buildings, and bare land \u201csignificantly decreased\u201d by 1.13\u00b0C, 2.54\u00b0C, and 0.76\u00b0C, respectively.<\/p>\n

And while there was no \u2018overall\u2019 effect observed for land surface temperature during the night time, it \u201cdecreased significantly\u201d for solar PV systems over cropland (0.42\u00b0C) and grassland (0.31\u00b0C), while the increase of PV systems on buildings was not statistically significant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beneath the surface, solar farms also significantly reduced soil temperature by 2.42\u00b0C and increased soil water content by 38.60 per cent relative to reference regions. The soil temperature reduction was particularly evident on cropland and grassland (2.52\u00b0C and 2.88\u00b0C, respectively) whereas the increase in soil water content \u201con grassland and bare land increased significantly by 41.20 % and 58.03 %, respectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you would like to join more than 29,000 others and get the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox, for free, please\u00a0click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy<\/a> and The Driven<\/a> since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study has demonstrated the regenerative effect that solar farms can have on degraded and depleted land,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,337,128],"class_list":["post-674369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-research","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}