To build a solar farm, one begins with a lot of sand. Thousands of grains are heated and purified into crystalline silicon, forming reflective silvery stones that are cut and shaped into recognizable solar panels. Once ordered into neat rows in solar farms, the blankets of panels will attract certain species and repel others. In 2010, scientists discovered some water insects like to lay eggs around these structures, perhaps because solar panels mirror the reflective nature of water where they normally spawn.
But other animals, like bats, seem to not want to touch solar farms with a 10-foot pole, at least according to a study published this week in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Among 19 solar farms studied in southwest England, bat activity for six out of eight species observed was halved among farms' peripheries and reduced by two-thirds at their center compared to control farms without solar panels, said study author Gareth Jones, Ph.D., a professor of biological sciences at the University of Bristol in England.
