A summary of bird mortality at photovoltaic utility scale solar facilities in the Southwestern U.S.

ABSTRACT: Recent trends in renewable energy development in the United States (U.S.) show that new installed capacity of utility-scale solar energy has exceeded 30% of total installed capacity of all sources per year since 2013. Photovoltaic solar energy provides benefits in that no emissions are produced; however, there are potential impacts from photovoltaic solar development on birds that include habitat loss and potential for collision mortality. Only 2 papers in the peer-reviewed literature present fatality information from fatality monitoring studies at a photovoltaic utility-scale solar energy facility; however, more data exists in unpublished reports. To provide a more comprehensive overview of bird mortality patterns, we synthesized results from fatality monitoring studies at 10 photovoltaic

SUBMITTER: Kosciuch K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7182256 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature