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Victoria Bela

Solar expansion policies across China have led to a reduction in bird diversity, with wealthier and non-desert regions bearing the brunt of species loss, according to a study led by researchers in China and the US.
They found that solar expansion had eaten into birds’ foraging and breeding grounds, and had left what habitat remained more fragmented, pitting China’s carbon reduction policies against biodiversity conservation.
“Our findings highlight a critical green dilemma: without meticulous spatial planning, policy-driven solar expansion can inadvertently compromise local biodiversity,” the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on Friday.
“We argue that future photovoltaic development should be accompanied by strict biodiversity safeguards, especially in economically developed regions with high habitat complexity.”
The researchers from China, Vietnam and the US – led by a team from the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology – also discovered a pattern of “inferior greening”, or an increase in leaf area that does not necessarily correlate to better wildlife habitat.
“Our investigation of this mechanism calls for a rethinking of what constitutes ecological health in the context of renewable energy expansion,” the team said.
Solar energy has been at the forefront of the global renewable energy transition to reduce carbon emissions and limit climate change. This transition can also lead to a major transformation of land use.

“Nowhere is this dynamic more pronounced than in China, where the carbon neutrality strategy is driving a massive expansion of solar capacity projected to constitute nearly 45 per cent of its energy mix by 2060,” the paper said.
Renewable energy is key to Beijing’s dual goals of peaking emissions by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.
In 2024, China’s solar farm footprint reached an estimated 4,520 sq km (1,745 square miles), the team said.
Research has highlighted both the risks of solar installations – including habitat loss – as well as its benefits for biodiversity, such as the creation of shaded microclimates under panels that support vegetation and wildlife.
“This ambiguity suggests that the ecological outcome is context-dependent, demanding strategic spatial planning to navigate trade-offs and identify low-conflict zones,” the researchers said.
While national policies have driven China’s breakneck solar expansion, government support has not been evenly distributed across the country’s territory.
In a Science commentary accompanying the paper, Peking University assistant professor Liang Yuanning said that choosing locations for solar farms in China was shaped by policy initiatives, engineering feasibility and issues like poverty alleviation and economic development, rather than ecological suitability.
Much of China’s large-scale solar development is concentrated in the country’s north and west, which are largely arid or desert zones.


This includes solar efforts as part of the Three North Shelterbelt Programme, commonly known as the Great Green Wall, which was launched in 1978 to combat desertification in China’s northeast, north and northwest.
In their study, the researchers examined how China’s solar policies affected local bird biodiversity with the help of data covering over 2,300 county-level divisions from 2014 to 2023.
This includes bird observation data from the China Birdwatching Record Centre and solar policy documents.
They developed an index to gauge the intensity of policy support for solar power and quantified bird diversity using the Shannon Index, a biodiversity measurement tool which takes into account the number of species present and how well balanced their populations are.
The researchers examined the strength – or “stringency” – of solar policies rather than installed capacity because it allowed them to look at how the underlying drivers of solar expansion affect ecological outcomes.
The researchers found a negative relationship between the strength of policy support and bird diversity, with every one standard deviation increase in support reducing diversity by 2.1 per cent.
“This finding aligns with observations that utility-scale solar facilities necessitate land-use changes that alter local habitats, often leading to habitat degradation and fragmentation,” they said.


The reduction in diversity was more pronounced in wealthier areas, as well as non-desert regions.
“By contrast, within the Three North region and sandy and gravel desert regions – areas characterised by high solar irradiance but naturally sparse vegetation and lower baseline habitat complexity – the effect of photovoltaic policy stringency on bird diversity is not significant,” they said.
“This suggests that the conversion of land for solar infrastructure has a more measurable impact on avian communities in regions with historically higher ecosystem complexity and productivity.”
Both resident and migratory birds suffered declines, the paper said, particularly when regions with aggressive solar policies overlapped with critical migration corridors.
The traits of different bird species also influenced their vulnerability to solar development, including nesting habits, diet and flocking behaviour.
“Our results provide a data-driven, scientific basis for refining photovoltaic deployment, ensuring that the renewable energy transition achieves a win-win scenario for both high-quality economic development and ecological conservation,” the team said.


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News

China

The researchers found a direct correlation between greater government support for solar and the loss of biodiversity


The researchers found a direct correlation between greater government support for solar and the loss of biodiversity.


United States

Vietnam

Peking University

International study finds solar panels in China could be harming birds

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The researchers found a direct correlation between greater government support for solar and the loss of biodiversity

The researchers found a direct correlation between greater government support for solar and the loss of biodiversity