The US Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technology Office recently awarded $1.8 million to GPI to lead a new nature-based solutions project, Designing & Deploying Solar Community Ecosystem Benefits. The award was soon followed by newly announced federal efforts to expand support for nature-based climate solutions.
The DOE describes that the project, which will launch in the spring of 2023, will “create an equitable ecosystem services framework based on host community and tribal priorities in the Midwest.” The cross-disciplinary GPI team includes the University of Minnesota, the Midwest Tribal Energy Resource Association, Midwest natural resource and energy regulators, natural resource advocates, utilities, solar developers, and a number of host communities.
Federal support expands for nature-based solutions to climate change
The Biden administration recently announced its “Roadmap for Nature-Based Solutions to Fight Climate Change, Strengthen Communities, and Support Local Economies.” While the use of nature-based solutions is not a new concept, the new emphasis by the federal government on natural system solutions to our climate problems opens a new paradigm for GPI’s work.
This Nature-Based Solutions Roadmap focuses on using natural systems to rather than technology, or in conjunction with technology, to solve many of the climate risks we face. The roadmap outlines strategic recommendations for using nature-based solutions to “address climate change, nature loss, and inequity.”
The announcement included explicit recognition of work that GPI is doing to enhance our co-benefits approach to the renewable energy siting dilemmas that threaten to delay renewable energy deployment across the nation:
“In fiscal year 2022, SETO [US DOE Solar Energy Technology Office] selected projects worth $14 million for Deploying Solar with Wildlife and Ecosystem Services Benefits, developing innovative strategies that maximize benefits and minimize impacts to wildlife and ecosystems from solar energy infrastructure.”
Co-benefits approach to solar builds partnerships and provides value for host communities
GPI’s co-benefits approach builds partnerships with the communities hosting new renewable energy projects to identify siting and site design elements that provide ecological and economic benefit to the host communities.
Through the DOE-funded project, the GPI team will be conducting new field research and modeling, engaging multiple communities and tribal nations across the Midwest to identify local ecosystem priorities, and creating an ecosystem services framework to provide a scientific foundation for decision-making by communities, tribal nations, regulators, and the solar industry.
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