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Solar photovoltaic (PV) is among the most widely deployed renewable energy technologies worldwide and is set for a rapid expansion over the coming decades. They can have many impacts, positive and negative, on the local environment and biodiversity. Any negative impacts of a solar PV plant on the local environment depend heavily on the selected location, construction timing and approaches, and ecological conditions prior to deployment.
Addressing these potential impacts requires incorporating environmental and biodiversity considerations into the early stages of project design and planning. Project developers and industry stakeholders can adopt many existing measures and tools. Under specific conditions, some environmental impacts can turn into co-benefits between energy generation and environmental and biodiversity enhancement. These possible co-benefits are linked with the fact that solar PV plants can affect the microclimate and environmental factors in the areas where they are located, such as temperature, humidity, soil conditions, vegetation growth and biodiversity.
Combining agricultural activities with solar PV plants, with necessary modifications, can improve land-use efficiency, enhance food security and generate additional income. Livestock grazing in solar PV plants can reduce fire hazards from overgrown vegetation, save costs on vegetation management, and possibly increase meat and milk production. In arid and semi-arid conditions, solar PV deployment can help restore degraded land, such as abandoned mining sites and brownfields, and help control desertification and sandstorms. When solar PV is deployed on water bodies, it may improve water quality and help control algal blooms.

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