With the UK set to almost double its solar capacity by 2030, a new certification scheme is encouraging developers to create better habitats for wildlife alongside clean electricity generation
With the UK set to almost double its solar capacity by 2030, a new certification scheme is encouraging developers to create better habitats for wildlife alongside clean electricity generation
Hares darting between hedgerows. Grasses and wildflowers pushing up between rows of solar panels. Birds wheeling overhead. It’s a world away from the smoke-belching power stations of old, and increasingly, the sites generating our power are doing something else besides – they’re giving nature room to recover. Indeed, a growing body of research suggests that well-designed and carefully managed solar farms can serve as refuges for wildlife.
Now, a new certification scheme is aiming to encourage more solar farms to become just that. Launched by Wild Power, the scheme assesses how renewable energy developments protect and improve habitats, awarding certification to those that meet its biodiversity standards. So far, just two solar farms in the UK have earned its seal of approval.
“I like to think of it as a fair trade stamp, but for clean energy,” says Wild Power director Joe Arafa. “Right now, we’re facing both climate and nature crises. A well-managed solar farm can contribute to solving both at the same time.”
Wild Power launched in 2022 after co-founder James Atkins experienced a lightbulb moment while travelling in northern Spain. A hillside solar farm there, with animals grazing between the panels and insects buzzing among colourful patches of wildflower, set his mind racing.
“It suddenly hit him that this was the kind of electricity he’d like to buy,” says Arafa. “It wasn’t just renewable; the land being used to generate it was also a haven for nature.”
Wild Power initially planned to develop its own wildlife-friendly solar farms, but after consulting ecologists, the founders took a different route. They instead created a free-to-download scorecard that helps developers measure, improve and report their impact on biodiversity.
The scorecard takes in everything from habitats and species to ecological connectivity, monitoring and site management. Measures such as creating habitat corridors, safeguarding protected species and tackling invasive plants can all add to a site’s score. Racking up at least 70 points means operators can apply for certification, which provides independent verification of the measures they have introduced to support wildlife.
One of the first sites to achieve certification is Dunmow, a 10MW solar farm in Essex, which became only the second in the UK to receive the award in September. It’s co-owned by renewable energy investment firm Thrive Renewables and cashback company TopCashback through their joint venture, Fair Play Clean Energy.
Under the Environment Act 2021, most new developments in England must deliver a biodiversity net gain of at least 10%, a requirement that will extend to nationally significant infrastructure projects, including large solar farms, from November 2026. But at Dunmow, measures introduced by Thrive are projected to deliver a substantially larger improvement: a 65% increase in habitat biodiversity units, alongside a 19% uplift in hedgerow units.
Right now, we’re facing both climate and nature crises. A well-managed solar farm can contribute to solving both at the same time
Ecologist Guy Parker of Wychwood Biodiversity advised Thrive and helped implement some of the changes. Under his stewardship, species-rich grassland and new wildflower areas were planted. Gaps were plugged in neglected hedgerows, bird and bat boxes installed in boundary trees, and invasive scrub cleared from a neighbouring area favoured by breeding skylarks.
“It’s gone from a pretty bland arable field worked by tractors twice a year,” he says, “to a much more benign grassland with some really nice habitat features for wildlife. In the next few years, I’d expect a big uplift in invertebrates and pollinators among the wildflowers and grasses, and also more birds and mammals from outside using the site to forage.”
It’s still early days for Dunmow. Thrive only acquired the site in May 2025, and some of the habitats will take years to mature. The projected biodiversity gains have yet to be fully realised, and ongoing monitoring will be needed to establish how wildlife responds. But Parker has already seen a glimpse of the future in the site’s spring growth.
“I was walking through the skylark area in the early summer and it was full of agrimony, [which is] a yellow spike of a flower, like little fireworks,” he said. “There were butterflies moving in and out of them and warblers flitting between the scrub. It felt like a very productive, very special place.”
Parker suggests developers should consider building ambitious wildlife measures into projects from the planning and construction stages, when the cost of implementing nature-friendly enhancements can be a tiny fraction of what are often multimillion-pound developments.
In the next few years, I’d expect a big uplift in invertebrates and pollinators among the wildflowers and grasses, and also more birds and mammals from outside using the site to forage
“Tack on a few tens of thousands of pounds and you could do some really spectacular things for wildlife,” he enthuses. “For sites that are already operating, step out of that routine mindset of spraying, cutting, fixing the fence and start thinking about what that individual site holds, and what its potential is.”
According to the latest government figures, the UK had around 23.2GW of installed solar capacity at the end of August 2026, while the government’s ambition is to reach 45–47GW across the UK by 2030. That includes rooftop installations, but with many more ground-mounted solar farms expected, there’s considerable potential to improve habitats alongside renewable energy generation.
For solar operators, certification offers more than a boost to their environmental credentials. A survey by Wild Power found that 50% of renewable energy customers said they would be willing to pay a premium for electricity from a site with proven high biodiversity standards, suggesting there could be a commercial incentive for developers to invest in nature.
But certification is only part of the picture. While it provides independent verification of the measures developers have introduced, the real test is whether those interventions lead to lasting improvements in biodiversity. At Dunmow, annual ecological surveys will help track changes in breeding birds, pollinators and grassland species, providing evidence of how the habitats develop over time.
For Thrive, the ambition is about more than generating clean electricity. It’s about what happens to the land over the decades that follow, with future projects already being scrutinised through a biodiversity lens.
“We’re delivering on our mission, making sure everyone benefits,” says Thrive’s head of external affairs, Louise Daniels. “That’s people, but it’s also nature. We have a long-term interest in these sites, and we want to see them flourish. We’re looking [to create] a legacy of contributing to our countryside.”
Main image: Hertha Wood, RES
Website: Atomic Smash
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