Enhancing the Local Environment Through Renewables

The third session of IRENA’s webinar series on the environmental impacts of renewables was co-organised by IRENA and the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), and focused on opportunities to harness local environmental benefits from renewable energy projects. The webinar took place on 11 December 2024, from 10:00-11:30 CET / 13:00-14:30 GST.

While renewables offer significant benefits in tackling climate change by replacing fossil fuels, their deployment can also positively influence the local environment in various ways. For example, solar panels can reduce radiation reaching the ground, leading to reduced local temperatures, lower water evaporation, and possible changes to the surrounding microclimate and ecosystems.  

Ground-mounted solar PV power plants can be combined with crop production or livestock grazing, also known as agrivoltaics, and bring added value for agricultural productivity and ecosystem services. Similarly, renewable energy projects deployed on water, such as floating solar PV and offshore wind farms, may have environmental benefits, such as reducing water evaporation, controlling harmful algal blooms, as well as improving aquatic biodiversity by providing artificial habitats through their floating foundation.  

There are however many barriers to realising these potential benefits. They can be linked to unclear regulations or a lack of coordination between energy and agricultural departments. The construction and maintenance costs for these projects can be higher than those that do not promote environmental benefits. Even though successful examples are reported in established renewable energy markets, knowledge, skills, and information remain scarce in most developing markets.  

This event convened experts and stakeholders from the energy sector and the conservation community to discuss solutions to harnessing local environmental benefits from renewables, challenges to further adoption and policies to address them. IUCN will presented the latest findings related to local environmental benefits of renewable energy. A panel session with energy/environmental protection/biodiversity conservation experts from selected renewable energy markets shared their insights and best practices.

The participation in the webinar was open to the public.