Current Knowledge on Low-Impact Ground-Mounted Solar Siting, Construction, and Installation Practices

Abstract

Solar energy represents an increasingly large proportion of total energy generation in the United States and worldwide and is projected to continue to grow rapidly in the future. Like any landscape modification, solar development can have unintended negative consequences on the environment. This document provides a comprehensive yet non-exhaustive overview of the current literature on low-impact ground-mounted solar development practices and how they alter hydrological (water quality and availability), ecological (vegetation and wildlife), and pedological (soil health and structure) functioning. We discuss low-impact ground-mounted solar siting, construction, and installation practices, reporting current best practices to minimize land disturbance and mitigate negative environmental impacts while identifying knowledge gaps that require future research. Low-impact practices include appropriately targeting locations in the site selection process, prioritizing retention of existing vegetation where possible, designing around site geomorphology to minimize grading and topsoil disturbance, and adopting soil health management best practices to maintain water on the landscape. We observe that most existing literature has focused on minimizing impacts during the operational phase of solar development, and there is a major knowledge gap in understanding best practices during the construction and installation phase.