The European power sector’s commitment to biodiversity is not just a moral obligation, but a pragmatic strategy for ensuring sustainable project development, lowering consenting risks and gaining more social acceptance.
Kristian Ruby is the Secretary General at Eurelectric.
Meanwhile the climate crisis remains an existential threat to humankind AND biodiversity, requiring massive electrification and a vast new buildout of power infrastructure to combat it. The EU electricity industry stands at the intersection of these challenges.
Yet, tackling climate change and biodiversity loss are not mutually exclusive goals. As climate change is set to become the leading driver of biodiversity loss, the power sector plays a pivotal role in addressing both challenges in tandem, rather than in silos.
Understanding the urgency of the situation means understanding the devastating consequences civilisation faces if neither climate change nor biodiversity are adequately addressed. That’s how our PowerPlant project blossomed to life.
Why biodiversity matters
Biodiversity – the variety of life on Earth – underpins the health of our ecosystems and, consequently, our economies and societies. Ecological processes such as pollination, water purification and carbon sequestration are crucial for our basic needs and well-being. The loss of these can lead to severe repercussions such as growing food insecurity, increased natural disasters and exacerbated climate change impacts on all economic sectors.
The accelerating decline in biodiversity, driven by habitat loss, pollution, climate change and overexploitation, is not just an environmental issue—it’s a socio-economic one. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reports that up to 1 million species will face extinction within the next few decades. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has found that global wildlife populations have already decreased by at least 69% since 1970.
The good news is that renewable-driven decarbonisation can reduce these risks to biodiversity by up to 75% globally. Such a statistic underscores the synergies between renewable energy deployment and biodiversity conservation. The dual climate and nature crises demand integrated solutions. Eurelectric’s recently launched first-of-its-kind biodiversity guideline “Power Plant 2.0: a guidebook to electrify in harmony with nature” emphasises this very point.
How the power sector integrates biodiversity
The first step to understanding how to integrate nature-mindful practices starts with having a clear strategy in mind and a step-by-step approach that limits as much as possible negative effects to biodiversity. Every renewable and grid infrastructure developer should in fact prioritise measures that first avoid negative impacts on biodiversity from the outset, followed by minimising, restoring and finally offsetting any residual impacts. This “mitigation hierarchy” is the cornerstone of our biodiversity guideline.
Proper siting of renewable energy projects is also essential as it can yield the highest benefits to nature from the outset. Specifically, developers should avoid ecologically sensitive areas and prioritise degraded lands, brownfields and other low-biodiversity-value sites.
Challenges and solution
Implementing such principles will not be without its challenges. The cost of integrating biodiversity measures can be high and there is currently a lack of harmonised approaches across EU Member States. Furthermore, a lack of quantitative data on measuring biodiversity impacts, complicating efforts to assess and monitor biodiversity outcomes effectively across projects.
To address these challenges, European policymakers should ensure:
- Implementation of 2030 climate and energy legislative frameworks: There is a clear need for speed on renewables and infrastructure, The agreed European policies must be implemented as a matter of priority.
- Financial Incentives: Introduce fiscal incentives and funding mechanisms to support biodiversity-friendly renewable energy projects. This should include earmarking European funding for grid biodiversity-integrated lighthouse projects, pragmatic ecological non-price criteria for renewable auctions and fiscal incentives for power purchasing agreement (PPA) offtakers.
- EU framework for biodiversity integration across sectors: This includes promoting the Mitigation Hierarchy in energy and land planning, harmonising biodiversity integration terminology and measurement approaches and facilitating biodiversity impact reporting.
- Better understanding of interactions between ecosystems, infrastructure and people: Strategies that could be leveraged to improve this includes supporting targeted research and increased EU funding to address knowledge gaps, launching a campaign to address the ecology skills shortage and creating an EU Competence Centre for a nature friendly energy transition.
The Way Forward
It is high time for renewable energy projects to serve as leaders in biodiversity conservation and many have already started.
The VERBUND LIFE projects in Austria and Germany are one of the best examples of how good biodiversity practices can enhance species conservation while supporting renewable energy production – in this case hydropower. Verbund constructed a 14-kilometre system of branches along the Danube River to assist migratory paths of fish which would have been otherwise hampered by the hydropower dam.
The Griffin Wind Farm in Scotland, with its comprehensive habitat management plan, is another exemplary case. With 68 turbines located in the Scottish Highlands, ESB planted 14,000 native trees and have undertaken several other measures that have resulted in a 66% increase in biodiversity when compared to pre-construction baseline levels.
Another great example is the Statkraft Talayuela solar project in Spain, which is one of the largest photovoltaic (PV) farms in all of Europe. It has incorporated new generation technologies and construction techniques that have minimised the impact to the land and fauna. One such technique is adopting structure piling when installing the panels to avoid using concrete.
However, more needs to happen. A concerted effort of policymakers, industry leaders and society at large is still needed to drive such a synergistic approach at scale across the sector.
The European power sector’s commitment to biodiversity is not just a moral obligation, but a pragmatic strategy for ensuring sustainable project development, lowering consenting risks and gaining more social acceptance. By integrating biodiversity into renewable energy projects, we can achieve a win-win scenario that supports both our climate goals and the preservation of our natural heritage.
It is time for policymakers to recognise the energy sector as a partner in this endeavour and to create a supportive framework that enables us to protect and restore biodiversity while powering Europe’s green future.