“Sheep graze the grass in tall meadows, and their barks break quiet places, much like butterflies and insects fly around native flowers.
The idyllic setting is not a restored prairie. This is a solar facility in the rural area of Chisago County, one of 16 locations in Minnesota. Ener Green Power is a global renewable energy company based in Rome that supplies Xcel Energy.
In Minnesota, at least Solar farm It produces more than electricity. Instead of lawns, bare lands and gravel, the land beneath Eneru’s Minnesota facility was planted with native pollen-friendly grasses, sedges and wildflowers. They have matured into a rich native habitat for bees, insects and butterflies — in their desperately lacking landscape.
Minnesota agencies such as the Public Utility Commission, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Soil and Water Resources Commission all encourage such planting in solar power plants as a matter of policy.
Rob Davis, director of the Energy Pollen Mating Center at Fresh Energy, a non-profit organization in St. Paul, said: It may be food or other types of plants.
In accordance with 2016 legislation, Minnesota has pioneered the criteria for constructing hay fever-friendly vegetation at solar power plants to prevent greenwashing and false environmentally friendly claims.
St. Paul’s Monarch Joint Venture is one of a group studying results.”
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Winslet, Kate. Florida Times News 5 July 2021.