When Clean Energy Becomes (Truly) Green Energy
As an ethical company, we always felt something was missing in these projects: the development of renewable power projects with a heart; not merely generating energy-efficient power but ensuring that all parts of a project are working cohesively to produce sustainable and natural climate solutions.
The value of full sustainability
Traditionally, when energy companies develop solar schemes at an industrial scale, they are often perceived to be maximising the land to deliver the maximum energy efficiency of the PV system, without considering that the site could be suitable for multiple uses such as biodiversity enhancement and agriculture.
Local Communities have strong feelings about how land should be used, with many feeling that arable land should only be used to grow food. Meanwhile, the conservationists may feel that development land could be set aside for conservation, biodiversity and rewilding.
We formed Regener8 Power because we didn’t believe these land uses had to be mutually exclusive. We aim to integrate different types of land within individual solar sites allowing clean energy generation to co-exist with agriculture and land rejuvenation.
Sustaining biodiversity
We believe loss of biodiversity is one of the most pressing environmental emergencies of our time, as important and dramatic as climate change. All our sites aim to increase local biodiversity along with championing land restoration.
Environmental integration, not mitigation
Rather than designing a solar site then retroactively mitigating any impacts with landscaping, we aim to integrate our design with the biodiversity and ecology of the local surroundings from day one.
We often work with sites that have been farmed intensively for fifty years or more to restore the ancient richness in our sites. By reading the matrix of the landscape and recreating what used to be there we can use land restoration and biodiversity enhancement to bring back to the site as it used to be in the past.
This is accomplished by multiple nature-based and agricultural regenerative solutions, which will improve soil fertility, decrease soil erosion, and provide ecosystem services as well as helping recreate habitats for animals, attracting natural prey for pests which in turn increases biodiversity.
Benefiting communities
Solar projects should build value into the land for the environment and for people. Where possible, Regener8 aims to maximise the space used by our solar panels by growing crops below or around them. One example of this is our 347HA AgriPV solar scheme currently in development in Italy where crops are chosen to regenerate the soil and are managed by a collective of local, organic farmers who provide healthy, zero-kilometre foods. We are also proposing an onsite local market where the community can buy quality food at low cost.
This agricultural activity could be initially subsidised by the solar production for the until it is independent and creates value on its own. After forty years our solar panels are removed, and the site is completely regenerated.
We believe it’s possible to create positive ecological impact while generating green energy in a way that enriches local communities financially. That’s what we’re here for, it’s what drives us and it’s why we go to work every day.
Company Name: Regener8 Power
URL: https://regener8power.com/
Email: info@regener8power.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/regener8power
