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Techno–ecological synergies of solar energy for global sustainability

Nature Sustainability volume 2, pages 560–568 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The strategic engineering of solar energy technologies—from individual rooftop modules to large solar energy power plants—can confer significant synergistic outcomes across industrial and ecological boundaries. Here, we propose techno–ecological synergy (TES), a framework for engineering mutually beneficial relationships between technological and ecological systems, as an approach to augment the sustainability of solar energy across a diverse suite of recipient environments, including land, food, water, and built-up systems. We provide a conceptual model and framework to describe 16 TESs of solar energy and characterize 20 potential techno–ecological synergistic outcomes of their use. For each solar energy TES, we also introduce metrics and illustrative assessments to demonstrate techno–ecological potential across multiple dimensions. The numerous applications of TES to solar energy technologies are unique among energy systems and represent a powerful frontier in sustainable engineering to minimize unintended consequences on nature associated with a rapid energy transition.

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Fig. 1: Conceptual model demonstrating how TESs of solar energy produce mutually beneficial technological and ecological synergistic outcomes that serve to mitigate global change-type challenges.
Fig. 2: Framework for TESs of solar energy development.
Fig. 3: Techno–ecological synergies of solar energy and examples of techno–ecological synergistic outcomes.

Dennis Schroeder, NREL (a left, d right); © 2018 Google (c); Greg Allen, Far Niente Winery (d left)

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Acknowledgements

We thank K. Lamy for assisting with graphic design and A. Diene for informational contributions. Funding for R.R.H. was provided by the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship; Agricultural Experiment Station Hatch projects CA-R-A-6689-H and CA-D-LAW-2352-H; the California Energy Commission (EPC-15-060); the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources at University of California Davis (UCD); and the John Muir Institute of the Environment, UCD. Funding for A.A. was provided by a NERC Industrial Innovation Fellowship (NE/R013489/1). Funding for M.K.H. was provided, in part, by the Energy Graduate Group, UCD. Funding for R.D. was provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) through the InSPIRE Project. This work was authored, in part, by NREL (G.A.H., J.M.), operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the US Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by the US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency (EERE) and Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), Agreement No. 34165. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, or the US Government. The US Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for US Government purposes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Rebecca R. Hernandez, Steven M. Grodsky & Madison K. Hoffacker

  2. Wild Energy Initiative, John Muir Institute of the Environment, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Rebecca R. Hernandez, Steven M. Grodsky, Leslie Saul-Gershenz & Madison K. Hoffacker

  3. Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Rebecca R. Hernandez, Madison K. Hoffacker & Daniel M. Kammen

  4. Climate and Carbon Sciences Program, Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Rebecca R. Hernandez

  5. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Alona Armstrong

  6. Energy Lancaster, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Alona Armstrong

  7. School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Jennifer Burney

  8. Center for Biological Diversity, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Greer Ryan

  9. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Southwest Region, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Kara Moore-O’Leary

  10. Département de Productions Végétales, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agriculture, Université de Thiès, Thiès, Senegal

    Ibrahima Diédhiou

  11. Center for Pollinators in Energy, Fresh Energy, Saint Paul, MN, USA

    Rob Davis

  12. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA

    Jordan Macknick & Garvin A. Heath

  13. Environmental Studies Department, San José State University, San José, CA, USA

    Dustin Mulvaney

  14. Renewable Energy & Environmental Finance Group, Wells Fargo, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Shane B. Easter

  15. Center for Conservation Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

    Michael F. Allen

  16. Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

    Michael F. Allen

  17. Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Daniel M. Kammen

  18. Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

    Daniel M. Kammen

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  1. Rebecca R. Hernandez
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R.R.H initiated the research and led the conceptual design and writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed to further content development and drafting of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rebecca R. Hernandez.

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S.B.E. declares Wells Fargo to be his employer wherein he acts as a financier of solar and wind energy projects. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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Hernandez, R.R., Armstrong, A., Burney, J. et al. Techno–ecological synergies of solar energy for global sustainability. Nat Sustain 2, 560–568 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0309-z

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