Growing Solar, Protecting Nature

Published by Mass Audobon and Harvard Forest, Oct 2023

Transitioning to clean electric power in less than three decades is an absolute imperative for decarbonizing our economy, and a massive challenge. Massachusetts has made great initial strides in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electricity production, and has ambitious interim goals in place to complete the transition to nearly carbon-free electric power by 2050. Getting there will require a significant increase in the pace of clean energy deployment, including a growing role for solar of all types, and an unprecedented level of investment in electricity grid upgrades and transmission infrastructure.  

Urgency on climate action, however, does not justify the haphazard approach to solar deployment witnessed in the Commonwealth over the past decade. The current trajectory of deployment of large ground-mount solar is coming at too high a cost to nature. Concerns about impacts to nature are partly responsible for erosion of public support for solar, with many communities now seeking to slow or entirely stop new ground-mount solar systems.

 Growing Solar, Protecting Nature explores a different path forward for scaling up solar energy resources in the Commonwealth. In this vision, solar plays an essential and growing role in cleaning our power grid, while nature is also left intact to continue its irreplaceable role combating climate change, supporting biodiversity, and providing resilience to climate change’s worst impacts. This analysis shows that achieving the vision of growing solar while protecting nature is fully within our grasp. But, doing so requires a quick and intentional pivot from current siting practices, with immediate and purposeful changes to energy incentives and programs, enhanced and coordinated state and local planning efforts, and stronger incentives for keeping natural and working lands intact.

Motivation for Growing Solar, Protecting Nature

Massachusetts is one of a handful of U.S. states with ambitious laws for tackling the risks of unchecked climate change. Under the Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy, passed into law in 2021, the Commonwealth must reach net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.

The challenge is formidable. By 2030, climate-polluting emissions in Massachusetts must be reduced by 50 percent relative to 1990 levels, and by 75 percent by 2040, on the way to net-zero emissions by 2050. Because it is not feasible to eliminate fossil fuel use across the entire economy by 2050, reaching our net-zero goal will also require removing carbon from the atmosphere, to counteract our remaining GHG emissions. Massachusetts’ forests are our primary and only means of carbon removal. 1  As of yet, no other technology exists that can perform this function affordably. 2  Ensuring that nature continues this carbon removal service is among our lowest-cost strategies for meeting the net-zero goal. 

But forests can’t do it alone. Clean energy is foundational to unlocking reductions in GHG emissions needed across the economy. Massachusetts needs a massive build-out of clean electricity to support the electrification of the building and transportation sectors. In the Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2050, the state estimates that the clean energy generation mix needed in Massachusetts could be 8 gigawatts (GW) of solar and 4 GW of wind (onshore and offshore) by 2030, and at least 27 GW of solar and 24 GW of wind by 2050. 3  Other New England states also need to expand clean power resources:  estimates are that the capacity of the New England electric grid will need to expand by 2 to 2.5 times by 2050, and more transmission must also be built to move clean power to where it’s needed.

Fortunately, Massachusetts and the New England region have abundant solar and wind resources. Massachusetts alone is planning for an estimated 5,600 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind energy by 2027. Both renewable technologies have recently undergone a massive market transformation. The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) estimates that, over the last decade, the price of solar photovoltaic modules has declined by 85 percent. 4 

Mass Audubon and Harvard Forest believe that scaling up solar and other clean energy resources is an absolute imperative to meeting the state’s climate targets for 2030, 2040, and 2050. All types of solar will be needed, including ground-mount systems as well as “distributed” solar, i.e., rooftop solar that connects into the electricity distribution system, and solar on canopies erected on top of parking lots.

As we scale up our deployment of solar, we must also recognize the instrumental role that natural and working lands play in stabilizing our climate system. More than 60 percent of Massachusetts is covered by diverse forests, which are storehouses of carbon. Our trees alone contain the equivalent amount of carbon as in five years’ of statewide fossil fuel emissions. 5  Forest soils contain a similar amount. 6  Beyond storage, forests are also actively capturing carbon from the atmosphere at a rate equivalent to 10 percent of our current GHG emissions. 7  In addition, forests and natural ecosystems provide valuable, irreplaceable public goods: biodiversity, drinking water filtration, wildlife habitat, recreation, and resilience to impacts of climate change such as flooding and extreme heat.

Solar Deployment at Mass Audubon

Solar energy is essential to Mass Audubon’s plans to reach net-zero GHG emissions across our properties and operations. We’ve been committed to solar energy since the early 2000s, when we established a goal to install solar at every staffed sanctuary. Today Mass Audubon owns a total of 45 solar arrays spread across 21 sanctuaries. At a total capacity of 621 kW, our solar systems produced nearly 50 percent of our total electric consumption last year. While most of the arrays are rooftop systems, about a third of our solar generation comes from our 14 ground-mount systems. Solar will certainly play a large role in our future plans: new buildings at Mass Audubon must be net-zero or better, so solar will be part of any new construction.