Dr Alona Armstrong is a Senior Lecturer in Energy & Environmental Sciences at the University of Lancaster. In this video she explains how low carbon energy sources can impact ecosystems and what management tools are being developed to manage and monitor these effects. This comes as a result of the UK Government’s 25 year Environmental Plan that was established in 2018
Management tools mentioned by Alona include:
- The Scottish Executive Windfarm Carbon Payback Calculator developed by researchers at the University of Aberdeen and Macaulay Land Use Research Institute. The corporate report on the tool can be found here.
- The Solar Park Impacts on Ecosystem Services (SPIES) decision support tool, developed by Dr Alona Armstrong and Professor Piran White (University of York)
- Solar Park Carbon Payback Calculator (SPCC) developed by researchers at the University of Lancaster. The calculator is currently in beta form.
- Academics at the University of Lancaster are also developing a framework to assess the economic pollination services benefits of managing solar parks. This stems from research conducted at the University of Lancaster and University of Reading (journal article on Opportunities to enhance pollinator biodiversity in solar parks can be found here).