Multi-use solar: Planning to deliver energy, biodiversity and productive farmland

Mark Lang

Technical Director, RSK Biocensus

Mark Lang is a Chartered Ecologist and a technical director within both RSK Wilding and RSK Biocensus, with a background in delivering the ecology requirements of large-scale renewables projects, including nuclear, solar and wind. Mark has acted as ecology expert witness for four large-scale solar farms and is about to support three Welsh wind farms in the same capacity. Key issues Mark has encountered include how ecologists ensure mitigation proposals and habitat management plans are realistic, pragmatic and deliverable on the ground, and how to design enhancements and habitats that are likely to deliver the required outcomes for species such as ground-nesting birds and foraging bats. Mark is passionate about professional standards and works as a chartership assessor for the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), ensuring Chartered Ecologists and Chartered Environmentalists meet the required standards and also guiding prospective candidates through the application process.

Ed Nicholson

Director, RSK Biocensus

Ed Nicholson is a director within RSK Biocensus with over 35 years’ practical experience across habitat creation and restoration, land and estate management, forestry, arboriculture and agriculture. He specialises in bridging the gap between ecological design and what can realistically be constructed, established and managed on the ground.

Ed’s work increasingly focuses on the practical delivery of biodiversity and habitat commitments associated with biodiversity net gain (BNG) habitat creation and large-scale infrastructure and renewable energy projects, including solar. He brings a land management and delivery perspective to the design process, considering how proposed habitats will work alongside construction requirements, access, drainage, soils, grazing, vegetation management and the long-term operation of the site.

A key focus of Ed’s work is ensuring that biodiversity and mitigation proposals are not simply technically compliant on paper, but are practical, buildable and capable of delivering the intended ecological outcomes over the lifetime of a solar development. He advocates bringing ecology, construction, land management and operational teams together much earlier, starting with a clear vision for the finished landscape and working backwards to determine how it can realistically be delivered.