Senior Scientist Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute Washington, DC, District of Columbia
Presentation Description: The projected growth of solar energy developments requires responsible siting and might present permitting challenges owing to concerns about impacts on natural resources. Siting and permitting decision-makers can benefit from having access to the best available information related to risks to natural resources. REWI, using its extensive experience in managing sensitive data, is developing a data-sharing infrastructure as a community resource to house solar-related data and information with the flexibility to adapt to emerging stakeholder needs. It will aggregate ecological and monitoring data related to wildlife interactions, vegetation, and ecosystem function. The goals of the data-sharing infrastructure are to connect stakeholders with information to inform decisions, compile data for synthesis and hypothesis testing, and encourage scientific collaborations that address solar-natural resources challenges. REWI is also compiling scientific literature related to solar-natural resources challenges and issues. This literature will be searchable using various filters, and end-users will be able to contribute pertinent resources to the library.
