On September 13, 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) released a Request for Information (RFI) on solar energy’s interactions with wildlife and ecosystems. The purpose of this RFI was to gather input from solar developers; utility planners; local, state, and federal government entities; conservation and environmental groups; and other key stakeholders. Questions in this RFI were developed to gather feedback on current siting practices and trends; species and habitats of interest; avoidance, mitigation, and monitoring practices; and data, research, and resource needs.

The Wildlife and Ecosystems RFI received 43 responses from interested stakeholders. A complete summary of the feedback received is available in the document below. The summary document provides a synthesis of stakeholders’ responses to each question in the RFI and includes appendices presenting a summary submitted by respondents of solar-wildlife research needs (Appendix A); a list of species and taxa of concern potentially impacted by solar energy development (Appendix B); and a list of resources, tools, and references (Appendix C).

In addition to this RFI, SETO hosted two virtual stakeholder convenings with the utility-scale solar industry, state wildlife agencies, conservation and environmental groups, and other stakeholders to hear direct feedback on these questions.

Note: This is only a summary of information gathered by DOE. None of the information in this summary is a commitment to perform work on any specific topic area. There is no potential funding tied to this summary. DOE will use the information gathered to determine how and whether to develop future programming.

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