Biodiversity and renewable energy

Biodiversity: growing within planetary limits 

The numbers aren’t good, and the numbers don’t lie: the last 50 years have seen a rapid decline of biodiversity, with an ever-increasing number of species facing extinction. The WWF’s Living Planet Report 2024, for example, shows that the average size of wildlife populations fell by 73% between just 1970 and 2020. 

That reality makes biodiversity loss and other human-driven impacts on natural ecosystems among the greatest risks to humanity, as it threatens our food security, jeopardises human health, and disrupts critical ecological processes.  

But how does this relate to the relationship between biodiversity and renewable energy? 

Acknowledging our impact 

When it comes to interconnected issues such as climate change or biodiversity loss, there are rarely quick or simple solutions. With global warming and climate change among the primary drivers of biodiversity loss, it’s clear that transitioning as quickly as possible from high-emission fossil fuels is acutely urgent.   

But the truth of the matter is this: the development and production of renewable energy affect the land and water systems where power plants are located. How? The construction and operation of energy producing assets also lead to habitat modifications and fragmentations. They can also result in disturbances in the condition of ecosystems and impact threatened species.  

It goes without saying that we take our impacts on nature and the knock-on effects on locally affected communities extremely seriously. 

Our own footprint: how are we doing? 

Renewable energy projects will in most cases conduct a formal environmental impact assessment as part of their permitting and licensing process in line with national requirements. These assessments include consideration for impacts to biodiversity and how to mitigate those impacts. The permit will also incorporate what requirements and mitigation measures a project needs to undertake in order to reduce its impacts to biodiversity.

Similarly, local authorities will review the license terms for operating assets of renewable energy during their operational lifetime. The frequence and scale of the review may vary between country and technology, but the purpose of these reviews is to verify potential remaining and on-going impacts to biodiversity and if they are acceptable. 

In our annual report, Statkraft reports on land-use from new energy developments. In 2024, we reported a total land-use change of just under 235 Hectares (temporary and permanent habitat disturbances) whilst developing a total of about 466 MW capacity of renewable energy. This is a land-use ratio of 0.52 Ha per MW capacity developed. 

In 2024, the scope of the metric substantially changed to align with international standards. As a result, the data from previous years are not comparable.

The number of sites in protected areas has increased from 2023 to 2024 as we have changed the approach to counting the protected areas. In last year’s report, Statkraft mentioned that we had 18 sites in protected areas and 28 sites adjacent to protected areas. Inclusion of key biodiversity area is also new in 2024, and therefore has no comparable data. A site will be included in both metrics if it is located in or near a protected area that is also recognized as a key biodiversity area.