On a summer day in 2021, a determined delegation visited a site in the south of Ukraine where a wind station was planned to be constructed. Researchers who were implementing the project ‘Impact of Renewable Energy Development in the Steppe Zone of Ukraine on Herpetobiont Fauna’ funded by the NRFU, studied possible risks to local biota and prepared a recommendation to move the construction of windmills to another site. We explained to the developer that this decision would help preserve rare Red Book species, including the common hamster.
The company followed the recommendations and the windmills were built on another site.
The PI Mykhailo Rusin (a researcher of Kyiv Zoological Park) together with his colleagues has been studying the impact of renewable energy on herpetobiont fauna (small mammals, insects, beetles) for many years and reintroducing rare species into nature (reintroduction is the release of species into the wild or relocation to other habitat areas).
The researchers strive to minimize the impact of wind and solar power plants on biota and use the most reliable tools for this purpose: law and science.
“We have been closely following the world’s research achievements on the impact of renewable energy on biota and noticed that there are many studies on the impact of these facilities on bats and birds, and almost none on the impact on soil fauna,” says the PI. “That’s why we submitted this project to the call of the NRFU ‘Support for Research of Leading and Young Scientists’. We decided that it was time to investigate the impact of renewable energy facilities on biota and, if it is negative, to develop recommendations for minimizing such impact. This is exactly in line with the European Green Deal, which Ukraine plans to join.”
Renewable energy is developing rapidly both globally and in Ukraine. Solar and wind power plants are being built in Odesa, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. As a rule, natural areas outside the nature reserve fund are allocated for the construction. “Natural areas are not protected by law, but they are the habitat of rare species and are important for biodiversity conservation!”, the PI emphasizes.
The researchers used the NRFU grant funding to purchase equipment for field research – noise meters, vibrometers, and luxometers. They spent almost all the warm seasons (spring, summer, and fall) of 2021 on expeditions. As a rule, they worked together – the project PI Mykhailo Rusin and an employee of the National Museum of Natural History of the NASU Oleksandr Martynov (currently defending Ukraine in the Armed Forces of Ukraine). Sometimes other early-career researchers and local ecologists were involved, including Oleksandr Haidash, a researcher at the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve of the NASU.
The researchers did thorough preparations for the field expeditions, including obtaining permits from the Border Service in advance, and permits from the construction companies to visit construction sites. Whenever necessary, they also received permissions from the Ministry of Environment. And yet, according to the PI, sometimes unpredictable situations occurred.
“Once our group arrived by car to the shore of Syvash Bay in Kherson region. We unloaded our belongings (it was a big pile) and started setting up tents,” – the project PI recalls. “And I decided to go to buy some food. While I was out, both border guards and the National Guard visited the camp. Of course, I had the permits with me, but the phone connection was low.”
The researchers studied three types of sites: natural, the ones under construction, and the ones where power plants have already been built. They also found out how the biota is restored after the construction is completed. Then they compared the results of the studies and provided recommendations to developers.
The researchers measured noise and dust levels, vibrations on the ground, and set traps for insects and rodents. Special safe traps were used for hamsters. Then the animals were labeled and released.
During the project implementation, the researchers discovered both Red Book insects and those that no one in Ukraine has ever known of.
“Many people don’t understand what the construction of a wind or solar power plant actually means,” explains Mykhailo Rusin. “A construction site can be 20 kilometers long. By the way, Ukrainian legislation provides for an environmental impact assessment for wind power plants, but not for solar power plants. According to Ukrainian law, to construct a solar power plant is the same as to construct a shed. However the impact of construction on biota is enormous! To be clear: the topsoil on the site where the facility is being constructed is completely removed…”
The researchers described species of rare mammals and insects found in the areas where construction had already begun or was planned, and developed recommendations to reduce the environmental impact. In particular, they recommended moving some facilities to another location or constructing power plants somewhere else. “In the fall of 2021, one of the developers actually ‘moved’ its windmills. On behalf of the research team, we contacted the company representatives and they followed the recommendations,” the researcher said.
There were also cases when researchers advised to relocate the Red Book animals themselves. And in some areas in Odesa region, where construction was planned, they were indeed relocated! The research team led by Mykhailo Rusin relocated several individuals of the common hamster, which is critically endangered in both Ukraine and the EU, and the blind mole-rat from the construction site to safe areas. “Our recommendations were followed, because there is a law that requires this to be taken into account. The relocation started in the summer of 2021 and was supposed to continue in 2022. The war destroyed these plans,” Rusin said.
…On the morning of February 24, the researcher woke up in his apartment in Irpin. Hearing the sound of explosions, he and his wife packed
their things. They planned to leave the next morning, but they didn’t make it on time – on February 25, at about seven o’clock, the bridge over the Irpin River was blown up. So they had to take a detour, a roundabout way. They found shelter with their friends in Ivano-Frankivsk region.
“I returned to Kyiv in spring and lived at work for some time. I managed to get to Irpin on May 1,” he recalls. “The walls of our house were bullet-riddled – in March, a russian sniper fired at the windows of our neighbors…
Today, the researcher keeps working and has many plans for 2023 and the following years. He says that war is not a time to sit and wait. It is necessary to develop the topic, implement the results of the project, and lobby for changes to the legislation on solar power plants. After the war is over, renewable energy will develop rapidly, and this is very good. Therefore, everything possible must be done to minimize the impact of wind and solar power plants on biota.
Interviewed by Svitlana Galata
