Ramsey energy company finds perfect pairing in putting bees, solar panels together

Instead, wildflowers will soon bloom beneath the sleek solar panels in Ramsey, offering food to bees from 15 hives recently installed nearby. The colonies will produce honey by the jarful for Connexus Energy’s solar subscribers, with enough left over for local fundraisers.

Pairing native plants with solar arrays is a win-win, say bee researchers and renewable energy advocates. It provides food for pollinators suffering from rapidly shrinking habitats while offering a low-maintenance, vibrant alternative to the turf grass, gravel or wood chips often found beneath solar panels.

“It’s a perfect pairing,” said Marla Spivak, a renowned bee researcher at the University of Minnesota. “You have the solar energy efficiency and then you have pollinator habitat. What could be better?”

At Connexus Energy in Ramsey, two beekeepers will tend their hives in the company’s solar panel field, providing 600 jars of honey to Connexus and selling the rest. The partnership may be the first of its kind in the country, said Samantha Neral, a Connexus Energy spokeswoman.

It’s part of a broader push to grow pollinator-friendly flowers and grasses near solar arrays. Minnesota passed the country’s first statewide standards for “pollinator friendly solar” in 2016, and more than 2,300 acres of these plants took root near solar panels last year, according to Fresh Energy, a clean energy nonprofit in St. Paul. Read more…