Four years ago, I ventured to various UK cities to discover what their universities had to offer. I was drawn to Lancaster University after noticing the importance it placed upon sustainability, visually manifested in its beautiful green parkland campus. As an aspiring ecology student, integration of nature with my educational environment was essential. However, it was not until my 4^th and final year of my integrated masters when I began my 7-week placement with Lancaster University’s Estate Development team that I grasped just how trailblazing this University is at transforming net-zero objectives from ideals to reality.

Construction of the University wind turbine in 2012 meant 14% of the University’s electricity consumption has since been catered for by self-sustaining, renewable energy. 1,060 tonnes of carbon dioxide are saved annually as a direct result, alongside another 230 tonnes from the locally sourced, sustainably harvested wood chip biomass boiler. Nevertheless, the University recognised this is far from enough to achieve net-zero targets and declared a climate emergency in 2020. Ambitious goals were set: to reach net -zero for carbon emissions from electricity and heating by 2030, and from all other emissions by 2035.

Two major renewable energy projects were born from this initiative. The first being the Net Zero Energy Centre and campus District Heat Network expansion, and the second being a solar farm with over 17,000 photovoltaic cell panels. Together, these projects will eliminate the use of gas to heat and power Lancaster’s Bailrigg campus. The energy centre will pioneer use of a 7MW air-source heat pump array to generate 39-Gigawatt hours of low carbon heat, enough to heat 95% of the buildings on campus. This will require extending the existing District Heat Network; an additional 6.5km of pipework is being installed. These operations commenced in November 2024 and are projected to complete in Spring 2027.

The Net Zero Energy Centre as of October 2025 - image by Mark Gillow

Rather than relying on combustion of fossil fuels, heat pumps are electrically driven. This means they synergise perfectly with renewable energy generation, such as wind and solar. On top of the existing wind turbine and biomass boiler, the new solar farm will be able to save an additional 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by generating 10GWh of electricity annually. This is enough energy to supply the annual demand of approximately 2,800 houses.

Lancaster University’s solar farm - image by Mark Gillow

The most eye-opening insight I gained during my placement was that solar farms, when managed correctly, actually enhance biodiversity, challenging the negative connotations associated with more conventional power stations. The operational lifespan of a solar farm is usually 25-40 years, during which land is largely undisturbed. Soil health can therefore regenerate without inputs of pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers, boosting biodiversity. The original site of the University’s solar farm was compacted, poorly draining grassland unsuitable for growing crops, therefore used as pasture. Across the whole UK, 95% of land occupied by solar farms was formerly agricultural land, roughly 2/3 of this being arable land and 1/3 being pasture (Blaydes et al, 2025). High arable land cover can potentially negatively impact soil health (Yang et al, 2020) and wildlife such as insects (Toivonen et al, 2022). Overly grazed land may also have detrimental impacts on biodiversity (Chaudhary et al, 2016, Pakeman and Fielding, 2021).

Transforming university land into a solar farm comprised a landscaping scheme to enhance hedgerows and woodland surrounding it, as well as integrate diverse wildflower meadows between panels. Such strategies have been shown to promote pollinator biodiversity on solar farms: twice as many bumblebees foraged and nested inside solar parks managed as wildflower meadows, compared to those with only wildflower margins (Blaydes et al, 2022). Solar farms can also be designed to provide pollinators with a variety of microclimates which are essential for pollinators to regulate body temperature (Graham et al, 2021), supporting other wildlife further up the food chain such as bats (Zhu et al, 2024). On a larger scale, solar farms can provide wildlife corridors that reduce habitat fragmentation (Blaydes et al, 2024), a key driver of declines. When I visited the solar farm in October 2025, I witnessed firsthand the biodiversity it supports: some beautiful deer were grazing around and under the panels.

Deer seen on a solar farm site visit - image by Katie Wright

In a further leap of innovation, the solar farm also houses a bespoke research facility comprised of a fully operational 50kW agrivoltaics demonstrator, which enables multifunctional land use with crops and electricity coming from the same area. It is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK and consists of an area of tracking photovoltaic arrays (these automatically move to follow the sun’s path across the sky) as well as vertical panels.

The 50kW field agrivoltaics demonstrator - image by Mark Gillow

Leaving this placement, I feel more optimistic about what universities and other organisations can do to shape a net-zero future through green infrastructure and land management. It’s been a fantastic opportunity to step outside of the lecture theatre and away from textbooks that theorise about sustainability, instead witnessing it unfold on my own campus.

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