Welcome to the Habitat Assessment Tools, your comprehensive resource for evaluating and monitoring habitat in the context of conservation and land management at photovoltaic facilities. Whether you’re a beginner looking to get started or an experienced assessor seeking advanced tools, we’ve got you covered. Explore the menu below to access a wealth of information and tools tailored to your needs.
User's Guide
UIC previously published a user guide for the Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group’s Pollinator Habitat Scorecard. This guide provides a quick reference to the assessment tool for new users.
Tier 2 Scorecard
This scorecard is intended for use by most assessors. Some skill level is required to identify percent plant cover, flowering plants in bloom, habitat resources, and management threats and opportunities.
Strategies to Reduce Monitoring Costs
While guidance provided can support a robust monitoring program, users may experience limitations in resources or abilities. This guidance helps solar sites identify ways to reduce monitoring costs by offering less time intensive or costly alternatives for amending monitoring plans.
Strategies for Distributing Plots
Determining where to sample in a way that reduces or eliminates bias is an important aspect of monitoring. This guidance presents several approaches to distributing plots across a site.
Development of the PHASE website was funded through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Solar Energy Technologies Office Award Number DE-EE0009371. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S.Department of Energy or the United States Government.
