Multi-dimensional ecological impacts of utility-scale solar and wind energy across terrestrial ecosystems: A...

The rapid expansion of utility-scale solar photovoltaic and onshore wind power projects has raised increasing ecological concerns and created new challenges for sustainable energy development. However, existing reviews often focus on individual ecological dimensions and lack systematic integration across project types and ecosystem contexts. Drawing on 306 publications, this study uses keyword co-occurrence clustering to validate the conceptual coherence of the five ecological dimensions proposed in the theoretical framework. These dimensions are further combined with six representative terrestrial ecosystems to identify research hotspots and structure the systematic review. Results show that solar photovoltaic projects generally generate positive ecological responses-such as temperature regulation, water retention, and vegetation recovery-typically reflected in reported surface cooling of ∼1-5 °C and gains of ∼20-30% in vegetation or biodiversity-related metrics under favorable conditions-whereas wind power projects more often induce negative effects, including surface warming (commonly on the order of ∼0.1-0.5 °C at night), soil desiccation, and landscape fragmentation. The magnitude and direction of these responses vary substantially with project type and ecosystem context. By synthesizing existing evidence, this review identifies dominant ecological impacts, highlights key research gaps, and establishes a multi-dimensional basis for ecological assessment and spatial suitability analysis to support ecologically informed renewable energy planning and management.