Assessing state biodiversity conservation planning and large-scale wind and solar energy development in the United States

The accelerating rollout of large-scale wind and photovoltaic solar (LSWS; >1 MW) projects raises key questions about how to balance the indirect impacts from renewable energy expansion with biodiversity conservation. In the United States, biodiversity conservation is, in part, operationalized through State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs), yet the extent to which these plans anticipate and guide LSWS development remains unclear. Using a keyword-assisted qualitative content analysis, we evaluate how LSWS-related threats and conservation opportunities are represented in SWAPs. Further, we use a GIS-based overlay analysis to quantify overlap between spatially explicit conservation priorities (‘Conservation Opportunity Areas’ or COAs) and areas indirectly impacted by current and projected LSWS buildout. To capture potential indirect impacts from LSWS, we apply technology-specific and project-level buffers and assess spatial overlap with SWAP-designated COAs under two land-use scenarios. We find misalignment between conservation opportunities identified in SWAPs and the trajectory of LSWS buildout. Across SWAPs, 80% identify at least one LSWS-related biodiversity threat, but 17 plans identify no LSWS-related conservation opportunity. The most common conservation opportunity identified in SWAPs is the need for additional research. Spatial analyses reveal that areas indirectly impacted by LSWS may expand rapidly, reaching more than 440,000 km 2 by 2045. Land-cover analyses show that LSWS–COA overlap occurs primarily in natural habitat and agricultural lands. States with the highest projected overlap, including Iowa, Michigan, and Montana identify few actionable conservation opportunities. These findings stress the necessity of early, coordinated LSWS planning to align LSWS and biodiversity conservation aims.