🌞🦅 How Solar Panels Are Giving New Life to Birds
Plus a Startup That's Making it Easier to Reuse Cups
Today’s sustainable snapshot👇🏽
How Solar Panels Are Giving New Life to Birds
Quiz Time!
Startup of the Week: auum
5 Sustainable Brands That I Recently Discovered
News That Lifted My Spirits This Week
🌞🦅 How Solar Panels Are Giving New Life to Birds
Solar energy isn’t just good for the grid — it’s turning out to be a lifeline for wildlife. Across Germany, solar parks are quietly transforming into biodiversity hotspots, with birds like larks, wagtails, and wheatears thriving among the panels. In places where intensive farming has pushed species to the edge, these fenced, low-disturbance areas are offering a second chance.
Take one of Germany’s largest solar parks near Berlin, for example. Biologist Matthias Stoefer counted record-breaking numbers of breeding larks there—up to 47 pairs per 10 hectares.
That’s more than six times the number found on nearby farmland, where constant spraying and harvesting leave little room for successful nesting. What’s even more surprising is that larks usually avoid vertical structures.
But here, the orderly rows of panels don’t seem to faze them.
These parks are doing more than just sitting there and soaking up the sun. Sheep graze between the rows, keeping the grass short and fertilizing the land naturally.
This creates a rich buffet of insects for the birds and fosters a mosaic of microhabitats — from sandy trails to shady green patches under the panels.
Over time, with minimal human interference and careful management, these areas become surprisingly rich ecosystems.
And it's not just larks.
Rare birds like the wheatear are showing up again, along with buntings, shrikes, and even red kites circling overhead. As solar parks mature, they quietly outdo neighboring agricultural land in terms of wildlife value.
With the right design and care, solar parks can pull double duty — clean energy above, thriving biodiversity below. Who knew saving the planet could come with birdsong?
⌛ Time for the quiz of the week
Answer at the end of the newsletter. No one (including me) can see your response, so feel free to vote. 😉
✨ Startup of the Week: auum
This machine makes it easier for office employees to reuse their cups and glasses.
A lot of companies still use disposable cups. An office employee has ~2-3 drinks per day. Now, consider a mid-sized company office of 100 employees. That would be 200-300 cups a day and around 60-90k disposable cups in a year. And that’s just one company. Multiply it by hundreds of thousands of companies across the world, and the problem becomes huge!
One of the solutions could be employees bringing their reusable cups, but…
😫 Cleaning a mug at work is a chore.
😫 Who wants to empty a dishwasher at work?
😫 You probably have to use a toilet sink to wash your mug.
auum is solving this problem by making reusing simple. It has built a device that can clean, disinfect, and dry a glass in just 20 seconds. The device uses
💦 10 cl (3,4 oz) of water.
❌ And no chemicals.
Instead, it has built a patented technology that uses dry steam heated at 140°c (284°F). This makes cleaning simple, fun, and instant.
✅ 5 Sustainable Brands That I Recently Discovered
🇺🇸 BeBot: A fully electric robot that can scan beaches for debris and remove it much faster than manual beach cleanups.
🇸🇪 Zivi: A car wash service that uses a sustainable waterless technique that uses only ~0.5 liters per wash.
🇺🇸 InventWood: Invented a new type of wood that’s stronger than steel.
🇮🇳 Boson Whitewater: Tackling water scarcity through transforming treated sewage water into potable water.
🇺🇸 Ground Control Robotics: Built a centipede-inspired robot that can go to any type of terrain to remove weeds.
😹 News That Lifted My Spirits This Week
1️⃣ 🌡️ India's Big AC Energy Efficiency Push: India is taking a bold step to reduce energy consumption by mandating temperature limits on air conditioners. The government plans to restrict AC temperatures between 20-28°C, a significant change from the current minimum of 16°C. This initiative could lead to impressive energy savings — about 6% for each degree increase. With India's booming AC market of 1.4 million units sold last year, this regulation targets both households and commercial spaces. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency supports this move, particularly recommending 24°C as the ideal temperature for comfort.
2️⃣ 🌳 Colombia Makes Strides in Forest Protection: Colombia has achieved impressive progress in its fight against deforestation, with a significant 33% reduction in forest loss during Q1 2025. Deforestation dropped from 40,219 hectares to 27,000 hectares year-over-year, with the Amazon's national parks showing the most improvement. The government is also working on strengthening ties with Indigenous and territorial leaders to further boost conservation efforts.
3️⃣ 🌞 India's Clean Energy Revolution: India is transforming its energy landscape at an impressive pace. While still heavily dependent on coal, the country is actively shifting towards renewable energy, with coal's share in power capacity dropping from 60% to under 50% in just 11 years. In a remarkable achievement, India added 30 gigawatts of clean power between April 2024 and 2025 — enough to power 18 million homes. This transition is crucial, as India's growing middle class and increasing energy demands make it a key player in the global fight against climate change.
Give that 💚 a little tap if this edition helped you learn something new about sustainability and climate change. Have a good weekend, and see you next week :)