Key Takeaways
- Skyview Ventures and HiveTracks are expanding their biodiversity intelligence partnership to additional solar sites in 2026, following a successful 2025 rollout across eight projects in New York, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Connecticut.
- The program integrates managed apiaries, pollinator habitats, and environmental monitoring into solar projects across multiple stages of development.
- HiveTracks uses beehives as biosensors and beekeepers as field ecologists, generating per-site and portfolio-level environmental metrics including pollinator diversity, plant abundance, eDNA, and ecotoxicology data.
- Skyview Ventures is both an investor in HiveTracks and the company's first solar industry client.
- In 2025, honey produced at program apiaries was donated to food banks and distributed as gifts.
Skyview Ventures Scales Agrivoltaic Biodiversity Program With HiveTracks
Skyview Ventures, a U.S.-based renewable energy investor, and its solar company Davis Hill Development have announced the expansion of their partnership with HiveTracks, a biodiversity intelligence platform, across their solar portfolio. The program — which began in 2025 with eight solar projects — integrates managed apiaries, pollinator habitats, and environmental data collection into operating and developing solar projects in multiple U.S. states. Skyview Ventures plans to extend the program to additional sites during 2026.
Skyview Ventures is both an investor in HiveTracks and the company's first solar industry client, making the partnership a direct expression of the company's approach to deploying capital and strategy in alignment.
Beehives as Biosensors Across the Solar Site Lifecycle
At each participating solar site, local beekeepers recruited and supported by HiveTracks manage apiaries that serve dual purposes: honey production and environmental monitoring. HiveTracks collects data on pollinator and plant diversity and abundance, supplemented by hive-based eDNA and ecotoxicology testing. This data is visualized at both the individual site and portfolio level, enabling actionable recommendations for improving ecological conditions.
The program spans projects at pre-construction through operational stages, allowing Skyview Ventures to evaluate environmental impact across the full solar project lifecycle. Maria Morales Ferrebus, Solar Development Associate at Skyview Ventures, noted that in the first year of the program, data revealed areas with low plant diversity — a condition that can reduce drought resilience and increase erosion risk. By acting on HiveTracks' recommendations, the company can adjust operations to strengthen soil health and improve pollinator habitats.
Broader Trend Toward Multi-Use Solar Land Strategies
Andy Karetsky, CEO of Skyview Ventures, described the initiative as part of a broader vision that renewable energy projects should be developed with long-term environmental stewardship in mind, demonstrating that solar sites can deliver ecological benefits beyond clean energy generation.
Max Rünzel, CEO of HiveTracks, said the partnership demonstrates how beekeeping, environmental data, and renewable energy infrastructure can work together to create measurable environmental impact at scale. The expansion reflects a growing industry trend toward agrivoltaic and multi-use land strategies, where solar development is combined with agriculture, habitat restoration, and biodiversity programming.
