NISP: Most frequent asked questions

Experts from Leafteasers and Kiwa have collaborated to create a conformity assessment program according to the Leafteasers concept for Nature Inclusive Solar Parks. Leafteasers B.V. is the owner of the NISP concept. They are the implementers of the program together with Kiwa. For each NISP to be developed, Leafteasers performs an advisory role for the customer.

Leafteasers' ecosystem and landscape advisers (and other environmental and technical advisers as needed) conduct an assessment and provide advice regarding their specialty. The customer can arrange with the consultant that the written work of the consultants related to their project, can go to the permit application for the solar park of the customer. Leafteasers consultants in the field of ecology and landscape do not write the complete permit application for a client, but contribute text related to their specialty that can be used in the permit application.

Kiwa assesses whether the customer has ensured that the development of a NISP follows the five-phase process in accordance with the requirements of the BRL. During the assessment, Kiwa checks the customer's evidence and documentation and visits the park to complete the assessment. If the requirements are met, the customer can receive a certificate for his organization and then for each NISP solar farm that he develops.

Ecosystem, Landscape and Technology are the main themes of the NISP tool, and most of the requirements are based in these themes. These themes guide the solar developer through the process of creating a Nature Inclusive Solar Park.

Furthermore, as an added extra, a NISP may have multifunctional land uses on site, although this is not compulsary. Some ideas for multifunctional land use options are described in the Idea Sheet. Leafteaser’s participation ambassador will help you discuss these through with stakeholders, local communities, municipality and Leafteasers ecologist, biodiversity specialist and landscaper to see what could be desirable and feasible to integrate on site. This way your solar park development can contain multifunctional aspects which are matched to goals of the region and its people. In the management tool, the multifunctional land use options are followed up on in every stage through the Programme of Requirements (PoR).

We are happy to draw up a quotation with the exact fee for your project. To become NISP certified, payments should be made to Kiwa for the organisational certificate, the park certification, and park audits. Furthermore, Leafteasers charges a fee for the NISP management tool and the assistance we provide through our ecosystem, biodiversity, stakeholder and landscape specialists. 

The solar developer must prove they fulfil requirements related to their company before completing the NISP certification.

This is a straightforward quality assessment to make sure, for example, that responsible personnel are assigned roles in the NISP development and that an organised administration system is in place. It also states that a solar developer must guarantee the adherence to legislation and regulatory procedures relating to spatial planning, social participation and environmental quality.

A solar developer should only work towards the organisational certificate if they have a specific solar park development project which they are about to develop.

Aspects of the organisational certificate compliance will be checked in yearly audits. If there are incomplete or insufficient elements from the organisational certificate evidence, repair measures will need to take place.