Renewable energy needs land for solar panels, wind turbines, and the lines that carry electricity. At a United Nations desertification conference in Ulaanbaatar, experts discussed how those projects can be planned to help land recover too.In South Africa, degraded mining land has been repurposed for renewable energy. In China, solar panels are being combined with vegetation, water harvesting, and measures that help hold back sand.In India, solar irrigation lets farmers use the same land to grow food, power pumps, and earn money by sending extra electricity to the grid.The experts stressed that there is no single recipe. Projects work best when planners look at soil, water, wildlife, local communities, and the wider landscape before choosing where to build.That careful approach could let the clean-energy transition do two jobs at once: reduce fossil-fuel use and leave more places healthier than they were before.