Everything Solar Forum

Webinar this Thursday on

new free geospatial dataset

of U.S. large-scale solar facilities

and online viewer

On Thursday, November 16 at 1 PM Eastern time, Berkeley Lab and U.S. Geological Survey researchers will present the new United States Large-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Database (USPVDB), describing the development process, the free data available and providing a demonstration of the Online Viewer (https://eerscmap.usgs.gov/uspvdb).

The USPVDB is a detailed and comprehensive geospatial dataset of ground-mounted large-scale solar photovoltaic energy facility locations and their attributes. 

Register for the webinar here:

https://lbnl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DABtH_86SNe4TSZPKn_QPg.

The dataset comprises 3,699 LSS ground-mounted facilities with capacities greater than 1 MW_dc in operation across 47 states and Washington, D.C. through the end of 2021. The database contains both geospatial polygons encircling the installed equipment such as panels and inverters. The polygons were hand-drawn using high-resolution aerial imagery. This is a significant improvement over other datasets, including that of the Energy Information Agency (EIA), that only contain coordinates of the central point of a large-scale solar facility, which are not independently verified for accuracy. 

Screenshot of the USPVDB over Rhode Island and Eastern Massachusettes using the "install year" color ramp

We thank the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office for its support of this work, as well as the numerous individuals and organizations who generously provided data and information, and reviewed our work.

Go explore!

K. Sydny Fujita, Ben Hoen, and Dana Robson, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Zach Ancona, Louisa Kramer, Jay Diffendorfer, and Chris Garrity, US Geological Survey

The Energy Markets & Policy Department at Berkeley Lab conducts technical, economic, and policy analysis of energy topics centered on the U.S. electricity sector.