Solar Footprints in California

Solar Footprints in CaliforniaThis GIS dataset consists of polygons that represent the footprints of solar powered electric generation facilities and related infrastructure in California called Solar Footprints. The location of solar footprints was identified using other existing solar footprint datasets from various sources along with imagery interpretation. CEC staff reviewed footprints identified with imagery and digitized polygons to match the visual extent of each facility. Previous datasets of existing solar footprints used to locate solar facilities include:  GIS Layers: (1) California Solar Footprints, (2) UC Berkeley Solar Points, (3) Kruitwagen et al. 2021, (4) BLM Renewable Project Facilities, (5) Quarterly Fuel and Energy Report (QFER)Imagery Datasets: Esri World Imagery, USGS National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP), 2020 SENTINEL 2 Satellite Imagery, 2023Solar facilities with large footprints such as parking lot solar, large rooftop solar, and ground solar were included in the solar footprint dataset. Small scale solar (approximately less than 0.5 acre) and residential footprints were not included. No other data was used in the production of these shapes. Definitions for the solar facilities identified via imagery are subjective and described as follows: Rooftop Solar: Solar arrays located on rooftops of large buildings. Parking lot Solar: Solar panels on parking lots roughly larger than 1 acre, or clusters of solar panels in adjacent parking lots. Ground Solar: Solar panels located on ground roughly larger than 1 acre, or large clusters of smaller scale footprints. Once all footprints identified by the above criteria were digitized for all California counties, the features were visually classified into ground, parking and rooftop categories. The features were also classified into rural and urban types using the 42 U.S. Code § 1490 definition for rural. In addition, the distance to the closest substation and the percentile category of this distance (e.g. 0-25th percentile, 25th-50th percentile) was also calculated. The coverage provided by this data set should not be assumed to be a complete accounting of solar footprints in California. Rather, this dataset represents an attempt to improve upon existing solar feature datasets and to update the inventory of "large" solar footprints via imagery, especially in recent years since previous datasets were published. This procedure produced a total solar project footprint of 150,250 acres. Attempts to classify these footprints and isolate the large utility-scale projects from the smaller rooftop solar projects identified in the data set is difficult. The data was gathered based on imagery, and project information that could link multiple adjacent solar footprints under one larger project is not known. However, partitioning all solar footprints that are at least partly outside of the techno-economic exclusions and greater than 7 acres yields a total footprint size of 133,493 acres. These can be approximated as utility-scale footprints.  Metadata: (1) CBI Solar FootprintsAbstract: Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) created this dataset of solar footprints in California after it was found that no such dataset was publicly available at the time (Dec 2015-Jan 2016). This dataset is used to help identify where current ground based, mostly utility scale, solar facilities are being constructed and will be used in a larger landscape intactness model to help guide future development of renewable energy projects. The process of digitizing these footprints first began by utilizing an excel file from the California Energy Commission with lat/long coordinates of some of the older and bigger locations. After projecting those points and locating the facilities utilizing NAIP 2014 imagery, the developed area around each facility was digitized. While interpreting imagery, there were some instances where a fenced perimeter was clearly seen and was slightly larger than the actual footprint. For those cases the footprint followed the fenced perimeter since it limits wildlife movement through the area. In other instances, it was clear that the top soil had been scraped of any vegetation, even outside of the primary facility footprint. These footprints included the areas that were scraped within the fencing since, especially in desert systems, it has been near permanently altered. Other sources that guided the search for solar facilities included the Energy Justice Map, developed by the Energy Justice Network which can be found here:https://www.energyjustice.net/map/searchobject.php?gsMapsize=large&giCurrentpageiFacilityid;=1&gsTable;=facility&gsSearchtype;=advancedThe Solar Energy Industries Association’s “Project Location Map” which can be found here: https://www.seia.org/map/majorprojectsmap.phpalso assisted in locating newer facilities along with the "Power Plants" shapefile, updated in December 16th, 2015, downloaded from the U.S. Energy Information Administration located here:https://www.eia.gov/maps/layer_info-m.cfmThere were some facilities that were stumbled upon while searching for others, most of these are smaller scale sites located near farm infrastructure. Other sites were located by contacting counties that had solar developments within the county. Still, others were located by sleuthing around for proposals and company websites that had images of the completed facility. These helped to locate the most recently developed sites and these sites were digitized based on landmarks such as ditches, trees, roads and other permanent structures.Metadata: (2) UC Berkeley Solar PointsUC Berkeley report containing point location for energy facilities across the United States.2022_utility-scale_solar_data_update.xlsm (live.com)Metadata: (3) Kruitwagen et al. 2021Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy generating capacity has grown by 41 per cent per year since 2009. Energy system projections that mitigate climate change and aid universal energy access show a nearly ten-fold increase in PV solar energy generating capacity by 2040. Geospatial data describing the energy system are required to manage generation intermittency, mitigate climate change risks, and identify trade-offs with biodiversity, conservation and land protection priorities caused by the land-use and land-cover change necessary for PV deployment. Currently available inventories of solar generating capacity cannot fully address these needs. Here we provide a global inventory of commercial-, industrial- and utility-scale PV installations (that is, PV generating stations in excess of 10 kilowatts nameplate capacity) by using a longitudinal corpus of remote sensing imagery, machine learning and a large cloud computation infrastructure. We locate and verify 68,661 facilities, an increase of 432 per cent (in number of facilities) on previously available asset-level data. With the help of a hand-labelled test set, we estimate global installed generating capacity to be 423 gigawatts (−75/+77 gigawatts) at the end of 2018. Enrichment of our dataset with estimates of facility installation date, historic land-cover classification and proximity to vulnerable areas allows us to show that most of the PV solar energy facilities are sited on cropland, followed by arid lands and grassland. Our inventory could aid PV delivery aligned with the Sustainable Development GoalsEnergy Resource Land Use Planning - Kruitwagen_etal_Nature.pdf - All Documents (sharepoint.com)Metadata: (4) BLM Renewable ProjectTo identify renewable energy approved and pending lease areas on BLM administered lands. To provide information about solar and wind energy applications and completed projects within the State of California for analysis and display internally and externally. This feature class denotes "verified" renewable energy projects at the California State BLM Office, displayed in GIS. The term "Verified" refers to the GIS data being constructed at the California State Office, using the actual application/maps with legal descriptions obtained from the renewable energy company. https://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/energy/renewable_energy https://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/wo/MINERALSREALTYAND_RESOURCE_PROTECTION_/energy/solar_and_wind.Par.70101.File.dat/Public%20Webinar%20Dec%203%202014%20-%20Solar%20and%20Wind%20Regulations.pdfBLM CA Renewable Energy Projects | BLM GBP Hub (arcgis.com)Metadata:  (5) Quarterly Fuel and Energy Report (QFER) California Power Plants - Overview (arcgis.com)