Georectified polygon database of ground-mounted large-scale solar photovoltaic sites in the United States

K Sydny Fujita; Zachary H Ancona; Louisa A Kramer; Mary Straka; Tandie E Gautreau; Dana Robson; Chris Garrity; Ben Hoen; Jay E Diffendorfer

doi:10.1038/s41597-023-02644-8

Georectified polygon database of ground-mounted large-scale solar photovoltaic sites in the United States

Sci Data. 2023 Nov 8;10(1):760. doi: 10.1038/s41597-023-02644-8.

Authors

K Sydny Fujita¹, Zachary H Ancona², Louisa A Kramer³, Mary Straka^{3

4}, Tandie E Gautreau^{3

4}, Dana Robson⁵, Chris Garrity⁶, Ben Hoen⁵, Jay E Diffendorfer³

Affiliations

¹ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Energy Technologies Area, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA. ktfujita@lbl.gov.
² United States Geological Survey. Geosciences & Environmental Change Science Center, Denver, CO, 80225, USA. zancona@usgs.gov.
³ United States Geological Survey. Geosciences & Environmental Change Science Center, Denver, CO, 80225, USA.
⁴ University of Colorado Denver. Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Denver, CO, 80204, USA.
⁵ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Energy Technologies Area, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
⁶ United States Geological Survey. Eastern Energy Science Center, Reston, VA, 20192, USA.

Abstract

Over 4,400 large-scale solar photovoltaic (LSPV) facilities operate in the United States as of December 2021, representing more than 60 gigawatts of electric energy capacity. Of these, over 3,900 are ground-mounted LSPV facilities with capacities of 1 megawatt direct current (MW_dc) or more. Ground-mounted LSPV installations continue increasing, with more than 400 projects appearing online in 2021 alone; however, a comprehensive, publicly available georectified dataset including spatial footprints of these facilities is lacking. The United States Large-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Database (USPVDB) was developed to fill this gap. Using US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, locations of 3,699 LSPV facilities were verified using high-resolution aerial imagery, polygons were digitized around panel arrays, and attributes were appended. Quality assurance and control were achieved via team peer review and comparison to other US PV datasets. Data are publicly available via an interactive web application and multiple downloadable formats, including: comma-separated value (CSV), application programming interface (API), and GIS shapefile and GeoJSON.

Publication types

Dataset