Solar Energy Development in North Carolina: Analyzing Spatial Patterns and Landscape Characteristics of the Spread of Utility-Scale Solar Facilities
Open AccessThe increased reality of global climate change has caused a growing demand for clean renewable energy. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), predicts up to 6,200,000 additional acres of land will be required for solar development by 2050. In order to better understand the full environmental impacts of continued large-scale solar energy development, we must determine where solar development is occurring and the variables which influence the siting of solar energy facilities. In this research, I mapped solar energy build-out across North Carolina, using machine learning to identify ground-mounted PV solar arrays with Sentinel 2 imagery, statewide, annually from 2016 to 2020. I overlaid these locations with spatial data on land use and land cover variables to summarize the attributes of current solar sites and trends over time. The total area of solar installations in North Carolina more than doubled from 2016 to 2020, with an annual growth rate of 24%. Generally, land cover trends stayed relatively constant across years, from 2016 to 2020. There was a clear influence of landscape characteristics such as slope and solar suitability in the site selection process, with approximately 97% of solar sites having a slope of 1 degree or less and 50% of solar sites having a solar suitability value of 50 or greater. This research provides insight to landscape characteristics influencing the siting of solar energy facilities in North Carolina, which can be used to better predict where future development may occur. Furthermore, the methods used here can be replicated and re-applied in other areas to further enhance our understanding of solar development, and potential impacts, across the United States.
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McAllister_gwu_0075M_15715.pdf | 2022-03-06 | Open Access |
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