Solar Resource Areas (2022)

Solar Resource Areas created were produced using a k-means method that groups solar generating plants into discrete regions based on their latitude, longitude, and distance to the coast. After facilities were grouped, the outermost facilities in each region were connected to create the boundaries for each region. To include all facilities inside each polygon, a 5 km buffer was used. Plants that are farther from a concentration of other plants are not included in a region and are instead displayed as outlying facilities. Areas outside California included in the the regions are a result of the mapping process and are not representing actual solar generating facilities. Based on the Quarterly Fuel and Energy Report dataset, this map focuses on data from plants of at least 1 MW capacity (commercial scale) and excludes smaller plants.