Rooftop Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States
This data submission contains a workbook with data, and three sets of shapefiles that correspond to that data. Contact: Meghan Mooney, Meghan.Mooney@nrel.gov The workbook contains data that underlies the 2016 technical report Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States: A Detailed Assessment. This data is separated into small, medium, and large buildings. A small building is less than 5,000 square feet, a medium building is between 5,000 and 25,000 square feet, and a large building is greater than 25,000 square feet. The suitability of roof area for hosting PV was determined based on shading (energy production not less than 70% of an identical unshaded system in the same location), tilt (no greater than 60 degree tilt), azimuth (not facing north), and contiguous roof area (at least 10 square meters available) criteria. For further documentation of methods and assumptions, see the 2016 report. The tab Rooftop_PV_with_Lidar_Coverage contains estimates for zip codes where at least some lidar data was available. The zip_percentage column indicates the percentage of area of each zip code was covered by lidar data -- only buildings within the covered area are reported here, meaning that the values for incompletely covered zip codes are under-reported. The tab Small_Building_Suitability contains estimates of the number of small buildings and the percentage of those buildings that have at least some area that is suitable for rooftop PV, for all zip codes in the contiguous US. Where lidar data was not available, a model was used to estimate the data. Estimates for medium and large buildings were not produced at the zip code level, because of insufficient input data.
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - This data submission contains a workbook with data, and three sets of shapefiles that correspond to that data. Contact: Meghan Mooney, Meghan.Mooney@nrel.gov The workbook contains data that underlies the 2016 technical report Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States: A Detailed Assessment. This data is separated into small, medium, and large buildings. A small building is less than 5,000 square feet, a medium building is between 5,000 and 25,000 square feet, and a large building is greater than 25,000 square feet. The suitability of roof area for hosting PV was determined based on shading (energy production not less than 70% of an identical unshaded system in the same location), tilt (no greater than 60 degree tilt), azimuth (not facing north), and contiguous roof area (at least 10 square meters available) criteria. For further documentation of methods and assumptions, see the 2016 report. The tab Rooftop_PV_with_Lidar_Coverage contains estimates for zip codes where at least some lidar data was available. The zip_percentage column indicates the percentage of area of each zip code was covered by lidar data -- only buildings within the covered area are reported here, meaning that the values for incompletely covered zip codes are under-reported. The tab Small_Building_Suitability contains estimates of the number of small buildings and the percentage of those buildings that have at least some area that is suitable for rooftop PV, for all zip codes in the contiguous US. Where lidar data was not available, a model was used to estimate the data. Estimates for medium and large buildings were not produced at the zip code level, because of insufficient input data.
AU - Gagnon
A2 - Margolis
A3 - Phillips
DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI)
DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory
DO -
KW - rooftop
KW - photovoltaic
KW - PV
KW - technical potential
LA - English
DA - 2019/11/05
PY - 2019
PB - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
T1 - Rooftop Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States
UR - https://data.openei.org/submissions/8194
ER -
Gagnon, et al. Rooftop Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 5 November, 2019, NREL. https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/121.
Gagnon, Margolis, & Phillips. (2019). Rooftop Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States. [Data set]. NREL. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/121
Gagnon, Margolis, and Phillips. Rooftop Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, November, 5, 2019. Distributed by NREL. https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/121
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_8194,
title = {Rooftop Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States},
author = {Gagnon and Margolis and Phillips},
abstractNote = {This data submission contains a workbook with data, and three sets of shapefiles that correspond to that data.\ Contact: Meghan Mooney, Meghan.Mooney@nrel.gov\ The workbook contains data that underlies the 2016 technical report Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States: A Detailed Assessment.\ This data is separated into small, medium, and large buildings. A small building is less than 5,000 square feet, a medium building is between 5,000 and 25,000 square feet, and a large building is greater than 25,000 square feet. The suitability of roof area for hosting PV was determined based on shading (energy production not less than 70\% of an identical unshaded system in the same location), tilt (no greater than 60 degree tilt), azimuth (not facing north), and contiguous roof area (at least 10 square meters available) criteria. For further documentation of methods and assumptions, see the 2016 report.\ The tab Rooftop_PV_with_Lidar_Coverage contains estimates for zip codes where at least some lidar data was available. The zip_percentage column indicates the percentage of area of each zip code was covered by lidar data -- only buildings within the covered area are reported here, meaning that the values for incompletely covered zip codes are under-reported.\ The tab Small_Building_Suitability contains estimates of the number of small buildings and the percentage of those buildings that have at least some area that is suitable for rooftop PV, for all zip codes in the contiguous US. Where lidar data was not available, a model was used to estimate the data. Estimates for medium and large buildings were not produced at the zip code level, because of insufficient input data.},
url = {https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/121},
year = {2019},
howpublished = {NREL, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/121},
note = {Accessed: 2025-05-08}
}
Details
Data from Nov 5, 2019
Last updated Jan 21, 2025
Submitted Nov 5, 2019
Organization
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Contact
Meghan Mooney
Authors
Original Source
https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/121Research Areas
Keywords
rooftop, photovoltaic, PV, technical potentialDOE Project Details
Project Name Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States: A Detailed Assessment
Project Number GO28308