Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and Deployment of Solar (STEADy Solar)
The Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and DeploYment of Solar (STEADy Solar) is a database and mapping tool designed to promoting clean energy investments for low-income communities across the United States. The tool indicates locations that may be eligible for the Investment Tax Credit bonus adders defined in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and combines this information with demographics, social vulnerability, solar technical potential, solar economics (modeled net present value), and building counts by use-type. It can be used by states, municipalities, community-based organizations, developers, and researchers to identify sites where solar projects may be economical and where federal incentives may be available to support equitable adoption of solar.Specific values include: Areas eligible for the Energy Communities Tax Credit Bonus Program (including brownfield site counts)Areas eligible for the Low Income Communities Bonus Credit Program (including Tribal Lands, and covered affordable housing project counts)Areas categorized as disadvantaged by Justice40Commercial and Residential Solar economics characterized by the Net Present Value and Simple Payback PeriodTotal Population, Race, and EthnicityMedian Household Income, Poverty rate, Household TenureSocial VulnerabilityCount of buildings, developable rooftop solar capacity (in kWdc) and estimated annual generation potential (in kWh) on four building types: Government General Services, Government Emergency Response, Grade Schools, and Colleges/Universities. The linked report describes the STEADy dataset metadata and presents high level insights from the data. The downloadable and formatted excel dataset makes it easy for users to gain insights for their locations. Supporting .csv and shapefiles provide users with the full data to run their own analyses on equitable solar siting.
A CSV version of the database is provided for users to integrate into their own analysis tools.
An ESRI shapefile version of the database is provided for more advanced GIS users or for integration into mapping applications.
STEADy Solar's formatted excel gives users easy access to filtering, sorting, and summarizing equitable solar data. The 'Codebook' sheet describes all field names while the 'Data' sheet contains dataset.
This user-guide for the STEADy Solar Database: 1. provides an introduction to the tool, 2. provides sources, metadata, links, and descriptions of all included data, and 3. provides preliminary findings for all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - The Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and DeploYment of Solar (STEADy Solar) is a database and mapping tool designed to promoting clean energy investments for low-income communities across the United States. The tool indicates locations that may be eligible for the Investment Tax Credit bonus adders defined in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and combines this information with demographics, social vulnerability, solar technical potential, solar economics (modeled net present value), and building counts by use-type. It can be used by states, municipalities, community-based organizations, developers, and researchers to identify sites where solar projects may be economical and where federal incentives may be available to support equitable adoption of solar.Specific values include: Areas eligible for the Energy Communities Tax Credit Bonus Program (including brownfield site counts)Areas eligible for the Low Income Communities Bonus Credit Program (including Tribal Lands, and covered affordable housing project counts)Areas categorized as disadvantaged by Justice40Commercial and Residential Solar economics characterized by the Net Present Value and Simple Payback PeriodTotal Population, Race, and EthnicityMedian Household Income, Poverty rate, Household TenureSocial VulnerabilityCount of buildings, developable rooftop solar capacity (in kWdc) and estimated annual generation potential (in kWh) on four building types: Government General Services, Government Emergency Response, Grade Schools, and Colleges/Universities. The linked report describes the STEADy dataset metadata and presents high level insights from the data. The downloadable and formatted excel dataset makes it easy for users to gain insights for their locations. Supporting .csv and shapefiles provide users with the full data to run their own analyses on equitable solar siting.
AU - Ferrall-Wolf
A2 - McLaren
DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI)
DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory
DO -
KW - equitable solar adoption
KW - census tract
KW - Inflation Reduction Act
KW - solar economics
KW - solar site selection
KW - STEADy
KW - commercial solar
KW - Residential Solar
KW - LMI Communities
KW - solar
KW - geospatial
KW - Energy Communities Tax Credit Bonus
KW - Brownfield Properties
KW - Low Income Communities Bonus Credit Program
KW - Multifamily affordable housing
KW - Tribal Land
KW - CEJST
KW - dGen
KW - National Structures Inventory
KW - Renewable Energy Potential model
LA - English
DA - 2024/05/24
PY - 2024
PB - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
T1 - Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and Deployment of Solar (STEADy Solar)
UR - https://data.openei.org/submissions/8287
ER -
Ferrall-Wolf, and McLaren. Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and Deployment of Solar (STEADy Solar). National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 24 May, 2024, NREL. https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/238.
Ferrall-Wolf, & McLaren. (2024). Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and Deployment of Solar (STEADy Solar). [Data set]. NREL. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/238
Ferrall-Wolf and McLaren. Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and Deployment of Solar (STEADy Solar). National Renewable Energy Laboratory, May, 24, 2024. Distributed by NREL. https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/238
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_8287,
title = {Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and Deployment of Solar (STEADy Solar)},
author = {Ferrall-Wolf and McLaren},
abstractNote = {The Screening Tool for Equitable Adoption and DeploYment of Solar (STEADy Solar) is a database and mapping tool designed to promoting clean energy investments for low-income communities across the United States. The tool indicates locations that may be eligible for the Investment Tax Credit bonus adders defined in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and combines this information with demographics, social vulnerability, solar technical potential, solar economics (modeled net present value), and building counts by use-type. It can be used by states, municipalities, community-based organizations, developers, and researchers to identify sites where solar projects may be economical and where federal incentives may be available to support equitable adoption of solar.Specific values include:\ Areas eligible for the Energy Communities Tax Credit Bonus Program (including brownfield site counts)Areas eligible for the Low Income Communities Bonus Credit Program (including Tribal Lands, and covered affordable housing project counts)Areas categorized as disadvantaged by Justice40Commercial and Residential Solar economics characterized by the Net Present Value and Simple Payback PeriodTotal Population, Race, and EthnicityMedian Household Income, Poverty rate, Household TenureSocial VulnerabilityCount of buildings, developable rooftop solar capacity (in kWdc) and estimated annual generation potential (in kWh) on four building types: Government General Services, Government Emergency Response, Grade Schools, and Colleges/Universities.\ The linked report describes the STEADy dataset metadata and presents high level insights from the data. The downloadable and formatted excel dataset makes it easy for users to gain insights for their locations. Supporting .csv and shapefiles provide users with the full data to run their own analyses on equitable solar siting.},
url = {https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/238},
year = {2024},
howpublished = {NREL, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/238},
note = {Accessed: 2025-05-17}
}
Details
Data from May 24, 2024
Last updated Jan 16, 2025
Submitted May 24, 2024
Organization
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Contact
Isa Ferrall-Wolf
Authors
Original Source
https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/238Research Areas
Keywords
equitable solar adoption, census tract, Inflation Reduction Act, solar economics, solar site selection, STEADy, commercial solar, Residential Solar, LMI Communities, solar, geospatial, Energy Communities Tax Credit Bonus, Brownfield Properties, Low Income Communities Bonus Credit Program, Multifamily affordable housing, Tribal Land, CEJST, dGen, National Structures Inventory, Renewable Energy Potential modelDOE Project Details
Project Name Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN)
Project Number 32954
