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Solar Insolation, Minnesota (2006-2012)

Brink, Christopher
Gosack, Benjamin
Kne, Len
Luo, Yuanyuan
Martin, Christopher
McDonald, Molly
Moore, Michael
Munsch, Andrew
Palka, Stephen
Piernot, Devon
Thiede, Dan
Xie, Yiquan
Walz, Andrew
2015-09-24
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Persistent link to this item

http://dx.doi.org/10.13020/D6X59X
 https://hdl.handle.net/11299/172642
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Keywords

Collection period

2006
2012

Date completed

1/1/15

Date updated

Time period coverage

2006-2012

Geographic coverage

43 -97.5 49.5 -89

Source information

Minnesota state lidar collection

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

Solar Insolation, Minnesota (2006-2012)

Published Date

2015-09-24

Authors

Group

Author Contact

Kne, Len
lenkne@umn.edu

Type

Dataset
Map
Spatial Data
Software Code

Abstract

The Minnesota Solar Suitability Analysis attempts to provide solar insolation analysis for the entire State of Minnesota. As far as we are aware, it is the only project of its scale in existence; similar studies have been limited to metro areas or focus on rooftop insolation. The project's existence is feasible because of statewide, freely available aerial lidar coverage. And the commitment of the team to work long hours on this unfunded project. The project finds itself at the intersection of renewable energy, big data analysis, geospatial technology, and open data availability. This data provides a measure of incedent solar radiation as it is intercepted by the earth surface, or features (such as vegetation and buildings) standing above the earth surface. The data is intended to be used to assess the suitability of a site for solar panel (photovoltaic cell) installations.

Description

The analysis used to produce this dataset looks at geographic location, surface slope, surface aspect, and the effects of shading based on local topography and adjacent structures. A digital surface model was generated from raw LiDAR data. Then, using this DSM, an individual locations on a grid surface were assessed for the amount of direct and indirect radiation that reaches the surface. This analysis was conducted at a 1m resolution for the entire state of Minnesota.

Referenced by

Digital Surface Model, Minnesota (2006-2012)
http://hdl.handle.net/11299/172696

Related to

Replaces

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License

Attribution 3.0 United States
 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/

Publisher

Collections

Data Repository for U of M (DRUM)

Funding information

item.page.sponsorshipfunderid

item.page.sponsorshipfundingagency

item.page.sponsorshipgrant

Previously Published Citation

Other identifiers

Suggested citation

Brink, Christopher; Gosack, Benjamin; Kne, Len; Luo, Yuanyuan; Martin, Christopher; McDonald, Molly; Moore, Michael; Munsch, Andrew; Palka, Stephen; Piernot, Devon; Thiede, Dan; Xie, Yiquan; Walz, Andrew. (2015). Solar Insolation, Minnesota (2006-2012). Retrieved from the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM), http://dx.doi.org/10.13020/D6X59X.

View/Download File

File View/Open
Description
Size
q250k_tile_index.pdf
Reference map showing the area covered by each zip file.
(303.17 KB)

lidar_collection_projects_dates.pdf
Map depicting lidar collection projects and dates in Minnesota
(170.58 KB)

lidar_collection_projects_dates.zip
GIS shapefile depicting lidar collection projects and dates in Minnesota
(35.52 KB)

solar_scripts.zip
Zip archive containing GitHub repository with processing scripts
(4.21 MB)

q0326_Solar.zip
Kenora - Q0326
(4.28 GB)

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