[Talk-GB] Solar Panels Quarterly Project: 39 days to go

[Dan S]

Hi Jerry and all,

Indeed we've over 500 solar farms - I can check the exact number this
weekend. (From the OfGEM data, I estimate that approx 1100 exist.)

Here are some comments from the point of view of a data consumer:

As I think Gregory commented - we don'tt really "need" much detail on solar
farms (e.g. the panels contained within them). In general, we have metadata
for solar farms, so we just need their outlines, plus either their output
capacity and/or their ID in the REPD dataset (repd:id=*).

Much more important is to spot the *small-scale* solar - that's a vital
piece of the puzzle that *none* of the official data sources are very good
at.

As Jerry suggests, it's good to aim for high coverage on a few chosen
regions (e.g. local authorities). This will help with the machine learning
but the more direct importance is that it will help piloting solar energy
forecasting, using those regions.
In particular, it might be helpful for at least someone to focus on
*Cornwall*. That's an area with a lot of solar installations, and the
National Grid know it as an area that often gives a lot of "reverse flow",
i.e. a large amount of small-scale generation feeding back into the grid.
I've had a bit of a look at Cornwall and various imagery looks really nice
and clear there.

Have a sunny weekend!

Cheers
Dan



Op vr 23 aug. 2019 om 13:05 schreef SK53 <sk53.osm at gmail.com>:

> Thought I'd write a really quick summary of progress on the quarterly
> project:
>
>    - As of last night we had a total of 67,475 installations
>    <http://osm.gregorywilliams.me.uk/solar/index.html> (solar farms
>    enclosing several groups of panels are treated as one installation. At the
>    time of writing another 500 have been added this morning.
>    - 8 local authorities have more than 50% of the estimated total number
>    (based on FIT data), in descending order : Nottingham, Ashfield, Liverpool, Knowsley,
>    Tameside, Wrecsam, Bassetlaw, Peterborough, and Manfield.
>    - During August anywhere from 1500 to nearly 2500 panels have been
>    mapped each day. Even if only average 1000 a day for the remainder of the
>    project it means we should comfortably exceed 100k mapped installations
>    (between 10 & 12% of the total).
>    - There's no shortage of places where it is easy to add a lot of
>    panels in a short time (I added nearly 500 in Worksop yesterday). Gregory's
>    site has a list of candidates at the bottom of the main page.
>    - As expected urban areas are easier to do than rural areas.
>    - General areas with a lot of mapping are: West Midlands, North-East
>    (Tyneside, Wearside etc), North-West, East Mids and Kent. I think you can
>    guess who the likely suspects are.
>    - I don't have any immediate stats on solar farms, but Dan pointed out
>    that we have over 50%. perhaps Dan or Jex can provide an update.
>
> Apart from a general target of 100k installations some other things are
> worth focussing on for the remainder of the project:
>
>    - Getting a few LAs over 75%. Ashfield
>    <http://osm.gregorywilliams.me.uk/solar/ashfield.html> is surprising
>    because installations are widely distributed. Liverpool
>    <http://osm.gregorywilliams.me.uk/solar/liverpool.html> is more
>    typical: two-thirds are mapped but perhaps 80% of the LSOAs have not been
>    touched, and over a 1000 are in 4 LSOAs around Speke. So finding the
>    additional panels may be less rewarding.
>    - Searching a small number of rural LAs intensively: small ones are
>    probably best: Anglesey, Isle of Wight, Rutland etc. My suspicion is that
>    panels are harder to find, but also that imagery is often quite a bit older.
>    - Get more done in Scotland (and Northern Ireland). Gregory's site
>    doesn't allow the micro-targeting by LSOA which has been so effective for
>    England & Wales.
>
> The first two are because there is the possibility of using located
> rooftop solar panels as training sets for more automated identification
> using machine learning. Dan may want to say more on this.
>
> Lastly, a couple of remarks stemming from jumping around England & Wales
> about OSM mapping in general:
>
>    - Buildings have been diligently mapped in all sorts of unexpected
>    places. Unfortunately address data is scarcer.
>    - Former council estates often lack many of the footpaths which give a
>    better sense of their layout. Particularly true for the post-war Radburn
>    style estates.
>    - Some places were obviously mapped when OS Streetview first became
>    available and the road networks could do with tidying up (I'll draw up a
>    separate list at some stage).
>    - MS StreetSide is really valuable particularly around Manchester.
>    Although the imagery is 7 years old it allows a much more detailed
>    appreciation of building types, and checking of other detail..
>
> Happy hunting,
>
> Jerry
>
> PS. I was only the 3rd OSMer to look to add the new solar plant
> <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/717428007> at Aldershot station
> <https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/22/rail-line-in-hampshire-is-worlds-first-to-be-powered-by-solar-farm>
> !
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