Solar Supply Curves

NREL provides an interactive map and geospatial data showcasing solar supply curves, which highlight the quantity and quality of solar resources across the contiguous United States.

These supply curves, updated regularly, incorporate emerging siting constraints, technology costs, and innovations. They are valuable for a wide range of stakeholders, supporting activities such as:

• Developer prospecting
• Capacity expansion modeling
• Transmission planning

To further enhance usability, NREL has released additional resources linked to these supply curves, including:

• Economic estimates
• Hourly capacity factor profiles
• Detailed geospatial siting data
• Local ordinances
• Tools for creating custom siting datasets

Siting Lab

The latest solar supply curve data is now hosted on the Siting Lab. Previous datasets have been archived on OpenEI.

In addition, Siting Lab offers information on solar energy siting regulations and zoning ordinances, making it a comprehensive resource for researchers, planners, and developers.

Solar Energy Siting Regulation and Zoning Ordinances

NREL solar energy supply curves integrate local ordinances and zoning laws that influence how and where solar resources can be sited and deployed. This data has now been collected into one centralized, machine-readable database of solar siting ordinances throughout the United States at the state, county, township, and city levels.  

The database includes setbacks—or minimum distance requirements—for property lines, buildings, roads, and bodies of water, as well as height restrictions, minimum and maximum lot size, solar development bans and moratoriums, as well as other more novel siting restrictions. The interactive map below illustrates this data by ordinance type.

The data were compiled based on a locality-by-locality review of zoning ordinances after completing an initial review of scholarly legal articles. Where applicable, the citations for each ordinance are included in the database spreadsheet.

Publications

Solar Photovoltaics and Land-Based Wind Technical Potential and Supply Curves for the Contiguous United States: 2023 Edition, NREL Technical Report (2024)

2021 Standard Scenarios Report: A U.S. Electricity Sector Outlook, NREL Technical Report (2021)

The Renewable Energy Potential (reV) Model: A Geospatial Platform for Technical Potential and Supply Curve Modeling, NREL Technical Report (2021)

U.S. Renewable Energy Technical Potentials: A GIS-Based Analysis, NREL Technical Report (2012)

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