Rooftop Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States
type: Dataset
description: 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.
keyword: AmeriGEO
keyword: AmeriGEOSS
keyword: CKAN
keyword: GEO
keyword: GEOSS
keyword: National
keyword: North America
keyword: United States
keyword: photovoltaic
keyword: pv
keyword: rooftop
keyword: technical-potential
issued: 2019-11-05T22:20:21+00:00
modified: 2025-01-21T22:55:49+00:00
contact point: Organization
  fn: Meghan Mooney

US Migrating
type: Agent

Rooftop PV technical potential estimates
type: Distribution
description: Rooftop PV technical potential estimates
media type: application/octet-stream
format: BIN
access URL: https://data.nrel.gov/system/files/121/Rooftop_PV_Technical_Potential.xlsx
issued: 2025-01-11T23:56:45.628943
modified: 2025-09-24T16:30:59.288759

Shapefile
type: Distribution
description: Shapefile
media type: application/octet-stream
format: BIN
access URL: https://data.nrel.gov/system/files/121/zips_summary.zip
issued: 2025-01-11T23:56:45.628947
modified: 2025-09-24T16:30:59.289761

Corresponding technical report
type: Distribution
description: Corresponding technical report
media type: application/pdf
format: PDF
access URL: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/65298.pdf
issued: 2025-01-11T23:56:45.628949
modified: 2025-09-24T16:30:59.290709

Shapefile
type: Distribution
description: Shapefile
media type: application/octet-stream
format: BIN
access URL: https://data.nrel.gov/system/files/121/small_suitability.zip
issued: 2025-01-11T23:56:45.628951
modified: 2025-09-24T16:30:59.291759

Shapefile
type: Distribution
description: Shapefile
media type: application/octet-stream
format: BIN
access URL: https://data.nrel.gov/system/files/121/raster_domains.zip
issued: 2025-01-11T23:56:45.628953
modified: 2025-09-24T16:30:59.292780