mattrehbein
commented
6 years ago Update
Your project content: images/words/etc
Here's my first stab at a map -- pretty straightforward, each point is a solar garden and they are sized based on their output in kW (I will add a key/legend).
Right now I'm working in QGIS, which may hamstring my pursuit of 'more functionality,' mentioned in the original pitch. I was envisioning a map that would pop up some details about each garden with the user hovers over the point (when it opened, how much power it makes), but looks like I'll have to switch over the Leaflet for that. An alternative I may look into is using Time Manager in QGIS to make a geogiffy (I just learned that word: https://medium.com/@tjukanov/geogiffery-in-a-nutshell-introduction-to-qgis-time-manager-31bb79f2af19) showing the growth of solar gardens, since my data includes the year gardens were built.
I will also likely highlight in the map some number of states that are the leaders in solar gardens (likely Maine, Minnesota and Colorado), as I'm planning to focus my story on those states and the solar-encouraging policies they've enacted.
Any changes in direction or topic?
No.
Problems/Questions
I'm researching more about California's solar gardens -- I find it curious that they have NO solar gardens, according to the NREL database. A cursory look around online suggests Cali is a latecomer to the solar garden game, despite the state's strong solar profile overall. Anyway, we'll see if I discover info about solar gardens that do exist in the state, and if so I'll see about adding that to my data set.
Checklist
- [x] I have included my visuals
- [x] I have filled out the sections above
- [x] I have been updating my DIARY.md with details about my process
- [x] I have uploaded/updated any Jupyter Notebooks or other datasets into my code repository
julialedur
sarahslo
Pitch
Community "solar gardens" are big fields of solar panels that produce energy. I generally knew of their existence but did realize how much they're growing or how they are organized. Businesses, local governments and regular people can apparently sign up to draw part of their electricity from a community solar garden. It's frequently billed as an option for homeowners who for whatever reason don't have the option of installing rooftop solar panels.
This sounds pretty cool, and I wanted to learn more about where solar gardens are in the US, how that number has grown, and how much energy they are producing. I've found a database of them in the US, which I'd like to use to map and visualize the answers to my questions.
Summary
I found my dataset after a mind-numbing amount of time poking around solar energy reports from DOE, EPA and the solar energy trade group, SEIA.
The database is from NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the DOE.
I have at least three other datasets dealing with energy use and viability of various energy sources. These are quite technical, but it's possible I'll make use of them.
Details
Possible headline(s):
Data set(s): NREL's community solar project database
Code repository: https://github.com/mattrehbein/data_studio/tree/master/code
Possible problems/fears/questions: I have not done much with maps since we went over them in class forever ago. So I fear them, a little.
Work so far
Finding my data took a long time, but the database is pretty clean and doesn't appear to need too much cleaning.
I've done some very quick and basic analysis thus far. Looks like three states, Maine, Minnesota and Colorado, have by far the most solar gardens. I've looked into Minnesota a bit, and its lawmakers have passed legislation to incentivize solar. As time permits, I'll look into Maine and Colorado, too, and see whether any interesting aspects about those three solar leaders lend themselves to visualization.
Here's a basic map from a Vox story that I'm drawing some inspiration from, though I'm hoping to include some more functionality in the map.
Checklist
This checklist must be completed before you submit your draft. ***I keep getting an error that I'm trying to fix when I try to push my code from my desktop git app.