NYSERDA Soils Data: Agricultural Land Classification for Renewable Energy Siting

New York State soils data is compiled for the NYSERDA Renewable Energy Standard and NY-Sun programs. It provides a tabular master list of agricultural soil classifications, including Mineral Soil Group (MSG) ratings, to inform agricultural mitigation payments for solar projects. The dataset is designed to be joined with spatial SSURGO data for geographic analysis of soil productivity.

Use Cases

• Calculating potential agricultural mitigation payments for solar projects using Default Mineral Soil Group and County columns.
• Assessing soil productivity and agricultural capability for project siting using Capability Class (FM5 CAP), Corn Yield (ton/acre), and Hay Yield (ton/acre).
• Identifying specific soil types and their properties for environmental review using Soil Name, Texture, and Drainage columns.
• Linking tabular soil data to spatial maps for geographic analysis using the MUKEY unique identifier.

Strengths

• Cross-platform presence on Socrata and Data.gov signals official importance and broad accessibility.
• Columns provide specific agricultural productivity metrics, including Corn Yield, Hay Yield, and TDN (ton/acre).
• Dataset is explicitly tied to a formal regulatory framework (NYSERDA's RES RFP and NY-Sun program).

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing or conflicting: row counts, file sizes, licenses, and authors are not provided in any source.
• Sources disagree on the dataset title and intended version, listing both '2024' and '2026' soils data with identical update timestamps, creating confusion.
• The description explicitly states the data is not intended to represent actual in-situ soil conditions, limiting its use for precise agronomic analysis.

Provenance

Source

New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (AGM) Agricultural Land Classification master list, linked to NRCS SSURGO soils database.

Collection Method

Converted from the state's master list of soils to a tabular form by NYSERDA.

Time Range

Based on the 2024 and 2026 classification lists, though the effective temporal coverage is not specified.

Freshness

2026-04-16 18:30:49

Geography

New York State, United States.