Solar Farm Site Suitability and Energy Potential Analysis for British Columbia

76.4% of British Columbia is restricted from solar farm development according to a study using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The analysis categorized land suitability, finding 0.21% (2,026.91 km²) as suitable and 0.005% (51.50 km²) as very suitable for utility-scale solar farms. The study by Mackenzie Thomson provides a province-wide screening tool for photovoltaic installation potential.

Use Cases

• Identify potential solar farm locations based on weighted environmental, economic, and climatic criteria.
• Estimate gross energy generation potential for areas meeting a minimum development footprint.
• Validate site suitability classifications against ten existing solar farm locations.
• Screen for restricted areas based on land cover, protected zones, and infrastructure buffers.

Strengths

• Suitability analysis covers the entire province of British Columbia.
• Model outputs were validated against ten existing solar farm locations.
• Criteria weighting was informed by experts in renewable energy systems.
• Provides quantitative area estimates for each suitability category, such as 153,534.01 km² classified as less suitable.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The data's freshness should be verified as the last update is listed as 2026-05-02.

Provenance

Source

Borealis Harvested Dataverse

Collection Method

Analysis leveraged the Analytic Hierarchy Process and weighted sum overlay analysis.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-02 04:11:11

Geography

British Columbia, Canada