Duluth Shines! Duluth s Solar Suitability Application Extension 2017 (also: Solar Market Development Technical Assistance: Building Footprints in Duluth, MN) 09/1/17 12/25/17 Final Progress / Technical Report Submitted to: Nicole Enright Institute for Sustainable Communities 535 Stone Cutters Way Montpelier, VT 05602-3795 January 20, 2018 Submitted by: Stacey Stark, Director Geospatial Analysis Center 140 Engr 1303 Ordean Ct Duluth, MN 55812 Partners contributing to this project include: Ecolibrium3 and the UMD Office of Sustainability. This project was funded by the Department of Energy through the Solar Market Pathways Program.
Executive Summary In 2016, Ecolibrium3 received a TA grant to build a local solar resource application for the purpose of creating a solar tool to conduct community outreach and education, assist in soft cost reduction through easing the client acquisition costs of installers, and developing a platform for community planning for local government. The Duluth Shines! Duluth s Solar Suitability Application was soft launched in October of 2016, and placed fully in the public sphere in January of 2017. The online map application uses building footprints to represent the area of the rooftop for an evaluation of the rooftop solar resource that exists within the City. A customizable calculator estimates an appropriate solar installation size and cost. The interface leads the user to many resources related to solar energy, including local PV installers. Incentives, and financing. Feedback since that time period has been extremely encouraging, but has also suggested additional opportunities for modifications of the current resource to better leverage this resource in our community. This TA places a focus on the additional information requested. z.umn.edu/duluthshines/ Technical Assistance Tasks The following additions were made to the Duluth Shines! Solar Suitability Application. 1. Add diverse solar installations at UMD and within the City to create solar narrative. Public feedback from the current DuluthShines! application indicated that there is public interest in the stories behind individual solar installations that are indicated within the application. Eight public sites were chosen by Ecolibrium 3 to be showcased. A student from the Office of Sustainability collected information and pictures about each one. These sites were then place in the application with additional information and pictures. The new locations are indicated with a purple star. Stars indicate existing solar installations (from : http://www.cleanenergyprojectbuilder.org/solar-projects.xml) Purple stars include pictures and other information Project Hartley Nature Center Malosky Stadium Government Services Center Motor Pool Duluth Courthouse Parking Ramp Public Safety Campus Bagley Outdoor Classroom Duluth Courthouse The Works Miscellaneous Project Type Each project has a full explanation of the project, a picture, and a link to an informational website if available as shown below.
2. Add Ground Mount solar potential data layers and tools to the existing DuluthShines! application. Various spatial data layers were considered for inclusion in the application. Rather than prepare a ranking of suitable areas, in collaboration with Ecolibrium3 a decision was made to make a layer of relevant land use and cover information for the entire city not covered by a building. Any selection will provide the user with relevant characteristics in a pop-up. These data were aggregated from a 3 meter square to a centerpoint. As the user zooms in, a small green circle will become visible to help guide the user to click on the point for the pop-up.
If potentially unsuitable characteristics are present at the site, these show up in bold at the bottom of the pop-up window. The table below explains the sources of the site characteristic data. Theme Original file name Fields of interest Source Land Cover LandCover1m.tif gridcode Duluth 1-Meter Land Cover Classification, Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Laboratory, University of Minnesota (2015) Land Use FutureLandUse_Plus Description City of Duluth National Wetland Inventory (Update) Ownership and Assessment Class NEMN_NWI_UTM (NWI Simplified Plant Community Class 2009-2014) CDSTRL_ParcelInfo SPCC_Desc (Simplified Plant Community Class) TPCLS1 and Ownership Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Ducks Unlimited, and St. Mary's University of Minnesota St Louis County Tax Parcels
Slope Block_1\dem01 0-<15 >=15 and <25% >= 25% Restricted Zoning: Floodplains Restricted Zoning: Skyline LandUse: FBFW (Flood Boundary and Floodway) value Slope derived from Digital Elevation Model derived from LiDAR MN DNR (2012) City of Duluth Specified in the UDC of Duluth zoning regulations the Natural Resources Overlay: http://www.duluthmn.gov/media/541550/n ro-district.pdf SKylineRoadBuf220 N / A City of Duluth Skyline Road buffered 220 feet (200 from road plus distance to centerline). Specified in the UDC of Duluth zoning regulations the Skyline Parkway Overlay: http://www.duluthmn.gov/media/541558/s p-o-district.pdf Restricted areas are also indicated with a semi-transparent gray layer. This layer represents areas that are called out in the City of Duluth zoning as restricted area. The features indicate: The Skyline restriction: Within 200 feet of the downhill side of Skyline Parkway no part of any structure may extend higher than three feet above the elevation of Skyline Parkway closest to the structure. For more information, see http://www.duluthmn.gov/media/541558/sp-o-district.pdf. A landcover of lakes/ponds or extraction area. A land use of cemetery A slope of greater than 25% The table below explains the sources of the restricted (unfavorable) site characteristic data. Theme Method Values Land Cover Duluth_lc.tif Select values = Lakes / Ponds River Extraction Parcel Ownership and Select TPCLS1 = Cemetery Assessment Class Slope Select Slope > 25% Restricted Zoning: Skyline Select 220 ft from Skyline Roadway centerline N/A
Favorable areas were also considered, however, definitive suitable areas were limited to Brownfields. Brownfield data was collected from the City of Duluth and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The City of Duluth provided Parcels Paying Contamination Tax, which was a very incomplete list of sites, most of which would not be considered brownfields. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency data was not accurate enough for this application and the results of the selection below were questionable, so this layer was left out. Theme Original file name Fields of interest Brownfields Select COORD_CO_1 (Description of the method used to derive the location coordinates); PROGRAM and ACTIVITY Intersect with Property Parcels Then select PRCL_NBR Program= Investigation and Cleanup and Activity = Brownfields, Voluntary Investigation and Cleanup OR Activity = Brownfields OR Activity = Brownfields, Petroleum Brownfield COORD_CO NOT Zip Code Centroid OR COORD_CO NOT Interpolation Unknown PRCL_NBR NOT Dedicated ROW or ROW A measurement tool was added for the user to identify a site and easily obtain the area in square meters. Future and On-going Tasks The additional items that this project helped to initiate included: Provide solar metrics for UMD and City Solar Planning, and identify additional information for installers. These items are heavily dependent on solar installation experts and stakeholders. These conversations are on-going with Ecolibrium 3 and products demonstrating these items continue to develop. A short timeline and finite budget enabled only the exploration of new information.