Data for: Bibliographic synthesis of biodiversity-relevant criteria for solar energy siting
Data files
Oct 06, 2025 version files 70.88 KB
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1._Setup_and_Data_Preparation.Rmd
1.33 KB
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2._Metastatistics_and_General_Corpus_Information.Rmd
7.71 KB
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3._Biodiversity-Relevant_Criteria.Rmd
29.71 KB
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4._Non_Biodiversity-Relevant_Criteria.Rmd
13.29 KB
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5._Figures.Rmd
15.58 KB
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FINAL_Solar_Suitability_Analysis_Literature_Review.Rproj
205 B
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README.md
3.05 KB
Abstract
The widespread expansion of solar energy generation promises to help mitigate global-scale threats from climate change while potentially impacting biodiversity at local scales. Developers must attempt to maximize solar energy production while minimizing conflicts with biodiversity conservation, particularly as calls for the conservation of 30% of the world’s land and sea area gain traction. Here, we bibliographically synthesized peer-reviewed solar suitability analyses that attempt to optimize locations most suitable for solar development and convened a panel of energy experts to contextualize the use of biodiversity-relevant criteria in siting solar installations. We found that biodiversity-relevant criteria seemed to be used in solar suitability analyses primarily to meet legal requirements, and, thus, may not adequately account for the potential effects of solar infrastructure on local and/or regional biodiversity. The expert panel identified two primary barriers to incorporating biodiversity-relevant criteria into solar suitability analyses: a lack of quality data at relevant scales and weak regulatory requirements that govern how biodiversity concerns are incorporated into solar siting. Solar energy development and biodiversity conservation address the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, and the inclusion of biodiversity-relevant criteria into solar suitability analyses can ensure their goals remain aligned.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.1jwstqk77
Description of the data and file structure
This data was collected as part of a bibliographic synthesis of spatially-explicit siting analyses for large, ground-mounted photovoltaic solar energy facilities in the peer-reviewed literature. These analyses use various criteria in an attempt to optimize locations most suitable for solar development in a landscape of interest. Our goal was to determine whether and how these analyses make use of criteria related to biodiversity. This repository contains a .tsv file with the results of that literature review and several R markdown files with the R code used to facilitate our analysis and visualization of those results.
Files and variables
File: FINAL_Solar_Suitability_Analysis_Literature_Review.Rproj
Description: This R Project file contains the individual R Markdown files and organizes them into a workflow. Opening this file will open R-Studio and load the five markdown files.
File: 1._Setup_and_Data_Preparation.Rmd
Description: This R Markdown file loads the various packages needed to manipulate and analyze the raw data in the Solar_Suitability_Analysis_Literature_Review_Data_criteriaReview_6.1.23_SSA_LitReview_Update.tsv file, then cleans and produces the dataframe on which all analyses take place.
File: 2._Metastatistics_and_General_Corpus_Information.Rmd
Description: This Markdown file contains code to calculate various general statistics about the corpus and the criteria present within it.
File: 3._Biodiversity-Relevant_Criteria.Rmd
Description: This Markdown file contains code to specifically examine those criteria within the corpus identified as biodiversity relevant.
File: 4._Non_Biodiversity-Relevant_Criteria.Rmd
Description: This Markdown file contains code to examine non-biodiversity-relevant criteria.
File: 5._Figures.Rmd
Description: This Markdown file contains code to produce the visualizations contained in the manuscript associated with this analysis.
Code/software
The free software programs R and R-Studio are needed to view our data and markdown workflows. We used R version 4.5.1 and R-Studio version 2024.04.0+735.pro3 (Chocolate cosmos). We used two packages within R to complete our analyses: tidyverse and tidytext.
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- The database of manuscripts assessed for this bibliographic synthesis can be found in the Supplementary Material of the associated manuscript published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
Data was derived from the following sources:
- Data was derived from the individual publications assessed in this bibliographic synthesis, the title and urls of which can be found in the database in this repository. The bibliographic synthesis itself was conduced in the SCOPUS abstract and citation database.