PV Magazine: “With up to 75% of the nation’s large renewable energy projects expected to be developed in the central region of the US by 2050, the Site Renewables Right map, released today by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), is intended to help companies, state agencies, and communities quickly plan, permit, and purchase renewable energy in ways that helps conserve natural areas. The map is intended to be used early on in the development process to inform due diligence analyses by power purchasers and to support application of state and federal renewable energy siting guidance. The new analysis combines more than 100 GIS layers of wildlife habitat and land use data across 19 states, from Ohio to Wyoming, and estimates at least 120,000 square miles have potential for low-conflict renewable energy siting in the central US.  A cursory evaluation of wildlife and habitats data along with basic land use requirements for PV solar facilities, as summarized in TNC’s methods paper, indicates the potential for low-impact solar development in the central US is significantly greater than the stated figures for wind. A higher average power density and smaller projected land use requirements suggests that solar buildout will be less geographically constrained, with low-impact solar development opportunities found across the region. For example, within TNC’s 19-state study area approximately 283GW of technical solar potential exists on current and formerly contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites alone (USEPA 2018)…”