RE Zoning Manual

Renewable Energy Zones
GIS Tools User Manual

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
Last Update 02.24.2017

Previous updates: 03.30.2016
An accompanying GIS tool and manual to update the key products resulting from
the ‘Renewable Energy Zones for the African Clean Energy Corridor’ study.
Grace C. Wu, Ranjit Deshmukh, Kudakwashe Ndhlukula, Tijana Radojicic, Jessica Reilly. (2015)
“Renewable Energy Zones for the Africa Clean Energy Corridor,” International Renewable Energy Agency
and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, LBNL report number 187271.
About IRENA
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organization that supports countries in
their transition to a sustainable energy future, and serves as the principal platform for international cooperation, a
centre of excellence, and a repository of policy, technology, resource and financial knowledge on renewable energy.
IRENA promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy,
geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy, in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access,
energy security and low-carbon economic growth and prosperity
About Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is a member of the national laboratory system supported by the U.S.
Department of Energy through its Office of Science. It is managed by the University of California and is charged with
conducting unclassified research across a wide range of scientific disciplines.
International Renewable Energy Agency Disclaimer:

This publication and the material featured herein are provided “as is”, for informational purposes.
All reasonable precautions have been taken by IRENA to verify the reliability of the material featured in this
publication. Neither IRENA nor any of its officials, agents, data or other third-party content providers or licensors
provides any warranty, including as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for a particular purpose or use of such
material, or regarding the non-infringement of third-party rights, and they accept no responsibility or liability with
regard to the use of this publication and the material featured therein.
The information contained herein does not necessarily represent the views of the Members of IRENA, nor is it an
endorsement of any project, product or service provider. The designations employed and the presentation of material
herein do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of IRENA concerning the legal status of any region,
country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Disclaimer:

This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government.
Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor the Regents of the University of California, nor
any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal responsibility for the accuracy,
completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use
would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by
its trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement,
recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof, or the Regents of the
University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those
of the United States Government or any agency thereof or the Regents of the University of California.
Boundaries and names shown in maps within the publication do not imply official endorsement by the International
Renewable Energy Agency, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, or University of California at Berkeley. Data
from various sources are provided along with the tutorials only for illustrating the methodology.
1
Contents
About the zoning methodology and RE Zoning GIS Script Tools
Figure 1. Methodology overview and stages of analysis covered in this
manual (indicated in red boxes).
1 Basic preprocessing of input data
1.1 Convert feature class to raster
1.2 Project and resample raster
1.3 Extract by attributes
Table 1. Global Map V2 land cover categories and their usage in the site
suitability analysis. “In” indicates land cover classes suitable for development
of a particular generation technology.
1.4 Create Euclidean distance rasters
1.5 Create point feature class from coordinates
1.6 Edit a point feature class
1.7 Create and update transmission data
2 Update zone attributes (Script Tool A)
2.1 Preprocessing input datasets for Script Tool A
2.2 Running Script Tool A
3 Creating new project opportunity areas and calculating their attributes (Script Tool B)
3.1 Using the site suitability tool (Script Tool B, Stage 1)
3.1.1 Preprocessing of input datasets for Script Tool B, Stage 1
Figure 2. Example input raster CSV for Script Tool B, Stage 1.
3.1.2 Running Script Tool B, Stage 1
Figure 3. Example of resource threshold inputs assuming units of W/m2.
3.2 Using the Project Opportunity Area Creation Tool (Script Tool B, Stage 2)
3.3 Using the Project Opportunity Area Attribute Calculation Tool (Script Tool B, Stage
3)
4 Modifying and updating interactive PDF maps
5 Updating renewable energy zones ranking tool
6 Contact Information and additional resources
Appendix
2
About the zoning methodology and RE Zoning GIS
Script Tools
This zoning manual describes how to conduct many stages of the analysis used in the study
that identified renewable energy zones for the African Clean Energy Corridor. In this study, the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the International Renewable Energy
Agency (IRENA) applied the LBNL-developed “Multi-criteria Analysis for Planning Renewable
Energy” approach to identify and comprehensively value high-quality wind, solar PV, and solar
CSP resources in order to support prioritization development areas through a multi-criteria
planning process. For the full description of the methods, please see the final report available on
the IRENA or mapre.lbl.gov websites.
The methodology overview in Figure 1 below shows all stages of the analysis and those
covered in this manual. The purpose of the Renewable Energy (RE) zoning Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) Script Tools is to enable the user to change the parameters and
customize the analysis to meet the specific needs of each stakeholder or to best represent the
country context. The GIS Script Tool A enables the user to perform steps 4b (Calculation of
zone attributes) with updated inputs and parameters and update the zone ranking tool and the
interactive PDF map. Script Tool B, Stage 1 allows the user to create a site suitability map,
which is effectively a spatially-explicit way to estimate resource potential, using any exclusion
and renewable resource inputs (stage 1 in Figure 1). These site suitability maps can be used to
create project opportunity areas (stage 2 in Figure 1) and estimate their attributes using user
specified inputs (stage 3 in Figure 1) with Script Tool B, Stages 2 and 3. Through examples
and tutorials, this manual describes the key geoprocesses involved in performing the zoning
analysis using the RE zoning study’s assumptions. Finally, the user can update two main
products of the zoning study, the interactive PDF map and the Excel zone ranking tool. Step 4a
(Creation of Zones) has not been included in these Script Tools or zoning manual due to the
complexity of the statistical analyses and the need for additional third-party software.
3
Figure 1. Methodology overview and stages of analysis covered in this manual (indicated in red
boxes).
Many stages of the analyses for the study were conducted using ArcGIS 10.2. As a result, all
processing and analyses described in this manual use ArcGIS 10.2 (or later). While it is possible
to perform the basic preprocessing in open source GIS software like Quantum GIS or using
python spatial libraries (e.g., shapely, fiona, gdal), the Script Tools for updating the zone
attributes (Script Tool A) and creating project opportunity areas (Script Tool B), have been
designed specifically for use in ArcGIS 10.2 (or later).
Spatial data to complete Section 1 tutorials (Basic preprocessing of input data) are provided in
the “DocsAndInputs/Tutorial1_inputData” folder accompanying this manual and the model, while
the study’s zones and project opportunity area spatial files can be downloaded from the “Spatial
Data” page on mapre.lbl.gov. The full field names of the downloaded shapefiles are found in the
Appendix Tables.
1 Basic preprocessing of input data

The below tutorials demonstrate the basic geoprocesses needed to use Script Tools A and B.
These geoprocesses will need to be replicated for each input feature class or raster that the
user wishes to include in the Script Tools. If you are already familiar with GIS analysis and
preprocessing, you can skip to Section 2.
4
For all analyses, it is important to perform all geoprocesses using the same datum/coordinate
system and the same cell size and grid (using the ‘Snap to grid’ field). To do so, it is suggested
to create and use a “template” raster with the desired projection, cell size, and grid (the
registration point) and set this raster in the ‘Cell size’ and ‘Snap to grid’ environment fields. For
this tutorial, it is recommended to use the SRTM elevation raster
(“DocsAndInputs\Tutorial_inputData\ACEC_elevation500_SRTM.tif”). When resampling
categorical data (which is necessary when the desired output cell size differs from that of the
input), it is important to choose Nearest Neighbor resampling. The projection used in the zoning
analysis is Africa_Albers_Equal_Area_Conic (WKID: 102022) and the cell size is 500 m. The
user is free to change these specifications.
Before beginning the following tutorials, it is encouraged to create a file geodatabase (.gdb)
folder to store all the intermediate and final outputs, although all analysis can be performed
using shapefiles and geotiffs or file system rasters.
1.1 Convert feature class to raster

Goal: Project the NREL Global Horizontal Insolation feature class to ‘Africa Albers Equal Area
Conic.’ Convert and clip this projected feature class to a 500 m raster using a country boundary
feature and a raster template.
Script Tools that will require these processed data: Script Tools A (projected feature) and B
(raster)
Steps:
1) Search for the ‘Project’ tool in Search window.
2) For the ‘Input Dataset or Feature Class,’ browse to the
“DocsAndInputs\Tutorial_inputData\NREL_Africa_Global_Horizontal.shp” file (or drag
from the Catalog)
3) For the ‘Output Dataset or Feature Class,’ save to a file geodatabase using the name
“NREL_GHI”
4) For the ‘Output Coordinate System,’ browse to “Africa_Albers_Equal_Area_Conic,”
which is a projection system that represents distance in meters.
5) No ‘Geographic Transformation’ is necessary since “Africa_Albers_Equal_Area_Conic”
uses WGS_84 datum, which is the datum of the input feature class. This input will be
necessary for inputs with a different datum.
6) Select ‘OK’ to run the tool and view the properties of the output to ensure that the tool
executed properly.
7) Search for the ‘Feature to Raster’ tool
8) For the ‘Input Features,’ browse to the projected NREL_GHI file (or drag from the
Catalog)
9) For the ‘Field,’ select “CANN” (this is the field with the annual average GHI)
10) For the ‘Output Raster,’ save to a file geodatabase using the name, “NREL_GHI_500.”
11) For the ‘Cell Size,’ enter 500.
5
12) Importantly, set the Global Environments by selecting “Geoprocessing” in the main
ArcMap toolbar → select “Environments…”. This will specify the environments for all
geoprocesses performed in this instance of ArcMap.
a) Under ‘Processing Extent’ grouping, browse and select the elevation raster
(“DocsAndInputs\Tutorial_inputData\ACEC_elevation500_SRTM.tif”) as the
‘Snap Raster’ input. This will ensure that the raster created will be gridded exactly
like the template raster (your choice of template raster, but the elevation raster
has been selected in this example). You can leave the ‘Extent’ as is or specify
the ‘Extent’ using the country boundary file.
b) Under ‘Raster Analysis’ group, browse and select your country boundary as
‘Mask’ input. Specifying this input is equivalent to performing an ‘Extract by Mask’
function to ensure that the output raster is geographically restricted to the country
boundaries.
c) Under ‘Raster Analysis’ group, browse and select the elevation raster
(“DocsAndInputs\Tutorial_inputData\ACEC_elevation500_SRTM.tif”) as the ‘Cell
size’ input.
13) Select ‘Ok’ under Environment Settings and ‘Ok’ again at the tool prompt to run the tool.
14) View the output “NREL_GHI_500” file and toggle it with the template raster (elevation
raster in this example) to ensure that the tool has run properly and that the raster grids
match.
1.2 Project and resample raster

Goal: Project, resample, and clip the Land use/Land Cover (LULC) raster to 500m raster with
Africa Albers Equal Area Conic projection using a country boundary polygon.
Script Tools that will require these processed data: Script Tool B, Stage 1 (Site suitability)
Steps:
1) Search for the ‘Project Raster’ tool in Search window.
2) For ‘Input Raster,’ browse to the “DocsAndInputs\Tutorial_inputData\globalmapv2”
raster. This raw raster file has only been extracted by mask to the study extent to reduce
the file size.
3) For the ‘Output Raster Dataset,’ save to a file geodatabase using the name
“globalmapv2_500”.
4) For the ‘Output Coordinate System,’ browse to “Africa_Albers_Equal_Area_Conic,”
which is a projection system that represents distance in meters.
5) Again, no ‘Geographic Transformation’ is necessary since
“Africa_Albers_Equal_Area_Conic” uses WGS_84 datum, which is the datum of the
input feature class. This input will be necessary for inputs with a different datum.
6) For ‘Resampling Technique,’ it is important that you select “NEAREST,” which is nearest
neighbor resampling, which is the proper technique for categorical data. If projecting a
continuous raster dataset (e.g., elevation, slope, population, annual average wind
speed), “CUBIC” or “BILINEAR” techniques would be more appropriate.
7) For the ‘Cell Size,’ enter 500.
6
8) Follow steps 12 – 14 in the ‘Convert feature class to raster’ tutorial 1.1 above in order to
ensure the raster created will have the correct grid, cell size, and mask.
9) If you did not apply your country boundary as the ‘Mask’ or ‘Extent’ in the Global
Environment settings, then you will need to ‘Extract by Mask’ to reduce the raster area
to your country area.
a) To do this, Search for ‘Extract by Mask’ (under Spatial Analyst Tools →
Extraction).
b) Select the output, “globalmapv2_500” as the ‘Input raster.’
c) Select your country boundary shapefile as the ‘Input raster or feature mask data’
d) Enter the name ‘globalmapv2_500_countryName” (enter your own country name
in place of countryName) as the ‘Output raster.’
1.3 Extract by attributes

Goal: Select only the LULC categories that will be excluded from development for each
technology using the processed LULC layer created in the above tutorial 1.1.
Script Tools that will require these processed data: The resulting raster will require further
processing in order to be used in Script Tool B, Stage 1 (Site suitability)
Steps:
1) Search for the ‘Extract by Attributes’ tool in Search window.
2) For ‘Input Raster,’ browse to the “globalmapv2_500” or
“globalmapv2_500_countryName” raster created in tutorial 1.2 above.
3) For the ‘Where Clause,’ insert the SQL statement that selects all the land cover classes
that will be excluded from the analysis, using the Codes in Table 1 below. For example,
for Solar PV, to exclude the land cover classes as per the RE zoning analysis, enter the
following SQL statement:‘ "VALUE" In (1,2,3,4,5,6,11,12,13,14,15,18,19,20) ’. Replace
“VALUE” with the field containing the land cover classification code. This SQL statement
can also be created and verified using the SQL button (Query Builder) dialog.
4) For the ‘Output Raster,’ save to a file geodatabase using the file name
“globalmapv2_500_solarEx”.
5) Select ‘OK’ to run the tool
6) View the output LULC raster to check that the tool ran properly.
Table 1. Global Map V2 land cover categories and their usage in the site suitability analysis. “In”
indicates land cover classes suitable for development of a particular generation technology.
Code Class Name Solar Wind (non-Ag) Wind (Ag)
1 Broadleaf Evergreen Forest
2 Broadleaf Deciduous Forest
3 Needleleaf Evergreen Forest
4 Needleleaf Deciduous Forest
5 Mixed Forest
6 Tree Open In In
7 Shrub In In In
8 Herbaceous In In In
9 Herbaceous with Sparse Tree/Shrub In In In
7
10 Sparse vegetation In In In
11 Cropland In
12 Paddy field
13 Cropland / Other Vegetation Mosaic In
14 Mangrove
15 Wetland
16 Bare area,consolidated(gravel,rock) In In In
17 Bare area,unconsolidated (sand) In In In
18 Urban
19 Snow / Ice
20 Water bodies
1.4 Create Euclidean distance rasters

Goal: Create an Euclidean distance raster for the processed LULC exclusion layer created in
the above tutorial 1.3. Each grid cell in the Euclidean distance raster indicates the straight-line
distance to the closest source object. Euclidean distance rasters must be created for all other
inputs that will be used as spatial exclusions in the site suitability analysis.
Script Tools that will require these processed data: Script Tool B, Stage 1 (Site suitability)
can only exclude areas that are represented by Euclidean distance rasters.
Steps:
1) Search for the ‘Euclidean Distance’ tool in Search window.
2) For the ‘Input raster or feature source data,’ browse to the “globalmapv2_500_solarEx”
raster created in tutorial 1.3 above.
3) For the ‘Output distance raster,’ save to a file geodatabase using the file name
“globalmapv2_500_solarEx_ed”.
4) Skip the ‘Maximum distance’ and ‘Output direction raster’ fields, but enter ‘500’ for the
‘Output cell size.’
5) If global environment settings have already been specified in the previous steps (e.g.,
‘Snap to grid,’ ‘Cell size,’ and ‘Mask’), then select ‘OK’ to run the tool, otherwise, follow
steps 12-13 in tutorial 1.1 above.
6) Again, view the output distance raster to check that the tool ran properly.
1.5 Create point feature class from coordinates

Goal: From an example comma separated values file (CSV) containing latitude-longitude
coordinates of load center locations in Kenya, create a feature class point file and apply the
correct projection for analysis. Steps in this tutorial can be applied to any input data
represented by lat-long locations, including substations, transmission tower, or wind mast
locations. It is important that the CSV follow the following formatting specifications: there can be
no spaces or special characters (other than underscore) in the column names and the ‘&’
symbol cannot be used in any of the field values. If you come across any difficulties in importing
the CSV, systematically remove special characters from the field values. You can view the
imported CSV table by right clicking the file in the Table of Contents and selecting ‘Open.’
Script Tools that may require these processed data: Script Tool A (Recalculate zone
attributes), Script Tool B, Stage 3 (Calculate project attributes)
8
Steps:
1) Browse to “DocsAndInputs\Tutorial_inputData\ke_loadCenterLocs.csv” in the Catalog
window of ArcMap.
2) Drag the csv to the ‘Table of Contents’ in ArcMap to open it.
3) Right click the csv and select ‘Display XY data.’
a) From the drop down menus, select the appropriate column names for the X field
(longitude) and Y field (latitude).
b) Since the coordinates in the csv are in units of decimal degrees, select
‘GCS_WGS_1984’ as the Geographic Coordinate System by clicking the ‘Edit’
button. The projection or geographic coordinate system must be specified
according to the coordinate system of the input csv.
c) Select ‘OK’ to convert the csv to a point file Events layer. You should now see the
point locations on the map.
4) Right click the “ke_powerPlantLocs Events” layer in the Table of Contents and select
‘Data’ → ‘Export data...’ in order to save it as a feature class or shapefile. You can
specify the type using the ‘Save as type’ dropdown menu by clicking the folder icon.
Save the feature class in a fgdb as “ke_powerPlantLocs”
5) Select ‘OK’ to save.
6) This output point feature class must now be projected before being used in any
subsequent analyses. Follow steps 1-6 in tutorial 1.1 above to project a vector/feature
class.
1.6 Edit a point feature class

Goal: Edit a feature class point file. These steps can be applied to any point feature class
dataset, including load centers, substations, transmission tower, or wind mast point locations.
Script Tools that will require these processed data: Script Tool A (Recalculate zone
attributes), Script Tool B, Stage 3 (Calculate project attributes)
Steps:
1) Click on the ‘Editor’ drop down menu on the main ArcMap toolbar. Select ‘Start Editing.’
2) Select the feature class to be edited in the ‘Start Editing’ window.
3) Use the edit tool to select a point. Right click and select ‘Delete’ to remove the point.
Click and drag the point in order to move it.
4) Save the edits by selecting ‘Editor’ → ‘Save edits’ or ‘Editor’ → ‘Stop editing’ and select
‘Yes’ to save edits. You must exit the editing mode in order to run other geoprocesses.
9
2 Update zone attributes (Script Tool A)
Script tool A allows the user to recalculate the zone attributes with new feature locations and
selected parameters. A separate Script tool A exists for each technology. To view the
description of each parameter, click on the parameter field within the script tool in ArcMap. For
additional details about how the parameters are used, please refer to the main report. Note: all
input and output script tool parameter fields will only accept the absolute filenames (i.e., you
cannot drag and drop layers from the ‘Table of Contents’ into the parameter fields, but you can
drag and drop files from the Catalog).
2.1 Preprocessing input datasets for Script Tool A

1) Acquire input data that you wish to update in the analysis (e.g., updated transmission
network, roads) and download output (zones, project opportunity areas) data from
mapre.lbl.gov (Spatial Downloads page) for country of interest.
2) Load the data in ArcMap and check the projection of data by double-clicking each layer
and viewing the “Source” tab. If necessary, project the data
(‘Africa_Albers_Equal_Area_Conic’ is the suggested projection). Both zones and project
opportunity area outputs are in ‘WGS_84,’ so these must be projected before further
use.
a) Note: To improve the performance of the script tools, save the projected
shapefile as a file geodatabase feature class.
2.2 Running Script Tool A

1) Open Script Tool A from the Catalog within ArcMap. The Script Tool A is located within
the ‘REzoning_models” toolbox.
2) Add the projected zones and project opportunity area feature classes or shapefiles as
inputs to the tool.
3) Specify the output file name for zones. This file can be a shapefile or a feature class in
an ArcGIS gdb.
4) All other feature class fields and changes to the parameter fields are optional. Add the
updated or new input fields to the tool. Modify the default input parameters to update the
levelized cost estimates for generation, transmission interconnection, and road
extension.
a) Note: if the user estimates the distance for ‘New Feature,’ these distance
estimates cannot be used to update the excel spreadsheet tool.
5) Select ‘OK’ to run the tool.
6) Load the output zone file in the ‘Table of Contents’ and check its attribute table.
10
3 Creating new project opportunity areas and
calculating their attributes (Script Tool B)
Script Tool B, Stages 1, 2, and 3 must be run in sequence, since the input of each tool depends
on the output of the preceding tool.
3.1 Using the site suitability tool (Script Tool B, Stage 1)

Script tool B, Stage 1 allows the user to create a feature class of suitable sites for renewable
energy development, which yields an estimate of resource potential given various assumptions.
This tool may be used for any wind or solar technology, given the correct spatial resource data.
To view the description of each parameter, click on the parameter field within the script tool in
ArcMap. For additional details about how the parameters are used, please refer to the main
report. Note: all input and output script tool parameter fields will only accept the absolute
filenames (i.e., the user cannot drag and drop layers from the ‘Table of Contents’ into the
parameter fields).

1) All the input files for this script tool are raster data that must match in cell size, grid
alignment, and projection. To ensure this, when performing tutorials 1.1, 1.2, or 1.4,
create or choose a “template” raster file to specify in the Environments settings. This file
can be a digital elevation model file (e.g., SRTM) with the chosen cell size, grid, and
projection (e.g., Africa Albers Equal Area Conic projection).
11
2) Resource data: The ‘Input resource raster’ is the processed renewable resource
dataset in raster format. If the data are downloaded in vector format, follow the steps in
tutorial 1.1 to process the raster data. The resource input data for wind, solar PV and
CSP are likely in the following formats and units:
a) Wind: Wind power density (WPD) (e.g. W/m2) , or wind speed (e.g. m/s).
b) Solar Photovoltaic (PV): Global horizontal insolation (GHI) (e.g. W/m2,
kWh/m2/day, or kWh/m2/year).
c) Concentrating solar power (CSP): Direct normal insolation (DNI) (e.g. W/m2,
kWh/m2/day, kWh/m2/year, Wh/m2/day)
3) Absolute area exclusion (including buffers) data: For all the feature or raster data to
be used as absolute area exclusions (for which a buffer may be applied), calculate the
Euclidean distance using the “Euclidean Distance” tool (see tutorial 1.4). Use the
template raster to ensure that the Euclidean distance rasters have the same same cell
size, and are snapped to the same raster. Threshold exclusion rasters such as
population density, elevation, or slope, do not need to have Euclidean distance rasters.
4) Input CSV: Use the template CSV, “inputs_siteSuitabilityRasters.csv,” provided in the
“DocsAndInputs\ScriptTool_templateInputs” folder accompanying the model to create an
input CSV that contains the absolute filenames of the input rasters (Euclidean distance
and threshold exclusion raster. Each column of the CSV indicates an individual input
raster. You can create as many column inputs as you have rasters. That is, the tool will
incorporate as many exclusions you provide in the CSV. As shown in Figure 2, the
specifications for each row are as follows:
a) The first row should contain the name of the raster layer (e.g., water bodies).
b) The second row should contain either a "yes" or a "no" to indicate whether or not
the raster should be used in the analysis.
c) The third row contains the absolute filename of the raster input (e.g.,
A:\INPUTS\\ke.gdb\ke_water_ed for the water body Euclidean distance raster).
d) The fourth and last row contains the conditional raster statement, which indicates
the threshold or buffer to be applied, using values appropriate for the units of the
raster layer (e.g., Value <= 20). All areas for which the conditional statement is
true will be included in the analysis. For example. to exclude all areas with slope
greater than 20%, the fourth row should contain the conditional statement, Value
<= 20. To exclude all areas within 500 meters of a water body use, Value >= 500
(see Figure 2).
12

1) Open Script Tool B, Stage 1 from the Catalog within ArcMap. The Script Tool B is
located within the ‘REzoning_models” toolbox.
2) For ‘Technology,’ select either wind, solar PV, and CSP. The filename of each feature
class output will indicate the selected technology type.
3) The ‘Country boundary’ parameter is optional, but will be necessary for the output
feature class and raster to be clipped to the country boundary extent. This parameter will
not be necessary if all input rasters and have already been extracted to the country
boundary extent.
4) The user may specify as many resource thresholds (below which to exclude from the
analysis) in the units matching the ‘Input resource raster’ (see Figure 3). A different site
suitability output file will be created for each added threshold value.
Figure 3. Example of resource threshold inputs assuming units of W/m2.

5) Create or specify an ‘Output GDB’ to store the output site suitability feature classes and
rasters.
6) Depending on the raster contents and specified distance or criteria thresholds in the
‘Input exclusion CSV,’ you have the option of appending a scenario description in the
‘OUTPUT scenario filename suffix.’ For example, ‘elevation_2000m’ will note that the
output scenario uses an elevation threshold of 2000 m.
7) The ‘Land use efficiency,’ ‘Land use discount factor,’ and ‘Average capacity factor’
parameters are all used to estimate resource potential in terms of MWh per scenario.
Default values have been supplied in the tool documentation for each parameter. The
product of the calculated area (km2), land use efficiency [MW/km2], land use discount
factor (percentage), average capacity factor (percentage), and the number of hours in a
year (8760) will yield an estimate of the average annual electricity generation [MWh].
13
These are the values that will be stored in the ‘OUTPUT area and resource potential
CSV.’
3.2 Using the Project Opportunity Area Creation Tool (Script Tool
B, Stage 2)
This Script Tool takes any resource area feature class output of the 'Script Tool B: Stage 1
Create site suitability’ model and divides the area into smaller geographic units called project
opportunity areas, or simply, projects. The user can specify the range of the project sizes in km2.

No additional preprocessing of input data for this Tool is needed, provided that the user ran
Script Tool B, Stage 1 successfully.
1. The ‘INPUT suitable resource areas feature class’ is one of the feature class scenario
outputs of Script Tool B, Stage 1.
2. For ‘OUTPUT Project opportunity area output feature class,’ specify the absolute
filename of the output.
3. The ‘Fishnet size,’ specifies the maximum size of the projects to be created (e.g., 5 km
will generate projects that are at most 5 km x 5 km or 25 km2). A fishnet feature class will
be created using this specified dimension in order to create projects. This function only
works for countries within the African continent.
4. The ‘Fishnet directory’ is where the fishnet feature class will be saved. It is
recommended that this directory be a file geodatabase (fgdb). By saving the fishnet
feature class to the computer’s hard drive, this tool can be run iteratively in less time.
The fishnet filename will specify its dimensions so that multiple fishnet feature classes of
different sizes can be created.
14
5. For ‘Largest project area,’ it is advised that the fishnet area be used (e.g., 25 km2). This
parameter is used to identify the particular polygons that will be divided into smaller
project areas. For example, if the user specifies 25 in this parameter field, all contiguous
areas greater than 25 km2 will be divided using the fishnet feature class.
6. The ‘Area below which to aggregate’ parameter accepts an area threshold to determine
which smaller areas which small abutting polygons will be aggregated/merged into larger
project areas.
7. The ‘Minimum contiguous project area’ specifies the area below which polygons will be
excluded from the project output feature class.
3.3 Using the Project Opportunity Area Attribute Calculation Tool

(Script Tool B, Stage 3)
This model calculates the attributes for the project opportunity areas feature class output of the
‘Script Tool B: Stage 2 Create project areas’ model. These attributes include distances to
different features (e.g. transmission lines, existing renewable energy plants) and levelized costs
of energy generation, transmission expansion, and road extension.

1) Input resource raster: The resource raster must have units found within ‘Renewable
resource units’ drop down list. Otherwise, the user has the option of using the ‘Raster
Calculator’ tool (in the Spatial Analyst extension → Map Algebra) to convert the
renewable resource raster into units found within the list.
15
a) You must first load the raster dataset into the ‘Table of Contents’ in order for it to
appear in the ‘Raster Calculator.’
b) In order to use the algebraic functions in ‘Raster Calculator,’ you must first
convert the raster data type into a float using the ‘Float()’ function in ‘Raster
Calculator.’ For example, to convert Wh/m/day to kWh/m2/day, you would use
the following statement: ‘Float(“resourceRaster”)/1000’
c) Specify the file to which the converted ‘Output raster’ should be saved and click
‘OK’ to run the tool.
2) Input attribute CSV file: Similar to the input CSV that was created for Script Tool B,
Stage 1, the input CSV file for this final Script Tool B controls the inputs used to estimate
the project attributes. Use the template CSV, “inputs_projectAreaAttributes.csv,”
provided in the “DocsAndInputs\ScriptTool_templateInputs” folder accompanying the
model to create an input CSV that contains the absolute filenames of the input features
and rasters. NOTE: You MUST include the default columns provided in the
“inputs_projectAreaAttributes.csv.” If you are missing any of the attribute data,
such as transmission lines or load centers, simply indicate “no” in the second row
of the attribute’s column. However, you are able to add other attributes by adding
additional columns to the csv (e.g., “d_protected” for distance to protected areas). As
shown in Figure 4, the specifications for each row are as follows:
a) The first row should contain the intended field name of the raster or feature class
(e.g., ‘d_water’). Note that if you wish to save the output of this tool as a
shapefile, the field name cannot be longer than 10 characters. Otherwise, no
spaces or special characters are allowed.
b) The second row should contain either a "yes" or a "no" to indicate whether or not
the raster or feature class should be used in the analysis. This allows you to turn
the input “on” or “off.”
c) The third row indicates the attribute calculation type you intend to apply to the
input raster or feature. For example, you would specify ‘distance’ in this row for
‘d_trans,’ which is the transmission feature class for which you would apply the
‘Nearest’ distance tool (i.e., calculate the distance to the nearest transmission
line for each project opportunity area). Rasters for which the area average will be
calculated for each project opportunity area, such as ‘m_elev’ (mean elevation
raster), need to have ‘mean’ in this row. The Script Tool only accepts ‘distance’ or
‘mean’ analyses.
d) The fourth and final row contains the absolute filename of the raster input (e.g.,
A:\INPUTS\\ke.gdb\ke_water for Kenya’s water body feature class).
16

1) The ‘Technology’ specification will determine how the capacity factor is calculated, if a
non-capacity factor resource raster is provided.
2) For the ‘Input feature class,’ specify the absolute filename of the output project feature
class from Script Tool B: Stage 2.
3) For the ‘Input feature class,’ create the absolute filename of the output project feature
class.
4) The ‘Template raster,’ which specifies the grid, and ‘Cell size’ parameters are used to
convert the input project opportunity area feature class into a raster for use in the
attribute estimates.
5) For the Scratch GDB, browse to and select the FGDB that accompanied the Script
Tools: “Scratch\Scratch.gdb”.
6) For the ‘Renewable resource units,’ select from a drop down list of available units that
the tool can use to calculate annual electricity generation and levelized cost of electricity.
a) ‘Capacity factor’ is specified as a ratio, with values ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 (e.g.,
0.25 for a capacity factor of 25%)
b) For the current version of the tool, estimates for wind technology project areas
can only accept Capacity Factor as the input resource unit (in decimals, not
percentages). A future version of this tool may be released that estimates
capacity factor from wind speed (m/s) or wind power density (W/m2).
c) ‘W/m2’ and ‘kWh/m2-day’ are specific to Solar PV and CSP. Selecting these
units for Wind generation will cause the model to fail or yield incorrect results.
7) For guidance on how to specify the remaining parameters used to estimate electricity
generation and levelized cost of electricity, please refer to the documentation within the
Script Tool itself. You can access the parameter descriptions by clicking within the
parameter input field in the Script Tool.
a) The recommended default land use efficiency is 30 MW/km2 for solar PV and
CSP, and 9 MW/km2 for wind.
4 Modifying and updating interactive PDF maps

1) Open the template mxd, “DocsAndInputs\interactivePDFmapTemplate.mxd” by double
clicking it within ArcMap’s ‘Catalog,’ or by opening it directly from Windows explorer.
2) Save a copy of the “interactivePDFmapTemplate.mxd” so that you don’t overwrite the
original template mxd. Work with the copied mxd.
3) Add the style reference: An mxd is an ArcMap document/file that stores layers (not the
actual rasters or feature classes) and their styles. Accompanying the mxd file in the
same folder is an “interactivePDFmap.style.” This style file provides the symbology for
visualizing the different layer outputs. To add this to the list of available styles in ArcMap,
17
go to ‘Customize’ in the main toolbar→ ‘Style Manager’. Click on the ‘Styles…’ button
and in the ‘Style references’ window that appears, select the ‘Add Style to List...’ button.
This will bring up a window that allows to you browse to and select the
“interactivePDFmap.style” file. Select ‘Ok’ for both windows, and you should see the
“interactivePDFmap.style.” folder appear in the left window of the ‘Style manager.’ These
line, fill, and icon styles will now appear in the ‘Symbol selector’ window when you
double click any any layer symbol icon in the ‘Table of Contents.’
4) Specify the missing source data for each layer: double click on the layer to open the
layer properties window. Under the ‘Source’ tab, click on ‘Set Data Source,’ which allows
you to browse to the data file that matches the layer type.
5) Update the symbology: For each layer, you will then need to update the symbology,
depending on the feature class’ fields and field values you wish to symbolize. For
example, for the three layers under the ‘RENEWABLE ENERGY ZONES’ grouping, the
field that is symbolized will no longer be available in the newly updated zone outputs.
You will need to select the field in the new zone outputs that corresponds to the total
levelized cost of electricity (see the Appendix for interpretation of the zone fields).
6) Create the ‘Developing constraints’ layers: You must separately generate the
‘Development constraints’ feature classes (not rasters) if you wish to display them in
the map, as they have not been generated anywhere else in this manual. To do this, you
can use the ‘Raster Calculator’ tool on the Euclidean distance and threshold exclusion
rasters and to create rasters of exclusions. You can then convert the raster to a feature
class. Use ‘Add field’ to add a new field in the feature class and use ‘Calculate Field’ to
populate the field with the same value. Finally, use ‘Dissolve’ to aggregate the separate
rows/polygons. Alternatively, you can ‘Reclassify’ the raster data so that all the values
are the same and then convert the raster to a feature class.
7) Export the mxd as an interactive PDF map:
a) Only the visible layers will be exported. Only the bottom-most layer can be a
raster.
b) Select File in the main toolbar→ Export Map
c) Create a filename for the PDF map
d) For ‘Save as type,’ select PDF
e) Under the ‘General’ tab, enter a resolution. The recommended resolution is 500
dpi.
f) Under the ‘Advanced’ tab, in the drop down list, select ‘Export PDF layers and
Feature attributes.
g) You can also choose to ‘Export Map Georeference Information,’ which will enable
users of the interactive PDF map to get the decimal degree coordinates of any
location within the map.
h) If you wish to lock the PDF you can select ‘Enable PDF document security,’
which will allow you to password protect the map.
18
5 Updating renewable energy zones ranking tool
1) Access the renewable energy (RE) zones ranking tool: Download the Microsoft
Excel®-based RE zones ranking tool for the concerned country from mapre.lbl.gov. The
tool works best in Microsoft Excel® 2013 for Windows. Older versions of Microsoft Excel,
or versions for Mac OS cannot properly visualize the RE zones supply curves due to the
particular usage of the date format to display the labels of the zones. However, the
ranking of the RE zones in the list form may work properly. Save a copy of the tool so
that you don’t overwrite the original file.
2) The RE zones ranking tool has three worksheets for each of the three technologies -
wind, solar PV and CSP - in addition to the “Instructions” worksheet that describes how
to use the tool. The technology + “_Zone_Ranking” (e.g. Wind_Zone_Ranking)
worksheets accept user inputs, and display the ranked RE zones list and supply curves.
The country + technology worksheets (e.g. kenya_PV) hold the raw RE zone attributes
from the GIS RE zones file. The technology + “_Data_Calc” worksheets (e.g.
CSP_Data_Calc) use the user-input data and the RE zone attributes to create the
ranked RE zones supply curves. Please read the instructions to familiarize yourself with
the inputs and outputs of the RE zones ranking tool.
3) Access worksheets’ contents: All the worksheets are “Protected” to ensure that
regular users do not inadvertently change any formulas. To access all the content within
a worksheet, unprotect that worksheet by going to the “Review” tab and clicking on
“Unprotect Sheet”. No password is necessary.
4) Export attribute table of RE zones file: The attributes of a particular RE technology’s
zones file, which are updated using Script Tool A, form the input to the RE zones ranking
tool.
a) After updating the attributes, open the attribute table of the RE zones file in
ArcGIS.
b) From the “Table” menu, click on “Export” to export the attribute table data. Make
sure none of the zones were selected before export, to ensure that the attributes
of all zones are exported.
c) In the “Export Data” popup window, browse to the folder where you would want to
save the exported data. Select the “Save as Type” as “Text file” from the drop
down menu.
d) Once exported, ArcGIS will prompt if you want to add the exported file to
workspace. You can select “No”.
5) Import attribute file into Microsoft Excel®:
a) In Microsoft Excel®, go to the “Open” file menu, and select the attribute data text
file (extension .txt).
b) The “Text Import Wizard” will pop up. Ensure that the default option of “Delimited”
data is selected and click “Next” to go to Step 2.
c) In Step 2, select “Comma” as a delimiter, and click “Next”.
19
d) In Step 3, click on “Finish”. The attribute table data should be displayed
appropriately with all the column names. You can cross-check the column names
against the “Shortfields” provided in the Appendix tables of this manual.
6) Update zone attribute data in RE zones ranking tool: Clear the contents of the
‘country + technology’ worksheet for the appropriate technology in the RE zones ranking
tool. Do not “delete” the rows or data in that worksheet. Cells in the other worksheets
reference the data in this worksheet. So deleting the rows or data will also delete those
references. Copy and paste the RE zones attribute data for that technology into the
‘country + technology’ worksheet of the RE zones ranking tool. Ensure that all the
columns are included along with their names. The columns do not need to be in the
same order as the original data.
7) Go to the ‘technology + “_Zones_Ranking”’ worksheet to ensure that the tool works with
the updated RE zones attribute data.
8) Protect worksheets: Go to the “Review” tab, and “Protect” all the worksheets before
saving the RE zones ranking tool.
9) Troubleshooting: If the tool does not work after updating the RE zones attribute data,
please check the following.
a) Ensure that the name of all the worksheets are in the same format as the original
file, including the case.
b) We recommend that you use the same country’s tool to update it.
c) Ensure that “RE technology” of the worksheet matches the attribute table data
that you are updating. Different RE technologies have different set of column
names or attributes.
6 Contact Information and additional resources

For the latest version of this manual, data downloads, and updated script tools, please go to
www.mapre.lbl.gov.
You may also contact us directly at:

- grace.cc.wu [a] gmail.com
- ranjit.deshmukh [a] berkeley.edu
20
Appendix
Appendix Table 1. Field abbreviations and their full field names for wind zone shapefiles
downloaded from mapre.lbl.gov. Shapefile fields are limited to 10 characters. See the interactive
PDF map for detailed field descriptions.
WIND_FULLFIELDS WIND_SHORTFIELDS
OBJECTID OBJECTID
zone_identification zoneid
electricity_generation_discounted_chosenTurbine_MWhPerYr egen_ch
electricity_generation_discounted_classIIturbine_MWhPerYr egen_cii
installedCapacity_MW incap
area_km2 area_km2
LCOE_transmission_chosenTurbine_USDperMWh l_tra_ch
LCOE_substation_chosenTurbine_USDperMWh l_sub_ch
LCOE_road_chosenTurbine_USDperMWh l_road_ch
LCOE_generation_chosenTurbine_USDperMWh l_gen_ch
LCOE_generation_classIIturbine_USDperMWh l_gen_cii
LCOE_total_transmission_chosenTurbine_USDperMWh lt_tra_ch
LCOE_total_transmission_classIIturbine_USDperMWh lt_tra_cii
LCOE_total_substation_chosenTurbine_USDperMWh lt_sub_ch
LCOE_total_substation_classIIturbine_USDperMWh lt_sub_cii
mean_slope_percent m_slope
mean_populationDensity_personsPerKm2 m_popden
mean_LULC_score m_lulc
mean_colocation_score m_coloc
num_projectsWithWaterAccess n_water
mean_resourceQuality_Wperm2 m_rq_wm2
mean_capacityFactor_chosenTurbine m_cf_ch
mean_capacityFactor_classIIturbine m_cf_cii
area_chosenTurbine_classIII_km2 a_ch_ciii
area_chosenTurbine_classII_km2 a_ch_cii
area_chosenTurbine_classI_km2 a_ch_ci
distance_nearest_transmission_km d_trans
distance_nearest_substation_km d_sub
distance_nearest_road_km d_road
distance_nearest_existingPlanned_wind_km d_wind
distance_nearest_geothermalLocation_km d_geo
distance_nearest_anyRenewableEnergyLocation_km d_anyre
distance_nearest_majorCity_km d_load
distance_nearest_waterSource_km d_water
distance_nearest_3TierWindLocation_km d_windhour
capacityValueRatio_10percentPeakHours cvr_10per
capacityValueRatio_chosen3peakHours cvr_ch3h
capacityValueRatio_chosen3peakHours_multiyear cvr_ch3h_m
ACECzoneID aceczoneid
mean_HumanFootprint_0to100 m_humfoot
adjustedCF_top10percent cf_cvr_10p
adjustedCF_top3hrs cf_cvr_ch3
mean_capacityFactor_chosenTurbine_ClassI cf_ch_ci
mean_capacityFactor_chosenTurbine_ClassII cf_ch_cii
mean_capacityFactor_chosenTurbine_ClassIII cf_ch_ciii
21
Shape_Length Shape_len
Shape_Area Shape_area
totalLCOE_interconn_USDperMWh lt_anyic
Country country
Appendix Table 2. Field abbreviations and their full field names for Solar PV zone shapefiles
SOLARPV_FULLFIELDS SOLARPV_SHORTFIELDS
OBJECTID FID
electricity_generation_discounted_MWhPerYr egen
installedCapacity_MW incap
area_km2 area_km2
LCOE_transmission_USDperMWh l_tra
LCOE_substation_USDperMWh l_sub
LCOE_road_USDperMWh l_road
LCOE_generation_USDperMWh l_gen
LCOE_total_transmission_USDperMWh lt_tra
LCOE_total_substation_USDperMWh lt_sub
mean_resourceQuality_kWhPerm2Day m_rq_kwhmd
mean_capacityFactor m_cf
distance_nearest_existingPlanned_PV_km d_pv
Country country
total_LCOE_interconn_USDperMWh lt_anyic
Appendix Table 3. Field abbreviations and their full field names for CSP zone shapefiles
CSP_FULLFIELDS CSP_SHORTFIELDS
OBJECTID FID
electricity_generation_discounted_noStorage_MWhPerYr egen_0h
electricity_generation_discounted_6hrsStorage_MWhPerYr egen_6h
installedCapacity_noStroage_MW incap_0h
installedCapacity_6hrsStorage_MW incap_6h
area_km2 area_km2
LCOE_transmission_6hrsStorage_USDperMWh l_tra_6h
LCOE_substation_6hrsStorage_USDperMWh l_sub_6h
22
LCOE_road_6hrsStorage_USDperMWh l_road_6h
LCOE_total_transmission_noStorage_USDperMWh lt_tra_0h
LCOE_total_transmission_6hrsStorage_USDperMWh lt_tra_6h
LCOE_total_substation_noStorage_USDperMWh lt_sub_0h
LCOE_total_substation_6hrsStorage_USDperMWh lt_sub_6h
mean_resourceQuality_kWhPerm2Day m_rq_kwhmd
mean_capacityFactor_noStorage m_cf_0h
mean_capacityFactor_6hrsStorage m_cf_6h
distance_nearest_existingPlanned_CSP_km d_csp
LCOE_generation_noStorage_USDperMWh l_gen_0h
LCOE_generation_6hrsStorage_USDperMWh l_gen_6h
Country country
LCOE_tot_interConn_USDperMWh lt_anyic
23

RE Zoning Manual

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

RE Zoning Manual

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Renewable Energy Zones

GIS Tools User Manual

Last Update 02.24.2017

About Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

International Renewable Energy Agency Disclaimer:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Disclaimer:

1 Basic preprocessing of input data

1.1 Convert feature class to raster

1.2 Project and resample raster

1.3 Extract by attributes

1.4 Create Euclidean distance rasters

1.5 Create point feature class from coordinates

1.6 Edit a point feature class

2.1 Preprocessing input datasets for Script Tool A

2.2 Running Script Tool A

3.1 Using the site suitability tool (Script Tool B, Stage 1)

3.1.1 Preprocessing of input datasets for Script Tool B, Stage 1

3.1.2 Running Script Tool B, Stage 1

Figure 3. Example of resource threshold inputs assuming units of W/m2.

3.2.1 Running Script Tool B, Stage 2

3.3 Using the Project Opportunity Area Attribute Calculation Tool

3.3.1 Preprocessing of input datasets for Script Tool B, Stage 3

3.3.2 Running Script Tool B, Stage 3

4 Modifying and updating interactive PDF maps

6 Contact Information and additional resources

You may also contact us directly at:

You might also like