California’s Renewable Energy Landscapes

The Nature Conservancy’s gallery, “California’s Renewable Energy Landscapes” is a geospatial data portal that allows users to access the science, assessments, and data that The Nature Conservancy’s California Chapter has generated to support a vision for California’s transition to clean energy that does not needlessly sacrifice on-the-ground conservation values.

Background: California, the sixth largest economy in the world, is a global leader in transitioning to a low carbon economy and clean energy future. This leadership requires tremendous investments in the development of renewable energy over the next several decades. A significant amount of this development can happen within the built environment, such as on commercial and residential rooftops, parking lots, brownfields in urban areas. However, the amount of renewable energy required to meet California’s climate goals will require some large facilities that will convert hundreds of thousands of acres of land to renewable energy facilities, shaping California’s iconic landscapes. The Nature Conservancy’s analyses have demonstrated that California does not need to sacrifice nature in order to meet renewable energy goals. In fact, incorporating key conservation principles into the planning and development of clean energy accelerates the attainment of California’s climate goals. Our focus is to provide the science and approaches to facilitate renewable energy development to achieve climate goals AND to drive land protection.

The Nature Conservancy’s Project Director, Stephanie Dashiell, will be joined by Conservation Biology Institute’s Kai Foster to discuss the gallery and data viewer. Together they will show users how to navigate the gallery, study guides, assessments, data and publications available, and the newly created statewide renewable energy data viewer. They will talk about how this information can be used to ensure that our renewable energy future in California does not unnecessarily impact important lands and waters.