Maps
What do the colored dots mean?
The colors indicate the power sector: coal, oil and gas, bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, nuclear, solar, or wind.
How accurate are locations?
Each unit location is marked “exact” or “approximate.” In the case of exact coordinates, locations are either specifically identified on a mapping service such as Google Maps, Open Street Maps, etc., or gathered from company or government documentation. If the location of a power facility or proposal is not known, Global Energy Monitor identifies the most accurate location possible based on available information.
I’ve zoomed in, but don’t see a power plant or facility. Why?
If a project is still in the pre-operational phases (announced, pre-construction, or construction), there may be no sign of activity. In other cases, only approximate location information could be found. Finally, satellite photos in some geographies are updated infrequently, so recent activity is not shown.
How do I find out if a location is exact or approximate?
Location accuracy improves as plants move from early stages of development toward operation. To find out the coordinates of a location and whether a location is exact or approximate, click on the location dot, select the wiki page, and look under “Project Details.”
Coverage
What projects does the tracker include?
See the section “capacity” in the methodology
How do you define capacity?
Capacity is measured in megawatts, and refers to the nameplate capacity of the power station unit or facility.
Can you explain the difference between “units” and “power stations”?
The collection of physical infrastructure that necessarily operates together is defined as a unit. Power stations or plants can consist of one or more units, which may be built and commissioned at nearly the same time or at different times.
How are the terms “project”, “phase”, and “complex” used and how do they relate to one another?
Projects can consist of one or more units, which may be built and commissioned at nearly the same time or at different times.
A solar or wind farm phase is generally defined as a group of solar arrays or wind turbines that are installed under one permit, one power purchase agreement, and typically come online at the same time. A solar or wind farm project can be composed of several phases, or just a single phase.
A hydropower “complex” is used to link together multiple projects that are part of a collection of related power-generating infrastructure but which should be considered different plants due to distinct physical infrastructure, geographic separation, and/or other factors such as ownership or operation.
Why does aggregated solar capacity not match government statistics or sums listed elsewhere?
The capacities listed in GEM’s online summary tables do not include project phases below the large utility-scale threshold of 20 MW globally, or 10 MW in Arabic-speaking countries. GEM provides data on medium utility-scale project phases with capacities between 1-20 MW in the downloadable dataset. But solar installations above 1 MW constitute 56% of all operating solar capacity around the world. As such, summed solar capacities in GEM’s data may be lower than values listed elsewhere. Global Energy Monitor is currently incorporating smaller-scale solar data into future releases.
Improving the Tracker
What if I find an error or missing project?
Please fill out our Error Reporting Form here
Credits
Who built this tool?
The tracker was designed and produced by Global Energy Monitor
How do I cite this data?
Please refer to the Download data page for citation guidance.