The potential of a site for the development of a solar farm is dependent on a range of topographic, environmental and legal factors. Carrying out an initial topographic assessment on site suitability and the potential incoming sunlight to an area can be achieved using high resolution terrain data such as that provided by the EA. This enables the calculation of the portion of sky visible at a given location, and can then be used to estimate the amount of radiation that is likely to be received (potential incoming solar radiation) over a specified time step. For more information, take a look at example sky visibility and solar radiation maps in the map viewer. An information sheet providing more details is available here.
