Two environmental groups have started joint venture with Google in a try to guide renewable energy development off from sore regions, by employing Google Earth maps.
The National Audubon Society and the Natural Resources Defense Council brought out the latest tool that is named the Path to Green Energy. It is available for the people to utilize.
The latest maps gathered maps of threatened species home grounds, national parks and other forms of protected land from 13 western states. It added up all the information on Google Earth.
The analysis encompasses approximately 860 million acres, almost one-half the acreage of the lower 48 states in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
There are presently 128 million acres, or 15% of the mapped out fields that are secure. Over two-third of the protected regions come in only 6 of the 13 states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Utah.
People can zoom in on the Mohave Desert and check every piece of ground that is out-of-bounds to developers of solar projects. The zones that are not available to be used are shown in bright colored figures layered on maps and aerial photos.
Google.org, which gave $25,000 grants to the NRDC and the National Audubon Society as effort of its Geo Challenge Grants program, promises that the latest maps will finally stop up saving money for renewable energy developers.
The maps have habitat information for over 170 species.
It keeps a work ongoing, say its developers. They would like to add more lands and species also as data displaying places that have the most sunlight and the heaviest winds.
You might also like
|
|
|
|
|
