Solar Asset Mapper is now released quarterly

What is Solar Asset Mapper?

Solar is booming, and analysts are struggling to keep up. Our solution is TZ-SAM, a global, asset-level dataset of solar assets powered by planetary-scale machine learning. It’s free to use for non-commercial purposes and is already helping 500 users better understand the scale and speed of solar deployment. Our latest release is a comprehensive database of commercial- and utility-grade solar assets, with detections up to and including Q4 of 2024.

Learn more about TZ-SAM’s origins in our Explainer, and improvements to its underlying detection algorithms in our Q3 2024 Update.

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Reliable solar data for analysts, delivered quarterly

TZ-SAM’s Q4 2024 release is a major milestone. It’s our mission to support the energy transition with accessible, reliable data and software for planning a cleaner, more secure electricity system. Throughout 2024, we increased the automation of our detection-to-data pipeline. Today, we can detect, validate and release new solar data at a much faster cadence. Analysts can now integrate TZ-SAM into their research workflow, enabling more precise renewable energy forecasts and more representative energy system modelling.

How will quarterly updates work?

TZ-SAM data is published retrospectively, with data for the preceding quarter delivered in the current quarter.

For example: the Q4 2024 release includes new solar assets from public datasets and novel detections from our algorithm up to and including Q4 of 2024, and is available to download now in Q1 2025.

To register for quarterly updates, download TZ-SAM through this form, and tick the box opting-in for quarterly release updates. Updates are emailed to users before being published on our website. If you no longer wish to receive updates to TZ-SAM, simply unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of any TransitionZero email newsletter.

Global data highlights

With housekeeping out of the way, here’s the state of global solar deployment, according to TZ-SAM, at the end of 2024.

Today, TZ-SAM tracks over 94,000 solar facilities across 190 countries, a 15.5% increase from the Q3 2024 release. The dataset includes location, capacity, size and estimated construction dates for installations with a capacity >= 1 MW.

Over 12,000 new solar assets, covering 1,803 square kilometres have been added to this release. That’s enough solar plants to cover the area of Houston, with a total estimated GW capacity three times that of China’s Three Gorges Dam - the world’s largest power station by installed capacity.

Country trends

Methodology developments introduced in the Q3 2024 release halved TZ-SAM’s detection error rate (1% to 0.5%), and improved capacity estimation. With Q3 and Q4 data both based on our revised methodology, we’re comparing apples with apples. Let’s zoom in!

Unsurprisingly, China leads with 30.2 GW detected — almost the UK’s average electricity demand in nameplate capacity.

China’s solar growth underlines why we need open access data tools like TZ-SAM – traditional methods simply can't keep up. Satellite imagery and machine learning can help us get closer to a true picture of solar growth in markets where official data might be unreliable, out of date, or locked behind a paywall.

With quarterly updates, TZ-SAM can help us validate some of the big questions and emerging stories surrounding the energy transition:

• Is China’s solar boom slowing or accelerating?
• What impacts are tariffs having on deployments?
• How will the US election impact solar growth across different states?
• Which African countries are winning the clean energy race?

Today, over 500 analysts from banks, governments, and consultancies use TZ-SAM data to forecast trends, model grid demand, and design energy policy.

It has also become a go-to resource for data journalists. In December 2024, ABC News Australia used TZ-SAM data to visualise global and regional solar growth for a major news piece.

What’s next?

We will continue TZ-SAM’s quarterly release cycle and progress research into rooftop solar, which is advancing at pace.

We will continue to make improvements to TZ-SAM metadata and to our capacity estimation algorithms, while adding quality-of-life improvements to the Solar Asset Explorer UI.

The TZ-SAM Q4 2024 dataset is open-access under a Creative Commons license for non-commercial use. Download it now, and register for quarterly updates.

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