Renewable Siting and Pipelines in the Energy Pack

A wind or solar site, a gathering line or a compressor station starts with the same screen: what the federal land plan allows here, what wildlife habitat it crosses, what is already built nearby and how far it is to existing infrastructure. The Energy pack puts five public datasets for that screen on the PLSS grid.

The siting layers

All of these sit in the Federal & cross-state group of the Layers panel.

BLM Western Solar Plan

Part of the Renewable Siting layer. BLM's Western Solar Plan zones draw as polygons colored by the plan designation in the dataset: Available (green), Avoidance (yellow) or Excluded (red). Read each designation against the definitions in BLM's decision record for the plan before you rely on it.

Click a zone for its name or ID, zone type, plan designation, BLM management unit and acres. As a search source, BLM Western Solar Plan finds zones by zone ID or zone name.

The plan applies to BLM-managed land. Private and state land inside a zone's outline is not governed by it.

USGS wind turbines

The second part of the Renewable Siting layer: commercial wind turbines from the USGS turbine database, sized by capacity class (small, medium, utility). The legend lets you show the solar zones, the turbines or both.

Click a turbine for the project name, manufacturer, capacity in megawatts, hub height, rotor diameter, total height, year commissioned and county. As a search source, USGS wind turbines finds turbines by case ID, project name or manufacturer.

BLM sage-grouse habitat

Sage-Grouse Habitat draws BLM's greater sage-grouse habitat management areas in three tiers:

• Priority (PHMA)
• General (GHMA)
• Important (IHMA)

Click an area for its habitat name, tier, total acres and source plan. As a search source, Sage grouse HMA finds areas by HMA ID.

BLM land use plans give each tier its own management direction for surface disturbance, so check this layer early on any western project. The sage-grouse layer page covers the dataset.

NREL Land of Opportunity

NREL Land of Opportunity shows the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's solar and wind supply-curve sites as points, colored by technology. Click a point for the technology, estimated AC and DC capacity in megawatts, developable area in square kilometers, distance to spur in kilometers (NREL's units) and county.

These are modeled estimates of where capacity could be developed, not projects or applications. Whenever the layer is on, the map shows the credit Data: NREL Land of Opportunity (CC-BY 4.0). The data is published by NREL under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license; see NREL's Land of Opportunity page for the methodology.

HIFLD pipelines

Three layers draw national trunk lines from HIFLD and EIA, with names along the line as you zoom in:

• Natural Gas Pipelines (HIFLD), colored interstate, intrastate or gathering
• NGL Pipelines (HIFLD)
• Crude Oil Pipelines (HIFLD)

Click a line for the pipeline ID, operator, pipe type, status and length. Each is a search source by pipeline ID or operator. These are national datasets of major lines; many smaller gathering and distribution lines are not in them.

On the Energy tab

Open a parcel report for the section and select Energy.

• Nearest pipelines · 5 mi lists the natural gas, NGL and crude trunk lines within five miles of the section: operator, type, distance in miles and status, nearest first. The first six show, with a count of the rest.
• Constraints & siting gathers the siting rows for the section, including sage-grouse habitat and the BLM solar zone, and carries a toggle for the Sage-Grouse Habitat layer. Confirm the habitat tier and the plan designation on the map, where you can see each boundary against the section.

For flood, wetlands and critical habitat on the same ground, add the Federal Land pack's environmental screen.

Worked example

A wind developer is screening Section 10, Township 22 North, Range 79 West, Sixth Principal Meridian, in Carbon County, Wyoming, an area with existing commercial wind development.

1. Search 10 22N 79W 6th Meridian and click Report. Open Energy and read Constraints & siting and Nearest pipelines · 5 mi.
2. On the map, turn on Sage-Grouse Habitat. If the section falls in a priority area, that shapes the project before anything else.
3. Turn on Renewable Siting and show only the turbines. Click the nearest ones for hub height, rotor diameter and year commissioned.
4. Turn on NREL Land of Opportunity and filter the legend to wind to see NREL's modeled capacity for nearby sites.
5. If any of the section is BLM-managed, check the Renewable Siting solar zones for its plan designation.

The developer now has the habitat tier, the built neighbors and the modeled potential for one section, and knows which agency to call next.

For a wider view of siting data, start at the Energy hub or the renewable siting layer page.

Limits

• Federal plans, federal land. The Western Solar Plan and sage-grouse management areas guide BLM decisions on BLM land. Rules on private and state land come from the county and the state.
• Plans change. Zone and habitat boundaries reflect the published plan in the dataset. Confirm the current decision record with BLM before relying on a designation.
• Modeled, not measured. NREL capacity figures are model outputs. They do not account for land rights, interconnection queues or local ordinances.
• Major lines only. HIFLD pipelines are national datasets of major lines. Pipeline positions are approximate and are not a substitute for a one-call locate.
• Not a survey. These layers screen land for questions to ask. They do not establish boundaries, rights or permit outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is "Available" under the Western Solar Plan a permit?

No. It is a land use plan designation, not an authorization. A solar project on BLM land still needs its own right-of-way grant and environmental review.

Why is NREL data shown in kilometers?

The popup shows NREL's own units. Developable area is in square kilometers and distance to spur in kilometers.

Do I need to credit NREL if I use a screenshot?

The Land of Opportunity data is licensed CC-BY 4.0, which requires attribution. Keep the on-map credit in the image or cite NREL alongside it.

Does the pipeline list include Texas intrastate lines?

The HIFLD layers include lines in Texas. The Railroad Commission's statewide pipeline network for Texas is a separate layer in the Texas group.