An Assessment of Renewable Energy Potential for U.S. National Parks

This article presents the results of an assessment of renewable energy resources for the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and provides recommendations to the NPS for capitalizing on available renewable resources. The article applied geographic information systems (GIS) to assess renewable energy resource potential within national parks by overlaying solar and wind resource data with NPS boundaries. From the analysis, we could identify parks with a “high renewable energy potential.” Maps and tables illustrating the findings were developed to facilitate dissemination of the results. The assessment resulted in the identification of nearly one hundred park units that have superior renewable resource availability, and provides the NPS with a starting point to identify ideal locations within its boundaries for renewable energy technology (RET) use.