Answers to common questions about Solar World Map, its data, and how to use it. For licensing, privacy, and company details, see the Legal & Data Licence page.
Solar World Map is a free, interactive map for exploring solar power plants mapped in OpenStreetMap (OSM) worldwide.
You can use it to discover solar farms and power plants near a location, explore the global distribution of solar energy, or inspect available plant attributes such as name, operator, output capacity, and commissioning date. For more technical work, you can download the solar plants currently visible on the map as CSV data for your own analysis.
Attribute availability and data quality vary by region because the map is based on volunteer-contributed OpenStreetMap data.
Solar plant locations and attributes are sourced from OpenStreetMap, queried via the Overpass API, and reformatted for display in this map. The data reflects what OSM contributors have mapped, so coverage, completeness, and detail vary by region.
The map uses a regularly refreshed snapshot of OpenStreetMap data.
Last refresh: loading….
The current worldwide dataset contains loading… solar plants.
The total number is also shown at the bottom right of the map. The same panel also shows how many solar plants are currently visible in your map view. This number changes as you pan or zoom the map.
The map is designed to show OpenStreetMap node,
way, and relation features tagged
plant:source=solar worldwide - i.e. farm/plant-scale
photovoltaic installations, not individual rooftop panels. For
area features the map uses the geographic center of the feature
as the marker location.
If a solar plant is selected, its information box shows a limited set of attributes:
| Attribute | OSM Tag | Available | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | name |
– | Typically the local plant name |
| Operator | operator |
– | Typically the plant operator |
| Output capacity | plant:output:electricity |
– | Unit typically directly provided (e.g. MW/kW); often just "yes" when a numeric value is not known |
| Method | plant:method |
– | Almost always "photovoltaic", but a few plants are also "thermal" |
| Commissioning date | start_date |
– | Format varies (year only, or a full date) |
The Available column in the table above shows how many solar plants have a value. If you think you can provide missing information for a plant, see below.
OpenStreetMap features can carry many other tags beyond this list (for example construction details, data sources, or Wikidata links). Those additional tags are not shown, but they can be viewed directly in OpenStreetMap via the view/edit in OpenStreetMap link.
Not currently. OpenStreetMap contains many millions of small,
individually-mapped rooftop and community solar installations
(tagged generator:source=solar), in addition to the
roughly one hundred thousand farm/plant-scale installations
tagged plant:source=solar shown on this map. The small
installations carry very little descriptive metadata and may be
less well maintained. Solar World Map
currently focuses on the farm/plant-scale layer.
Yes. Use the download button on the map to export the solar plants currently visible in the map view as a CSV file. The export includes coordinates and any available plant attributes.
The CSV export is useful for exploration, preliminary research, geographic analysis, data-quality checks, and creating non-safety-critical visualisations. It is not a certified solar plant register or a substitute for asset-owner, manufacturer, grid, regulatory, or survey data.
Yes. The underlying OpenStreetMap solar plant data is available under the Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0. It may be used, copied, modified, and shared, including for commercial purposes, subject to the ODbL and applicable OpenStreetMap attribution requirements.
See the Data Licence & Terms for details. The website, its design, application code, data pipeline, and branding are not covered by the ODbL.
If Solar World Map or its data export is useful to you, we appreciate a link, acknowledgement, or recommendation to others who may benefit from it.
Because the map is based on OpenStreetMap data, corrections should be made in OpenStreetMap.
From Solar World Map every plant is linked to the respective item in OpenStreetMap, facilitating the correction of missing or wrong details. You can use the view/edit in OpenStreetMap link in the solar plant information box to open the plant in OpenStreetMap. There you can update the information yourself, or use OpenStreetMap's community channels if you need help. Once an edit is published in OSM, it should appear here after the next data refresh.
The map is designed to make OpenStreetMap solar plant data easy to explore, but coverage, positional accuracy, and attribute completeness vary by location. Data can be incomplete, outdated, incorrectly tagged, or contain errors.
Do not use this map or its exports as the sole basis for safety-critical, regulatory, contractual, investment, or operational decisions. Verify important information against authoritative sources.
Solar World Map is free to use and is built on data contributed by the OpenStreetMap community. There are several ways you can help:
When you reuse OpenStreetMap data, please also comply with the applicable OpenStreetMap attribution and ODbL requirements.
Solar World Map is operated by ventodyne GmbH, a Munich-based company working on wind farm SCADA diagnostics and wake-steering wind farm control solutions.
Contact and company details are available in the Impressum.
Yes. Viewing the map and exporting visible solar plant data are free and do not require registration or an account.