# Site selection with satellite data Satellite data narrows the search for a solar park, wind farm or plant to the sites that fit. It supplies solar radiation and wind climate, terrain, land cover and natural hazards such as ground motion. Planners combine these layers with protected areas and grid data in a multi-criteria analysis, then check the shortlisted sites on the ground. ## How satellite data supports site selection Choosing a site means ruling out land that cannot be used and ranking the rest. In the energy sector, Earth observation supports site selection, planning and monitoring, and helps to estimate the generation potential of solar, wind and hydropower sites. For infrastructure, satellite imagery supports the life cycle from site selection to construction and operation, and long time series help to quantify a site's exposure to natural hazards [1]. The method is a multi-criteria analysis. Each criterion becomes a map layer: resource, terrain, land cover, protected areas, hazards, distance to roads and grid. Hard criteria exclude land; weighted criteria rank what remains. The result is a shortlist of sites that a team then visits and surveys. For the survey, satellite positioning supported by RTK correction networks reaches centimetre-level accuracy [1]. **Figure:** Site selection as a multi-criteria analysis: each criterion becomes a map layer, hard criteria exclude land, and weighted criteria rank the rest into a shortlist for the site visit. Illustrative map, not real data. ## Data and satellites - **Solar resource:** Satellite-based radiation time series (CAMS, PVGIS) - **Wind resource:** Climate reanalysis plus land cover and elevation, downscaled to wind farm scale - **Terrain:** Copernicus DEM, 30 m worldwide, 10 m for Europe with restricted access - **Land cover:** CORINE Land Cover, 44 classes, updated every six years, smallest mapped area 25 ha - **Ground motion:** European Ground Motion Service, millimetre-scale, from Sentinel-1 radar ### Solar The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service provides solar radiation time series that help to plan large solar power farms [3]. PVGIS calculates radiation from METEOSAT satellite data [4]. ### Wind For wind farm analysis, providers use the ERA5 climate reanalysis together with Copernicus land cover and elevation data, downscaled to the scale of a wind farm [2]. ### Terrain and land The Copernicus DEM describes the surface, including buildings, infrastructure and vegetation, at 30 m worldwide and at 10 m for Europe for a restricted group of users [5]. CORINE Land Cover maps 44 classes of land cover and land use across Europe [6]. ### Hazards The European Ground Motion Service measures ground motion from Sentinel-1 radar data at millimetre scale [7], which matters for plants and foundations; [monitoring ground motion with InSAR](https://leto.space/use-cases/ground-motion-insar/) explains the technique. Flood exposure is covered in [mapping flood risk](https://leto.space/use-cases/flood-risk-mapping/). ## Renewables acceleration areas EU law now requires Member States to map land for renewable energy. Under the revised Renewable Energy Directive, they had to map the areas needed for renewable energy plants by 21 May 2025, taking into account in particular the renewable resource, the projected energy demand and the available grid and storage infrastructure. By 21 February 2026 they had to adopt plans that designate renewables acceleration areas, with priority for artificial and built surfaces such as rooftops and with Natura 2000 sites excluded [8]. For a developer, these designated areas become a layer in its own analysis. For regions, the same data supports the mapping itself. ## What you get - **An exclusion map**: land ruled out by protection status, land cover, slope or hazards. - **A ranked shortlist** of candidate sites, with the value of each criterion per site. - **A profile per site**: resource, terrain, ground motion and land cover, as a basis for the site visit and for talks with landowners and authorities. ## Limits **Limits** - **Coarse layers miss small features:** CORINE Land Cover does not map areas smaller than 25 hectares. As of October 2026, its most recent published edition has the reference year 2018; the update for the reference year 2024 is now scheduled for publication in the first quarter of 2027 \[6]. Parcel-level decisions need finer and more recent land cover data or a site visit. - **The elevation model includes buildings and trees:** The Copernicus DEM is a surface model that includes buildings and vegetation \[5], so slopes derived under forest can mislead. Detailed design needs a terrain survey. - **Not in the satellite data:** Land ownership, grid connection capacity, local permits and community acceptance decide many projects. They come from registers, the grid operator and conversations, not from orbit. ## How we help A site analysis is only as good as its criteria. In [strategy and use cases](https://leto.space/consulting/strategy/) we agree the criteria and their weights with your planning, technical and permitting teams; in [requirements and procurement](https://leto.space/consulting/procurement/) we specify the analysis so that providers' offers can be compared. [Spacegraph](https://leto.space/spacegraph/), our discovery platform, has a use-case category "Site selection & spatial planning". ## Related use cases - [Finding rooftops suited to solar power](https://leto.space/use-cases/rooftop-solar-potential/): The same question for roofs instead of open land. - [Forecasting renewable power generation](https://leto.space/use-cases/renewable-forecasting/): How satellite data improves forecasts once the site is running. - [Satellite data for energy and utilities](https://leto.space/industries/energy-and-utilities/): All use cases for energy companies. - [Satellite data for industrial manufacturing](https://leto.space/industries/industrial-manufacturing/): Use cases for plants and supply chains. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which satellite data is free for a site search in Europe? Much of it. Copernicus services and data are free of charge [9], including the CORINE land cover inventory [6], the global 30 m Copernicus elevation model [5] and the ground motion data of the European Ground Motion Service [7]. Solar radiation is available from the European Commission's PVGIS tool [4]. Commercial data adds finer detail where a decision needs it. ### Does satellite data replace a wind measurement or a site survey? No. For wind farm analysis, providers combine the ERA5 climate reanalysis with land cover and elevation data and downscale it to wind farm scale; such results are used in investor due diligence [2]. This is modelled data, not a measurement at the site. Use it to rank sites, and plan measurements and surveys for the shortlist. ### How do we start? Write down the criteria that rule a site in or out, and the weight of the others, before anyone looks at a map. Then run the analysis for one region and compare its shortlist with sites your team already knows well. Our [consulting overview](https://leto.space/consulting/) shows the path from the problem to the pilot. ## Sources 1. [EU Space Market Report 2026, Issue 1, EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 2026-05-26](https://www.euspa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/EU_Space_Market_Report_2026.pdf) 2. [EUSPA EO and GNSS Market Report, Issue 2, 2024, EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 2024](https://www.euspa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/external/publications/euspa_market_report_2024.pdf) 3. [Solar energy, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), accessed 2026-10-06](https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/solar-energy) 4. [PVGIS: Data sources and calculation methods, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), accessed 2026-10-08](https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/photovoltaic-geographical-information-system-pvgis/general-information/data-sources-calculation-methods_en) 5. [Copernicus DEM: Global and European Digital Elevation Model, Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, accessed 2026-10-06](https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/explore-data/data-collections/copernicus-contributing-missions/collections-description/COP-DEM) 6. [CORINE Land Cover, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 2026-10-06](https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/corine-land-cover) 7. [Tap into Europe in motion (European Ground Motion Service), European Space Agency (ESA), 2022-07-26](https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/Tap_into_Europe_in_motion) 8. [Directive (EU) 2023/2413 amending Directive (EU) 2018/2001 as regards the promotion of energy from renewable sources (RED III), European Union, EUR-Lex, 2023-10-18](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2023/2413/oj/eng) 9. [Regulation (EU) 2021/696 of 28 April 2021 establishing the Union Space Programme and the European Union Agency for the Space Programme, European Union, EUR-Lex, 2021-05-12](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2021/696/oj/eng) Page: