A crowdsourced dataset of aerial images with annotated solar photovoltaic arrays and installation metadata

Photovoltaic (PV) energy generation plays a crucial role in the energy transition. Small-scale PV installations are deployed at an unprecedented pace, and their integration into the grid can be challenging since stakeholders often lack quality data about these installations. Overhead imagery is increasingly used to improve the knowledge of distributed PV installations with machine learning models capable of automatically mapping these installations. However, these models cannot be easily transferred from one region or data source to another due to differences in image acquisition. To address this issue known as domain shift and foster the development of PV array mapping pipelines, we propose a dataset containing aerial images, annotations, and segmentation masks. We provide installation metadata for more than 28,000 installations. We provide ground truth segmentation masks for 13,000 installations, including 7,000 with annotations for two different image providers. Finally, we provide ground truth annotations and associated installation metadata for more than 8,000 installations. Dataset applications include end-to-end PV registry construction, robust PV installations mapping, and analysis of crowdsourced datasets.

This dataset contains the complete records associated with the article "A crowdsourced dataset of aerial images of solar panels, their segmentation masks, and characteristics", currently under review. These complete records consist of RGB overhead imagery, segmentation masks, and characteristics of PV installations. The data records are organized as follows:

• bdappv/ Root data folder
  • google / ign:  One folder for each campaign
    • img/: Folder containing all the images presented to the users. This folder contains 28807 images for Google and 17325 images for IGN.
    • mask/: Folder containing all segmentations masks generated from the polygon annotations of the users. This folder contains 13303 masks for Google and 7686 masks for IGN.
• metadata.csv The .csv file with the characteristics of the installations.