Product Update #75: Permitting Predictor AHJ Summary, Buildable Acreage on Custom Drawings, Improved Power Plant Data + More Improvements

When you click the Permitting Predictor tab at the top of Paces, you will now see a table listing all Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs). Each AHJ’s key permitting details—such as zoning, moratoriums, and setbacks—are displayed in dedicated columns. Whenever available, information on solar, wind, and battery storage ordinances is also included.

Users can now calculate buildable acreage within a custom drawing, making it easier to get precise acreage estimates for existing sites. To create a custom drawing, open the Polygon tool in the lower-right corner of the map. Currently, buildable acreage is limited to drawings of up to 2,000 acres, but we plan to raise this limit soon.

Our power plant dataset has been expanded to offer significantly more coverage of all plant types, especially community-scale solar projects. In addition to better coverage, our power plant data now includes total megawatts, developer name, developer ID, and status (operating, planned, retired, cancelled, or mixed). A new map legend also enables filtering by power plant type.

As we continue making our platform site-focused, you will now see sites displayed on the map when opening a folder, rather than parcels. Groups of sites will be shown with a site count, allowing for a clearer, more intuitive map view.

Filters that were previously only available in the list view can now be accessed directly on the map. A new filter button at the top of the map lets you apply filters in real time, making it easy to see which sites appear or disappear as you refine your criteria.

We have refreshed our U.S. parcel data to the latest available information. Moving forward, updates will occur monthly to ensure boundaries and ownership details remain as accurate as possible.

A custom drawings legend is now available in the upper-right corner of the map view, allowing you to easily control the visibility of all drawings. This legend will only show the drawings currently in view, and provides filters for lines, points, and polygons.

BESS news and sentiment information is now included on the community detail page. Previously available only for solar and wind, this data is accessible in every state where the community detail page is supported.

To keep Paces running seamlessly, we’ve invested in upgrading our backend infrastructure. These recent optimizations noticeably reduce loading times when viewing large lists of sites in search results or site folders.

You can now search based on a distribution substation’s capacity. This feature is currently offered for select utilities in New York and California, and can be found on the grid preferences page of the search flow.

Paces now supports uploading SHP files via a .zip archive, which you can do from the custom uploads page.