Story · Energy map · about 3 min
Mix two maps, find something new
Every layer here can now stay switched on when you change map, so you can put two unrelated things on the same screen and see where they meet. This story asks three questions that each need two maps at once.
Power stations, inside a National Park
It is easy to assume power stations and National Parks never meet. Checked against the boundaries of all 15 UK National Parks, 23 of Britain's 1,364 power stations sit inside one, mostly small hydro and pumped-storage schemes built into the mountains long before the parks existed. Ffestiniog's pumped storage in Eryri (Snowdonia) is the largest, at 360 MW. Together they total 755 MW.
Silly names, protected scenery
5 of the 141 silly place names on the Curiosities map turn out to sit inside a National Park too: Booze, Crackpot, Goathland, Great Cockup, Tiptoe. Great Cockup is a fell above Bassenthwaite in the Lake District. Zoom out and you can see it is not alone up there.
Renewables in the Green Belt
The Green Belt was drawn to stop towns sprawling into each other, and it does not bar energy projects: 862 of England's 11,040 renewable energy projects (7.8%) sit inside one, mostly solar and battery storage, 24,371 MW in all. Botley West, west of Oxford, would be one of England's largest solar farms if built, and it is Green Belt land.
Now put it all together
Nothing here is hidden or unusual. It is just never shown on the same screen. With four layers from three different maps switched on at once, the pattern is visible across the whole country: energy, protected land and a bit of whimsy, all sharing the same ground. Try your own combination next.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- What question could you ask by putting two unrelated maps together that neither could answer alone?
- Why should a pattern between two maps make you ask "why?" rather than assume a cause?
Try it on the map: Choose two layers from different maps that you think might be linked. Switch both on. Is the link there?
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.