Four words that matter
Observation
Something a source stated. Observations are append-only; corrections arrive as new records.
Metric
Something computed from observations. Metrics are versioned and retain the inputs used to derive them.
Prediction
A score or estimate. It is always labeled and never presented as a measurement.
Null versus zero
Zero means the source was checked and none were found. Null means the value is unknown.
USDA agricultural cash rent
USDA county cash rent is stored and displayed as a mean for one explicit land-use category: non-irrigated cropland, irrigated cropland, or pasture. The three categories are never sorted or relabeled as low, median, and high.
Rate year, source release date, and the date we imported the record are separate fields. Missing or source-suppressed categories display as unavailable, never zero. A county page is available when at least one valid category exists for that county FIPS and year.
The active complete-year history begins in 2019 and extends through the latest activated annual release. State and county tables retain each available annual record, including explicit USDA suppression and source-missing statuses. The latest CSV remains available for existing consumers; long-format CSV and JSON exports accept year, from_year, and to_year filters within that window.
Changes and state comparisons
The state report year is the newest active-release year when the USDA source is healthy and valid rates cover at least half of the state's Census county-equivalent universe. The exact threshold is the ceiling of county equivalents multiplied by 50%, with a minimum of one. Suppressed-only records do not count toward it.
Year-over-year change compares the same county and land type in consecutive years. It never bridges a missing year. State percentiles compare non-suppressed values for the same state, year, and land type and show the number of reporting counties.
An official state value is labeled “USDA statewide mean.” A calculation across available counties is labeled “Median among N reporting counties,” never “state average.”
County development records
Development pages contain county-geocoded public records with a known status, source date, quantitative county attribute, and at least two substantive modules. Project counts, capacity, and grid context are development signals. They are not lease offers, parcel-suitability findings, or proof of available grid capacity.
EIA generator stages, LBNL interconnection requests, USWTDB turbines, and USPVDB solar facilities describe different record types. They are displayed in separate modules and never added together. USWTDB county capacity sums individual turbine capacity; USPVDB reports source AC capacity, mapped site area, and a separate subset of solar sites with batteries. Every module is limited to the source release selected by the active site release.
Geography resolution
Projects are assigned to counties using the strongest available evidence, in order:
- A county FIPS code published by the source.
- Coordinates that fall inside a loaded county boundary.
- An unambiguous county-name match in the reported state.
Anything unresolved enters a review queue and contributes nothing to county metrics.
When a county gets a page
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Detailed county data | The county meets the data requirements below and is listed in search engines |
| Limited county data | The page is available on the site but kept out of search results until more source data arrives |
| Redirected | An older or overlapping address forwards to the more specific current page |
| No page | Sources do not report enough for this county yet |
Agricultural pages require a published county cash rent in any of the seven years shown. When USDA skips a county in the latest year, the page shows its most recent published year and says so. Development pages require county project data for that specific technology. Private rate ranges require at least five compatible, verified lease reports approved for anonymous use.
Private comparable review
A submitted term never changes a public range by itself. It must be reviewed, verified, redacted where needed, and separately approved for aggregate use. Contact details and documents remain private. Small groups are suppressed, and parcel addresses or landowner identities are not published.
What the platform will not do
- Present a modeled estimate as an observed rate.
- Publish a number that cannot be traced to a stored source.
- Guess a county when source geography is ambiguous.
- Report zero when the truthful answer is unknown.
- Create a public county page merely because the county exists.
- Describe a development record as a lease rate or property listing.
- Judge an offer as good, bad, or fair.