GIS Intern

Urban Grid, a leading independent power producer, facilitates a rapid and sustainable energy transition by developing high-quality renewable energy projects, fostering community partnerships, and serving as a good land steward. Our company is positioned to own and operate its facilities while cultivating a land management system that benefits farmers, communities, and the natural world through agrivoltaics. Urban Grid maintains a delivery-focused approach with the goal of being a good neighbor, corporate citizen, and trusted energy solutions partner. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, with teams situated strategically throughout the United States, Urban Grid has a long history of contributing to the clean energy economy. In addition to 940 megawatts currently under construction, we are actively developing a growing portfolio of more than 12,000 megawatts of solar PV and 7,000 megawatts of co-located and stand-alone energy storage. To learn more, please visit www.UrbanGridSolar.com.

Urban Grid is a portfolio company of Brookfield. one of the world’s largest owners and operators of renewable power and climate transition assets.

We are currently seeking a GIS Intern to primarily support the GIS initiatives. The primary project of the GIS intern will be to research and evaluate the use of classification model for predicting the presence of wetlands. As bandwidth allows, the intern would also be tasked with testing and validating the Panel Layout Tool, evaluating the validity of the Parcel Processing Engine, and supporting the ongoing research and maintenance of the State Hazard Data Maps. The main benefits to the company will be the continued development of tools that make de-risking a project more efficient.

This is a paid internship that will start on or around June 3, 2024, with an end date of August 9, 2024.

During the 10-week program, interns will participate in virtual, company-wide and department meetings, virtual bi-weekly Friday lunch & learn trainings and a culminating group presentation on your overall internship experience. The program is structured to provide exposure to careers in renewable energy, best practices in internal communications as part of a remote/ hybrid team and best of all, the opportunity to work and support a team of professionals who are experts in their field.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate the use of the ArcHydro Wetland Identification Model (or similar) for improving predictive abilities of site assessments.
• Locate, pre-process, and compile existing Wetland Delineations into an Enterprise Geodatabase
• Research and identify a relevant classification model
• Work with the GIS team, Environmental Permitting, and Engineering to identify key testing parameters
• Apply the selected model and evaluate the accuracy of the results – provide input on its usefulness to site assessments
• Compare realistic usable estimates from the tool to site assessment conservative usable estimates
• Compare predicted output (MWac) from the tool to estimated output in REV1 site designs
• Investigate the usefulness and workflow for measuring project topographic complexity; ascertain the relationship between topographic complexity and validity of tool outputs
• Perform deep dives to identify and explore other project characteristics that cause tool outputs to vary more/less from site assessment and site design estimates (e.g. slope, wetlands, project boundary shape/size, etc)
• Propose process improvements for the Panel Layout Tool to improve accuracy across a diverse set of project footprints
• Present findings and solicit feedback from GIS and Engineering teams
• Compare to parcel-level preliminary usable evaluations performed by the GIS team
• Investigate and reconcile discrepancies between usable estimates from the two sources
• Consider quantifying average % difference in usable acreage between the two sources
• Research metrics that could potentially flag parcels with characteristics that negatively impact Parcel Processing Engine performance
• Assist with researching state or region-specific hazards that may pose development risk
• Perform regular quality checks to ensure data accuracy and availability

Location

Preferred location Charlottesville or Richmond, VA and will be primarily remote with periodic meetups with our team.

Candidate to work full-time hours Monday - Friday during the summer duration of the internship.

Requirements

• Currently enrolled at the Graduate level in a related field (Geographic Science, Geography, Environmental Science, Engineering, Data Science, Renewable Energy, Natural Resource Management, Sustainability, or similar)
• Undergraduate degree, also in a related field, must be a sophomore or above
• A degree or certificate in Geographic Science / Geospatial Science or equivalent
• Interest in renewable energy
• Proficient with ArcGIS products, especially ArcGIS Pro
• Proficient in Python, especially arcpy and/or in relation to spatial modelling
• Independent research experience (capstone, senior thesis, etc.) to include experience with developing and/or utilizing classification algorithms
• Remote Sensing
• Previous internship or experience in a GIS department
• Strong work ethic and exceptionally high work standards
• Excellent attention to detail and organizational skills
• Work pro-actively individually, and collaboratively within the team
• Self-motivated and work with minimal direction
• Ability to multi-task and meet deadlines with a shared interest in saving the world!

Benefits

Interns will receive 24 hours of PTO, 2 paid holidays and a $60 monthly cell phone reimbursement during their internship.