Mass partially automated edit of solar panel tags worldwide

General talk
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According to taginfo around 96.22% of solar panels worldwide with generator:type=solar_photovoltaic_panel are also tagged with generator:output:electricity=yes.

All solar photovoltaic panels produce electricity. This leaves around ~200,000 solar panels worldwide missing this tag. This has slowly accumulated over time as tags are forgotten when tagging solar panels.

I’ve been going through, manually fixing and reviewing other missing tag combiniations such as generator tags (generator:output:electricity=yes) on solar farm outlines (should be plant:output:electricity=yes) and changing tagging where appropriate. Since every solar photovoltaic panel produces electricity there would be no need to manually review each object in this case.

I propose adding generator:output:electricity=yes to all objects worldwide tagged with generator:type=solar_photovoltaic_panel, with manual oversite to check for any mistagged objects that aren’t solar panels. This would result in small, cluster based changesets. This should have a 100% accuracy, if not its because an object was mistagged already.

As an additional part of this, I propose manually checking and retagging or remapping objects when necessary if the following missing tags are found. These tags are all implied based off other tags on the object, but i will manually review these to look for any edge cases, as in testing these occured often.

Solar Panel Tags
generator:type=solar_photovoltaic_panel WITHOUT generator:source=solar
generator:type=solar_photovoltaic_panel WITHOUT generator:output:electricity=* (automated)
generator:type=solar_photovoltaic_panel WITHOUT power=generator
generator:type=solar_photovoltaic_panel WITHOUT generator:method=photovoltaic
generator:method=photovoltaic WITHOUT generator:type=solar_photovoltaic_panel
generator:method=photovoltaic WITHOUT generator:output:electricity=*
generator:method=photovoltaic WITHOUT generator:source=solar
generator:method=photovoltaic WITHOUT power=generator

Solar Power Plant Tags
plant:method=photovoltaic WITHOUT power=plant
plant:method=photovoltaic WITHOUT plant:output:electricity=yes
plant:source=solar WITHOUT power=plant

Then finally I would check for any generator tags on power plants
plant:method=photovoltaic WITHgenerator:source=solar

Per Automated Edits code of conduct - OpenStreetMap Wiki, please discuss any feedback or issues with this proposed change. If feedback is positive, I will create a wiki page and link it here before changing any tags. I plan to do this retagging one week after the last comment on this post if all concerns have been resolved.

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“voltaic” means “producing electricity” so this makes sense. However, what would be the disadvantage of assuming generator:output:electricity=yes as default with generator:type=solar_photovoltaic_panel and removing the unnecessary tag?

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The tag could be implied instead of being added to each object. Some objects have the actual output value of power generated instead of yes, which adds further detail. I wonder if this is why the tag wasn’t implied in the first case? Since the vast majority (96%) do have the generator:output:electricity=yes tag, i decided this would be the easier option to have consistency.

While generator:output:electricity=yes could instead be removed from all objects with generator:type=solar_photovoltaic_panel this would create millions of changes removing tags that do still add detail even if somewhat redundant. This tag is already in use by data consumers such as Open Infastructure Map and is included in solar panel presets by most major editing software currently (JOSM, ID, Vespucci, OsmAnd. This tag, and by extention the yes value was added by community vote, going this route would mean needing a new proposal as well as getting all editors to update their presets, wiki guidance to be updated to remove this recommendation, and data consumers to change how they use the data.

I don’t mind either way what the outcome is, but going this route seemed to align better with the communities goals, and result in fewer changes.

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