Solar power has the unique advantage of being installable just about anywhere, as long as there is available space for panels and an ample supply of sunlight for them to capture. The nation’s leading state for solar, California, is known for its sunshine. Dedicating space for panels can be more complicated.

A recent analysis of three counties in California identifies a vast untapped land resource for the placement of solar panels in an unlikely location: along highway shoulders.

Environment California Research & Policy Center, a nonprofit that focuses on green solutions, reports on a recent study of Ventura, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, all in Southern California.

The research finds that focusing on roadside shoulders alone, the three counties combined have more than 4,800 acres of suitable space to develop solar power. Panels covering those areas would add up to 960 megawatts of clean energy capacity and generate an estimated 1,960.9 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. That would represent enough electricity to power over 270,000 homes annually.

The study was conducted by The Ray, a Georgia-based nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of sustainable transportation infrastructure. The group used a national mapping tool for highway solar developed by Esri, a California-based geographic information system software company. The California research studied data from the California Department of Transportation.

The Ray’s research does not only focus on California. The group finds that the lower 48 states have over 52,000 acres of empty roadside land at interstate exits suitable for solar energy development, and placing solar panels in these locations could generate up to 36 terawatt-hours a year.

According to The Ray, to date, several states have already developed “solar highway” projects, including Oregon, Massachusetts, Maryland and Georgia.