CSP World

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has announced at its annual general assembly held on January 13 and 14, the Global Atlas of renewable energy goes live.

The Global Atlas is an open-access platform to share data of renewable energy resources -solar radiation, wind speed, ...- from technical institutes and private companies to help countries assess their renewable energy potential. The atlas currently shows solar and wind data, but it will be expanded to more renewable sources over 2013 and 2014.

According to the press release “the platform is designed to raise awareness of the world’s renewable energy potential, and to help companies looking to invest in new markets”.

Regarding Concentrated Solar Power, the map shows different layers of Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) form several sources –NREL, HC3Map, Masdar, SUNY, DLR, ECREEE, INPE- but they are not displayed with the same color scheme and scales, what makes it a bit hard to compare data when using different layers.

Alongside with solar resource layers, there are others that display protected areas, infrastructures, cities, etc. to help assessing potential locations for new CSP deployment.

"In the next 10 years we expect a huge rise in the investments in renewable energy. The Global Solar and Wind Atlas will help us make the right decisions", says Martin Lidegaard, Danish Minister of Climate, Energy and Building, and President of the 3rd session of the IRENA Assembly.

Adnan Z. Amin, IRENA Director-General has stated “the Global Atlas provides a powerful new tool in international efforts to double the world’s share of renewable energy by 2030,” and referred to the countries taking part in the project as a “clear sign of our growing political will to transition to clean, renewable energy.”

The global Atlas Statement was signed during the 3rd Clean Energy Ministerial in April 2012 in London by 13 countries, now there are 37 countries involved in the initiative after 24 countries have joined the same day it has been released. The number of signatories on the launch day exceeded earlier expectations, offering “a clear sign of the political will for the transition to clean, renewable energy”, said Adnan Z. Amin.

The Global Atlas website is: http://irena.org/GlobalAtlas/