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The Renewable Energy Explorer (RE Explorer) portal

11am, March 22nd, 2017

The RE Explorer portal provides renewable energy data, analytical tools, and technical assistance to developers, policymakers, and decision makers in developing countries.

Accurate renewable energy resource data and other geographic information system (GIS) data sets can facilitate smart decision-making and enables ambitious, cost-effective, and achievable outcomes for integrating renewable energy into grids or in general power sector planning.

The RE Data Explorer is the RE Explorer’s flagship geospatial analysis tool for renewable energy development. Developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development Enhancing Capacity for LEDS (EC-LEDS) program, the RE Data Explorer performs visualization analysis of renewable energy potential under user-defined scenarios.

Using the RE Explorer, a practitioner can:

  • Identify the renewable resources of a chosen area in terms of solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and hydropower
  • Visualize the environmental barriers in that area with respect to elevation, land use, protected areas, rivers, and lakes
  • Check the infrastructure of the area with key information on railroads, cities, airports, roads, and provincial boundaries
  • Use various other GIS layers such as weather data, population density, and existing transmission lines to inform prospecting, integrated planning, and policymaking and accelerate renewable energy deployment.

RE Data Explorer tools are available for:

Access the portal here

Photo: Centre for Alternative Technology

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