With funding from USAID and in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh, NREL led an assessment with in-country partners to quantify the wind resources in Bangladesh. Beginning in 2011, the Bangladesh Wind Resource Mapping Project included collecting multiyear wind measurements and validating a wind modeling effort for high-quality nationwide wind estimation at various hub heights. Results from the project include a long-term, correlated wind data set; validated high-resolution wind resource maps, and data from all nine meteorological sites available through the RE Data Explorer. Bangladesh is active in solar development, primarily behind the meter, but has only negligible wind energy generation. With advances in turbine technology (e.g., larger towers and rotor diameters), designed specifically for class III wind sites such as those in Bangladesh, wind may contribute to meeting the nation's clean energy targets through utility-scale wind power development, especially in coastal regions. The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority, a branch of the Government of Bangladesh's Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources, will be using the RE Data Explorer to examine the potential for wind power, represented geospatially. This data may also inform decision making for wind energy developers, investors, transmission planners, and policymakers while reducing the uncertainty associated with high-level wind speed estimations. Other entities that are anticipated to use the RE Data Explorer to aid integration and planning include the Bangladesh Power Development Board and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh. To learn more about how RE Data Explorer is enabling wind energy development in Bangladesh, read the report.
NREL collaborated with the Government of Haiti to conduct analysis and visualization of renewable energy potential. The output created user defined scenarios to inform prospecting, integrated planning, and policymaking to accelerate renewable energy deployment. RE Data Explorer is used to inform renewable energy investments under regional concessions and broader energy sector planning and target setting. For more information, view the training webinar in English and French.
Through the United States–India Strategic Energy Partnership that brings together several Indian technical institutions, including The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), the National Wind Energy Institute (NIWE) as well as U.S. national laboratories, the RE Data Explorer is supporting renewable energy economic potential analyses that can inform development of renewable portfolio standards at the subnational level, assist companies and researchers in modeling solar and wind growth, and inform the broader policy framework around clean energy. Data sets include high spatial and temporal resolution of wind and solar data, which was created for a renewable energy integration study of India and has been used in follow on work to help understand the impact of 2030 RE targets, cross-border electricity trade in the region and state-level planning of the power system. Solar data is available for 2000-2019, with recent updates to the period from 2017-2019 using state-of-the-art methods. For more information on the recent solar data updates, read the fact sheet.
In partnership with the government of Lao PDR, NREL and USAID supported a project called the Energy Alternatives Study for the Lao PDR, which provided the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) with improved tools, data, and analytical capabilities to inform their energy planning through 2030. MEM staff participated in collecting and analyzing energy resource and technology data, aiding MEM's ability to evaluate and compare future energy project development and infrastructure planning opportunities. The RE Data Explorer is used by MEM to support continuing projects, such as highlighting the potential for solar resources to complement existing hydropower to meet domestic demand, as well as to identify potential electricity export and import strategies. To learn more, read the report.
USAID and NREL are collaborating with the Secretary of Energy (SENER) to develop the RE Data Explorer, which will support various energy policy decisions, system operator modeling, and private sector prospecting and investment. SENER and NREL are also partnering with several technical institutions to provide important data layers such as the location of protected lands, political boundaries, and transportation infrastructure. The RE Data Explorer is assessing the technical and economic potential for wind and solar technologies in Mexico and has helped in the analysis of Renewable Energy Zones for potential transmission sites. The RE Data Explorer helps Mexican states understand the potential for energy reform through renewable energy project development stemming from auctions or through state programs.
REDE will be used in Morocco to explore options for deployment of renewable energy projects to reach Morocco's goal of 52% RE by 2030. This incredibly ambitious goal will require tools to rapidly screen resources and projects to make deployment decisions. REDE provides a first-cut tool to enable this screening.
The RE Data Explorer includes solar and wind data from several sources—including NREL and the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP)—as well as modeled levelized cost of energy in geospatial representation. This data was requested by the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), an agency under the Government of Pakistan's Ministry of Water and Power. The tool is used by the AEDB and other government stakeholders to inform policy and guide efforts to meet government targets for alternative and renewable energies at an accelerated rate, including analysis of possibly creating new renewable energy zones. The wind and solar resource data are useful when overlaid with infrastructure layers, such as transmission, because resources in Pakistan are highly concentrated in a few areas located far from load centers. The RE Data Explorer provides a helpful geographic representation to developers, investors, transmission planners, policymakers, and other stakeholders for integrated renewable energy planning.
The RE Data Explorer has allowed the government of Peru to understand the technical and economic potential of renewable energy resources for specific locations or regions; informed policy and investment decisions through accurate data and analysis; and has helped set renewable energy goals that are realistic and obtainable, yet adequately ambitious. While NREL and the Bureau of Energy Resources at the Department of State teams were primarily responsible for the analysis of Peru's first use of the RE Data Explorer, NREL will deliver further training that will enable the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) to conduct its own analyses moving forward. This capability will help Peru make future energy policy decisions based on data, while also helping to incentivize renewable energy auctions that are informed by the RE Data Explorer's data, resulting in both increased investor activity and the likelihood of project completion. To learn more about how RE Data Explorer was used to calculate the technical potential of photovoltaic and concentrating solar power technologies in Peru, read the fact sheet.
In 2015, USAID and the Philippines Department of Energy (PDOE) launched the Wind Atlas for the Philippines, a state-of-the-art, four-terabyte data set providing accurate maps and other data to support the public and private sector in identifying ideal wind power development areas. This large data set, along with geospatial data delineating terrain, infrastructure, land use, and other project development considerations, was incorporated for visualization, analysis, and download via the RE Data Explorer. Building on this investment, the PDOE and USAID co-chaired development of a Solar and Wind Grid Integration Study for the Luzon and Visayas regions. Using the detailed wind data available in the RE Data Explorer as a basis for simulating power system operations with 30% and 50% renewable energy penetration by 2030, the study provided evidence that these high renewable energy targets are technically feasible.
Currently, USAID and PDOE are using the data and capabilities in the RE Data Explorer to identify study areas for Renewable Energy Zones, which are geographic areas characterized by high-quality renewable energy resources and suitable topography and land-use designations (among other factors) to support project development. To learn more, read the report.
Through the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Regional Connectivity Program, the RE Data Explorer was used to inform public and private investment in renewable energy projects. The NREL publication Capturing Inter-Annual Variability of PV Energy Production in South Asia, describes the results that are housed on the RE Data Explorer.
With funding from USAID through the and USAID-NREL Partnership and The Advanced Energy Partnership for Asia new high spatial (2-kilometer) and temporal (10-minute) resolution solar resource data is available for multiple years for the entire Southeast Asia region. This high fidelity renewable energy resource data can inform renewable energy policy, investment, and renewable energy deployment decisions at both the national and regional levels. In addition, the RE Data Explorer includes the capability to map the levelized cost of electricity of solar and wind resources based on regional techno-economic data. This capability provides a reference for policymakers as they design incentives and auctions, and for renewable energy project developers and investors as they screen potential areas for development. To learn more about how this high-fidelity solar resource data set can inform critical renewable energy decisions in Southeast Asia, watch the video.
Scaling up clean energy is an essential part of Vietnam's National Green Growth Strategy. Working with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Vietnam's Thanh Hoa province developed its own Green Growth Action Plan that seeks to reduce the province's greenhouse gas emissions by 14% by 2020 and 23% by 2030. These targets were developed using the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) System and NREL's Renewable Energy (RE) Data Explorer tool, which evaluated and identified locations for potential solar, wind, and biomass energy development. As policymakers begin implementing the Action Plan, new renewable energy investment opportunities are being catalyzed. Read more about how Vietnam advanced green growth.