Launch of the IRENA's Global Solar and Wind Atlas

Dear Madam,
Dear Sir,

We are very glad to announce the launch of the Global Solar and Wind Atlas during the last IRENA Assembly, on January 13th. The objective of this initiative is to bridge the gap between countries having access to the necessary expertise and information for evaluating their renewable energy potentials, and the countries deprived of those elements. The initiative supports the increased expansion of the renewable energy technologies. The partnership was expanded on the occasion of the third IRENA assembly, and now directly involves 39 countries.

The portal is available at: www.irena.org/GlobalAtlas. 20,000 visitors already explored the web-portal over the last week.

The project video can be accessed directly at: http://youtu.be/mZMfqQcYYyc

• The portal gives access to the online GIS interface, to view and manipulate hundreds of solar and wind resource maps registered in the Data catalogue of the initiative.
• The online video tutorials teach the end-users to create their own interactive map of solar and wind potentials, and prospect their local resources.
• A dedicated learning section highlights the best practices on evaluating solar and wind potentials. It gives access to end-user feedbacks, and country case studies.
• The end-user network is expanding, and we are glad to welcome additional interested users at potentials@irena.org

In 2013, the Solar and Wind component of the Atlas will be expanded to include expert analysis modules, beyond the current available tools. The initiative will progressively include geothermal, hydropower and bioenergy through external partnerships.

Your feedback is most welcome: potentials@irena.org

Would you wish to link to the GlobalAtlas initiative, a widget allows you to embed the launcher to your own website (http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/global-atlas-launcher?wbx.refer=1&wbx.refer.instId=c910966c-8056-4818-bfb5-f4be858c99d5&wbx.refer.targetRegId=aa6a00cb-1b19-4d51-a804-10212008fe76&wbx.refer.pn=code&wbx.refer.location=http%3A//en.openei.org/wiki/IRENA_Global_Atlas)

Best regards,

IRENA potentials.