Solar Wined Energy Resource Assessment
The Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) initiative brings together solar and wind energy resource data sets and analysis tools from a number of international organizations in a dynamic user-oriented environment to provide information and data to support the work of policy makers, project planners, research analysts and investors. SWERA began as a pilot project with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and was managed by the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) in collaboration with more than 25 partners around the world. The U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory is the prime developer of the SWERA analysis tools and maintains SWERA services through its OPEN EI linked open data platform.
The primary applications of SWERA data sets and analysis tools at the Institute will be utilized to provide Work-Learning-Services in geospatial data-based mapping for SE4ALL sovereign member nations in ways that will (1) facilitate changes in renewable energy policies, (2) increase investments under the SE4ALL Initiative, including sovereign funds and private sector (equity and/or debt) financing, and (3) result in more effective planning and implementation of public-private partnerships (PPPs).
The primary applications of SWERA data sets and analysis tools at the Institute will be utilized to provide Work-Learning-Services in geospatial data-based mapping for SE4ALL sovereign member nations in ways that will (1) facilitate changes in renewable energy policies, (2) increase investments under the SE4ALL Initiative, including sovereign funds and private sector (equity and/or debt) financing, and (3) result in more effective planning and implementation of public-private partnerships (PPPs).
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Users can start from the SWERA home page to assess renewable energy data available for their country. Begin by clicking on the SWERA icon next to "Getting Started" and then clicking on a geographic location of interest on the map displayed. Clicking a country on the map will present the user with the option to view that country's profile in OpenEI or open the OpenCarto GIS analysis tool, allowing the user to search, visualize and explore the data. The tool provides a legend display for data searching, meta data information, detailed resource information provision at click, temporal graphing capabilities and the ability to change layer transparency and drawing order.
(Click on the image below to access the SWERA Database Services Home Page powered by Open EI.)
The Work-Learning-Service products for client nations of the Institute are the construction, maintenance, training and support for the geospatial-based energy information services that can be aggregated on a country-dedicated SWERA Database for multi-sector decision support services for national-scale transition to a low-carbon economy.
In the example of the SWERA Database for the Republic of Turkey (below) various data "layers" can be selected - cities, airports, power plants, transmission lines, roads, railways, direct solar (solar insolation) and others, such as listed below. Additional customized layers can be added. Users can then display layers to conduct rudimentary (or detailed) analysis relevant to policy, planning and/or investment.
For example, a wind power developer or electric utility company way want to conduct analysis by displaying the location of high value wind resources with respect to urban power markets, and to assess preliminary costs associated with building roadway and transmission line infrastructure costs to alternative wind power sites. The map below shows elevation as a single layer.
In the example of the SWERA Database for the Republic of Turkey (below) various data "layers" can be selected - cities, airports, power plants, transmission lines, roads, railways, direct solar (solar insolation) and others, such as listed below. Additional customized layers can be added. Users can then display layers to conduct rudimentary (or detailed) analysis relevant to policy, planning and/or investment.
For example, a wind power developer or electric utility company way want to conduct analysis by displaying the location of high value wind resources with respect to urban power markets, and to assess preliminary costs associated with building roadway and transmission line infrastructure costs to alternative wind power sites. The map below shows elevation as a single layer.
(Click on image below to enlarge.)
The SWERA Database incorporates a number of software applications or toolkits. The include OpenCarto, HOMER and GsT:
- OpenCarto houses the SWERA web based GIS application and provides the tools and data to support a variety of user communities in both small and large project planning, feasibility assessment, policy making, and decision support. The interface is designed to support collaboration across industries, geography, and research domains by providing interoperability between a wide range of data types and data sources.
- HOMER is used for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaics, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs. HOMER's optimization and sensitivity analysis algorithms allow the user to evaluate the economic and technical feasibility of a large number of technology options and to account for variation in technology costs and energy resource availability, and simulates both conventional and renewable energy technologies to find the least cost combination of components that meets electrical and thermal loads. It simulates the operation of a system by making energy balance calculations for each of the 8,760 hours in a year. After simulating all of the possible system configurations, HOMER displays a list of feasible systems, sorted by lifecycle cost. You can also perform a sensitivity analysis on most inputs to examine the effect of changes in the value on the results.
- The Geospatial Toolkit (GsT) is an NREL-developed map-based software application that integrates resource data and other geographic information systems (GIS) data for integrated resource assessment. The non-resource, country-specific data for each GsT comes from a variety of agencies within each country as well as from global datasets.
The technology backbone of SWERA is the Open EI (Open Energy Information) Open Data Platform. Open EI provides a limitless capacity to aggregate data and conduct macro analysis of national-scale energy services and socioeconomic and environmental data, which can then be utilized across plant to the Institutes Sankey Analysis and/or Systems Dynamic (SD) Modeling services.
Introduction to the Open EI Open Data Platform
(Click on image below to view video.)
(Click on image below to view video.)
The Institute will partner with NREL to through the U.S.-China Renewable Energy Partnership (USCREP) to provide SWERA
Documents:
| openei.fact.sheet.pdf |