World First: Global Atlas in Renewable Energy Goes Public

This past Sunday, governments and businesspeople who wish to invest in harvesting green energy sources were glad to hear that the International Renewable Energy Agency finally launched its open-access global atlas concerning the distribution of environmentally friendly energies across the world.

The researchers who worked on developing this first-of-its-kind global atlas explain that, for the time being, only wind and solar power have been thoroughly documented and included in it.

However, it is their hope that it will not be long until other types of renewables will also make their way into this atlas, and that this will translate into green-energy projects becoming much more reliable than they currently are.

“The Global Atlas is the comprehensive information platform on the potential of renewable energy. It provides resource maps from leading technical institutes worldwide and tools for evaluating the technical potential of renewable energies,” reads the International Renewable Energy Agency's (IRENA) description of this global atlas.

Furthermore, “It can function as a catalyst for policy development and energy planning, and can support investors in entering renewable energy markets.”

What IRENA means is that, with the help of this atlas, those wishing to invest in harvesting renewables will be able to access information concerning where such resources are located in a fairly easy manner.

As well as this, the atlas will allow them to figure out just how much energy can be generated by setting up wind turbines and/or solar panels in various areas across the globe.

Lastly, the atlas is meant to provide answers to questions having to do with a potential market for such green energy sources.

“The Global Atlas integrates all aspects and information needed, from resources to potential and includes accompanying information such as socio-economic data, policies and support mechanisms, and infrastructure data,” IRENA wished to emphasize.

It is to be expected that, over the course of the following years, this global atlas will continue to expand.