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Global Atlas for Solar and Wind launched
an article by Clean Energy Ministerial

The groundbreaking Global Atlas for Solar and Wind is now available online. The new web-based portal, which serves as a repository for renewable energy resource data from around the world, represents the largest initiative ever undertaken to assess renewable energy potentials on a global scale. Launched during the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) January Assembly, the ambitious project was initiated by the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) Multilateral Solar and Wind Working Group and is the result of a two-year collaborative effort with IRENA.


The Global Atlas for Solar and Wind is a comprehensive resource to help countries evaluate renewable energy potentials.

click on photo to enlarge

The Atlas provides critical information that can help countries evaluate renewable energy potentials and can function as a catalyst to trigger planning and policy development. It can also help investors assess emerging and new renewable energy markets.

The portal features high-quality resource maps from leading technical institutes and simplified models for evaluating the technical potential of renewable energy supplies. It also contains video tutorials and information on best practices for evaluating solar and wind potentials.

“In the next 10 years we expect a huge rise in the investments in renewable energy. The Global Solar and Wind Atlas will help us make the right decisions,” said Martin Lidegaard, Danish Minister of Climate, Energy and Building and a member of the CEM Multilateral Solar and Wind Working Group.

The Multilateral Solar and Wind Working Group played a critical role in developing the Atlas, with working group countries contributing resources such as satellite maps, validated data sets of national atlases, and the expertise of their national research facilities. The working group, one of CEM’s 13 initiatives, works to promote the accelerated deployment of solar and wind technologies.

The Atlas will be expanded in 2013 to include solar and wind expert analysis modules. Geothermal, hydropower, and bioenergy content will also be added to the Atlas in the future.

The Atlas is available at www.res-atlas.org. A Global Atlas widget is also available and allows organizations to embed the launcher into their own website.

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LATEST READER COMMENT:

Annie Leonard: How to Be More than a Mindful Consumer

The way we make and use stuff is harming the world—and ourselves. To create a system that works, we can't just use our purchasing power. We must turn it into citizen power.

by Annie Leonard
posted Aug 22, 2013

   Stuff activist Annie Leonard: “Consumerism, even when it tries to embrace ‘sustainable’ products, is a set of values that teaches us to define ourselves, communicate our identity, and seek meaning through accumulation of stuff, rather than through our values and activities and our community.” YES! photo by Lane Hartwell.

Since I released "The Story of Stuff" six years ago, the most frequent snarky remark I get from people trying to take me down a notch is about my own stuff: Don't you drive a car? What about your computer and your cellphone? What about your books? (To the last one, I answer that the book was printed on paper made from trash, not trees, but that doesn't stop them from smiling smugly at having exposed me as a materialistic hypocrite. Gotcha!)

Let me say it clearly: I'm neither for nor against stuff. I like stuff if it's well-made, honestly marketed, used for a long time, and at the end of its life recycled in a way that doesn't trash the planet, poison people, or exploit workers. Our stuff should not be artifacts of indulgence and disposability, like toys that are forgotten 15 minutes after the wrapping comes off, but things that are both practical and meaningful. British philosopher William Morris said it best: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

Too many T-shirts

The life cycle of a simple cotton T-shirt—worldwide, 4 billion are made, sold, and discarded each year—knits together a chain of seemingly intractable problems, from the elusive definition of sustainable agriculture to the greed and classism of fashion marketing.

The story of a T-shirt not only gives us insight into the complexity of our relationship with even the simplest stuff; it also demonstrates why consumer activism—boycotting or avoiding products that don’t meet our personal standards for sustainability and fairness—will never be enough to bring about real and lasting change. Like a vast Venn diagram covering the entire planet, the environmental and social impacts of cheap T-shirts overlap and intersect on many layers, making it impossible to fix one without addressing the others.

I confess that my T-shirt drawer is so full it's hard to close. . ...more.


This report was posted on March 19, 2013.