The new solar map and dataset include the rapidly growing solar power markets of India, Australia, and Japan.
“As these regions begin developing their abundant solar resource, it is critical that they fully understand both the long-term potential and inherent variability of the resource,” said Kenneth Westrick, founder and ceo of 3TIER, a renewable energy information services company.
“Our assessment technology provides the solar irradiance and atmospheric information that is required to make solar power a viable alternative".
India is a good example of a region with tremendous solar potential, Westrick said, adding that there is more spatial variability than one might expect, and that the monsoon and other seasonal effects will greatly impact solar power production throughout the year. "Our solar dataset captures these variances, and when we integrate wind and temperature data, you start to see significant differences in long-term energy output between locations
that are just a few kilometers apart.”
3TIER's geographical additions to the solar map and dataset are another important milestone in its “REmapping the World” initiative, a global effort intended to accelerate the adoption and integration of renewable energy worldwide. In January 2009, the company became the first to map the world’s wind resources at a high resolution, and will complete the mapping of global small hydro resources in 2010.