Funding Organisation: Global Environmental Facility of the World Bank (GEF)
Cooperation:
United Nations Environment Programme/Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (UNEP/DTIE) (Co-ordination)
Bangladesh: Renewable Energy Research Centre
Brazil: INPE-The National Institute for Space Research, Brazilian Wind Energy Centre, LABSOLAR-Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
China: Center for Renewable Energy Development
Cuba: Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnologia
Denmark: Risø National Laboratory
El Salvador: Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales
Ethiopia: Ethiopian Energy Development Centre
Germany: German Aerospace Center
Ghana: Ministry of Mines and Energy
Guatemala: Energia y Minas
Honduras: Ministra de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente
India: Tata Energy Research Institute
Kenya: Ministry of Energy
Nepal: Centre for Energy Studies
Nicaragua: Ministerio del Ambiente y Recuros Naturales
Sri Lanka: National Engineering Research and Development Centre
USA: SUNY-State University of New York, NREL-National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Duration: July 2001 to June 2004
Contact: Dr. Christoph Schillings
Background:
The project SWERA will provide solar and wind resource data and geographic information assessment tools to public and private sector executives who are involved in energy market development. It will demonstrate the use of these instruments in investment and policy decision making and build local capacities for their continuous use. The project will enable private investors and public policy makers to assess the technical, economic and environmental potential for large-scale investments in technologies that enable the exploitation of two increasingly important sources of renewable energy. During this pilot project, tools for analysis and use of resource information will be developed, a global archive and review mechanism will be initiated, regional/national solar and wind resource maps generated and national assessment demonstrations performed. The overall goal is to promote the integration of wind and solar alternatives in national and regional energy planning and sector restructuring as well as related policy making. The project will enable informed decision making and enhance the ability of participating governments to attract increased investor interest in renewable energy. Thirteen countries will be directly involved in the pilot stage of the project. Global and regional maps will be available to all developing countries.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) will provide high resolution solar maps of the Direct Normal Irradiation. This is particularly important for concentrating solar power collectors. DLR will work with SUNY and INPE/LABSOLAR to integrate their high-resolution horizontal total radiation model. DLR and TERI will jointly execute the South Asian mapping using INSAT and METEOSAT-5 data. DLR will provide advice to national executing agencies and stakeholders on their activities and assist in the comparison of measurements and different mapping models.
The final DLR-report can be found here (in pdf).