3Tier, an independent provider of assessment and forecasting of
renewable energy, today released what it says is the first
comprehensive, contiguous and high-resolution solar map for the entire
Western Hemisphere.
Similar to 3Tier’s high-resolution wind maps, which the company made publicly available in March 2008, the clickable solar map is
available online for free through the FirstLook Prospecting
tool on the 3Tier website.
The company said this map will allow
policy-makers, developers and financiers to quickly identify potential
sites and begin assessing their renewable energy potential.
"To produce this map, 3Tier developed a dataset that is
approximately three times the resolution of existing industry solar
data standards for the United States," said Kenneth Westrick, 3Tier CEO
and founder of the Seattle-based company. "This is the first and only
database of the solar resource that covers all of North, Central and
South America."
The solar map is based on 11 years of half-hourly high resolution
(roughly 1 km) visible satellite imagery that has been processed to
create 11 years of hourly values of Global Horizontal Irradiation
(GHI), Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) and Diffuse Irradiation (DI) at
a horizontal resolution of roughly three kilometers.
"Development of this solar map is another important milestone in 3Tier’s ‘REmapping the World TM‘
initiative, which is intended to accelerate the adoption and
integration of renewable energies worldwide," Westrick said. "If we
want developing nations to ‘leapfrog’ over fossil fuels, they need
information about what renewable energy resources or combination of
resources exist. REmapping the World is a sophisticated mapping
technology initiative to show where renewable resources are, and change
the way we look at the world’s energy production options."
Based on this solar
dataset, 3Tier customers can purchase basic or comprehensive reports
that contain more detailed solar site analyses.
"With the solar market rapidly expanding in North, Central and
South American markets, developers are looking for the quickest way to
prospect solar sites and choose the best locations for optimum energy
production," Westrick said. "Our reports make it faster and more
cost-effective for developers to evaluate potential solar projects and
make capital investments in solar energy generation."
Over the coming months, 3Tier plans to continue to map solar
resources, country by country, based upon a priority order that takes
into account such issues as solar development policies, availability of
the sun and economic development status.
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