Google Map Gallery and 3TIER Making Wind and Solar Data Sets Available for Free
March 06, 2014
By Michael Guta, TMCnet Contributing Writer
Clean renewable energy or green energy provides an alternative to fossil fuels that have been polluting the planet since the industrial revolution. The biggest impact being witnessed today in the world with the naked eye is many of the cities in China. With pollution levels of 50 or more times than what is acceptable many days out of the year, the country is facing a crisis that is killing 500,000 people or more every year. Using renewable energy is one way in which China and the rest of the world can make the air we breathe much more tolerable.
Accessing global solar and wind resources so they can be used efficiently requires expertise from organizations that are able to assess and forecast their availability. A new collaboration between Google (News - Alert) and 3TIER, a company specializing in renewable energy assessment and forecasting, will provide the public with the wind and solar annual averages as part of Google's Map Gallery.
This data intensive solution was previously available only to large institutions and government entities. With this partnership, public and private organizations will now be able to access this information from a reliable and consistent source. This type of information is used by many different sectors to make critical decisions to develop infrastructure, plan policies, implement conservation initiatives, agriculture and energy development.
The platform can also be used by researchers, not-for-profit organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and public entities which in the past could not access this data because of the expense attached to acquiring it.
The services 3TIER provides are used by the largest utility scale developers, operators and financing partners around the world to make the best informed decision when it comes to establishing infrastructure that needs to harness solar or wind energy as well as taking preventative measures for other projects. The information it provides is used to:
- Structure long-term energy agreements, trades, and hedges
- Perform financial and portfolio analysis
- Reconcile wind performance and deviation
- Optimize and integrate assets
- Plan for climate anomalies
The data sets 3TIER provides include annual average values that have been generated using accepted scientific methodologies from long-term historical weather models of a decade or more at high spatial and temporal resolutions. This includes the availability of source data sets with hour-by-hour information with resolutions that are 3 to 30 times higher than publicly available data sources.
Edited by Cassandra Tucker