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Identifying
and screening renewable energy projects
Do you know how to identify wind resource potential in your consumer-owned utility service territory and which wind technologies are best
for your wind resources? Do you know how to determine the cost of a
kWh of wind for specific project? Do you know how to evaluate which
roofs are best suited for solar energy applications or which buildings
have the best passive and active solar opportunities? Do you know how
to evaluate the biomass and geothermal resource potential in your utility
service territory? Public Renewables Partnership has collected the best
resources for your consumer-owned utility to use in evaluating renewable
resource potential and technology application.
General renewables
- Clean
Power Estimator is an economic evaluation
software program the California Energy Commission
is licensing for use from Clean
Power Research. The program provides California residential and
commercial electric customers a personalized estimate of the costs and
benefits of investing in a photovoltaic solar or small wind electric
generation system.
- Data
Synthesizer (Beta). Download the test version of the Wind/Solar/Load
data synthesizer.
- The
DOE Office of Building Technology, State and Community Program has
descriptions of 265 energy-related software tools for buildings, with
an emphasis on using renewable energy and achieving energy efficiency
and sustainability in buildings.
- Energy
Atlas of the West
- Focus on Energy's Resource Evaluation
Tools site provides energy production calculators and software resources.
- The Federal
Renewable Energy Screening Assistant Version 2.5 allows energy auditors
in the DOE SAVEnergy Program to quickly evaluate renewable energy opportunities
and energy systems options for possible inclusion in a facility's energy
program. The program is a supplement to the energy and water conservation
audits that will be completed for all Federal buildings and will flag
renewable energy opportunities by facilitating the evaluation and ranking
process.
- Focus on
Energy’s Resource Evaluation Tools site provides energy production
calculators and software resources.
- The GREENTIE Project
Broker Facility is a tool to help you source appropriate supplier
organizations for your clean energy project from the GREENTIE Directory.
The Directory contains information on over 5,000 suppliers around the
world whose clean energy technologies help to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. The Broker takes you through a step-by-step process, designed
to gather information about your project and requirements, and then
matching them to the most appropriate organizations who may be able
to help you out. The Broker then allows you to send information to those
suppliers it finds to match your project profile.
- Guide to
Tribal Energy Development
- How
do I use Renewable
Energy in my Region (pdf)
- Job
and Economic Development Impact Model
- Renewable Electric Plant
Information System
- Renewable Energy Atlas of the
West
- Renewable Energy Project Locator
- Renewable GIS information
- RETFinance
is used to calculate cost of energy of biomass, geothermal, solar, and
wind based on modifiable project assumptions; the program also allows
users to store and change multiple projects.
- RETScreen International is used
to analyze the technical and financial viability of renewable energy
projects. These tools make it easier for stakeholders to consider the
financial feasibility of renewable energy projects at the critically
important initial planning stage while significantly reducing the costs
of assessing potential projects. Some of the enabling tools include
renewable energy project analysis software models and manuals; international
product and weather databases; project case studies; and university
textbooks. RETScreen assesses both large and small scale, on-grid and
off-grid wind, photovoltaic, small hydro, solar thermal, passive solar,
biomass heating and ground source heat pumps.
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Distributed generation
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Geothermal
- California and Nevada "New" Geothermal Resource Assessment Report
- Developing Geothermal Energy Projects in the U.S.
- Energy
Atlas of the West
- The Federal Process: Geothermal Resources in the United States
An information resource for developing geothermal projects on federal land.
- Financing
Geothermal Development from Geothermal-biz.com takes a look at types of geothermal projects, direct use costs, electricity
generation costs, financing challenges, sources of financing, state
and federal incentives.
- Geocommunicator is a publication site for the Bureau of Land Management's National Integrated Land System transaction applications (Survey Management, Measurement Management, and Parcel Management). It provides searching, accessing and dynamic mapping of data for federal land stewardship, land and mineral use records from BLM's LR2000 and land survey information.
- Geothermal
resource maps have been developed by the
U.S. Department of Energy to assist state's,
utilities and others, interested in identifying
geothermal resource potential for use in
power generation and direct use applications.
- Software
for Analyzing Geothermal Direct Use System
Economics
- US Geothermal Projects and
Resource Areas
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Green power
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Greenhouse gas
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Hydropower
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Solar (photovoltaic)
- Energy
Atlas of the West
- The purpose of A
Guide to Photovoltaic System Design and Installation is to provide
tools and guidelines for the installer to help ensure that residential
photovoltaic power systems are properly specified and installed, resulting
in a system that operates to its design potential. This document sets
out key criteria that describe a quality system, and key design and
installation considerations that should be met to achieve this goal.
This document deals with systems located on residences that are connected
to utility power, and does not address the special issues of homes that
are remote from utility power.
- For more information on connecting solar to the grid, see the Grid-connected
PV Page.
- PVWATTS calculates electrical energy produced by a grid-connected photovoltaic
system. Currently, PVWATTS can be used for locations within the United
States and its territories.
- Photovoltaics Economics Calculator
- Solar Programs Options Tool (SPOT)
The Solar Electric Power Association's online evaluation tool that recommends and prioritizes solar electricity options for electric utilities.
- Sustainable
By Design provides
a suite of shareware
tools to aid with
solar design and
building-energy analysis.
- For
more information
on solar resource assessment,
see Solar
Resource Page
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Wind
- Energy
Atlas of the West
- Wind
Engineering Mini Codes. Download the collection of mini codes related
to Wind Power Engineering
- WindScreen3.
Download the wind/diesel systems screening model
- The Utility Wind Resource
Assessment Program database was prepared by the Utility Wind Interest
Group to technically and financially support utilities conducting wind
resource assessments.
- The Union of concerned Scientists has produced Assessing
Wind Resources: A Guide for Landowners, Project Developers, and
Power Suppliers that is intended to guide developers through the process
of site assessment. It provides practical information on how to develop
reliable estimates of the wind resource and electricity production at
a given site. This includes information on how to measure wind speeds
and direction; how to qualify your land's potential for wind projects;
how certain variables affect wind production costs and return on investment;
what information is typically needed by banks and investors to finance
a project; and where to look for additional information.
Wind Power Map.org's Northwestern
United States Wind Mapping Project new high-resolution, state-of-the-art
maps of wind energy potential are now available for the Northwest. Resource
estimates are easily accessible to the public through an interactive
Geographic Information System website. Maps are provided at state, county
and utility scale.
- TrueWind Solutions provides state
wind resource maps.
- US Wind Power Projects
- The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Wind
Project Finance Calculator allows users to create new (or modify
an existing) project by entering values for numerous assumptions step-by-step,
until enough information has been entered to calculate the project's
cost of electricity.
- Windustry's Wind
Project Calculator was developed to assist farm owners and operators
in evaluating the economics of installing a wind turbine on their farms
to provide electricity for the farm and home. Windustry also provides
a directory of national
wind maps resources.
- The National Wind Coordinating Committee has produced a report Guidelines
for Assessing the Economic Development
Impacts of Wind Power designed
to guide the assessment of the economic impacts
of wind power development. The purpose of
the guidelines is to identify the most important
factors that should be considered in economic
impact analyses of wind power development
as well as to provide a consistent basis
for comparing the impacts across studies.
- The Iowa
Department of Natural Resources wind programs website provides a
number of reports on wind power including, "Wind Analysis Guidelines",
"Analysis of Delivering Wind Energy to High Load Centers in the
Midwest", and "Wind Hybrid Study."
- Recognizing the emerging popularity of wind as a distributed generation
application, the Utility Wind Interest Group has organized this effort
to assess the impacts of small-scale wind generation on utility distribution
networks. The primary goal of the Distributed
Wind Impacts Project is the development of a set of tools to aid
utility distribution and planning engineers in analyzing wind generation
at the distribution system level. The tools consist of technical information
resources and a set of engineering software application tools.
- The Utility Wind Interest Group has released
a summary report, Wind
Power Impacts on Electric-Power-System Operating
Costs,
which includes results from studies conducted
on the power systems of Xcel Energy, Bonneville
Power Administration, PJM, We energies and
others. The study results, which are linked
to the penetration of wind on a given system,
show a range of $1.47/MWh for 7 percent penetration
in BPA's system to a high of $5.50/MWh for
much higher penetration of 20 percent in
PacifiCorp's system. The report also addresses
integration issues that still warrant investigation.
- AWEA's small
wind toolbox is a resource for individuals seeking to install a
small wind energy system and for individuals, policy makers, or others
interested in improving opportunities for small wind energy use.
- For more information on wind resource assessment,
see Wind
Resource Page.
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