This list of weblinks should help learners to get insights into energy markets and policies of different countries, to access energy data sets that are required for calculations and estimations and to get an overview on online tools that could help in different projects. The list is not complete, if you have any suggestions to add one or another link, please contact us.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership (196 Parties). The ultimate objective is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
The latest global agreement is the Paris Agreement from the COP21 (Conference of the Parties, 21st session).
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organisation that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future, and serves as the principal platform for international cooperation and a repository of policy, technology, resource and financial knowledge on renewable energy. One of the key products is the IRENA REsource, a data base on energy and renewable energy data including country profiles, regional and global data.
REN21 is a global renewable energy policy multi-stakeholder network. Their flagship products offered on their website are e.g.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) publishes on an annual basis the World Energy Outlook (WEO), which provides an outlook for fossil fuel energy markets, power markets, renewable energy and energy efficiency. Regional reports and factsheets are also available.
The summary of the 2019 issue is available in: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish
The oil and petrol company British Petroleum (BP) provides a comprehensive data collection on fossil, nuclear and renewable energy sources in their energy economics section of their website.
There is a download section with reports, data tables are available as Excel-files. An energy charting tool creates good visuals.
Agora Energiewende is a German think-tank and policy laboratory, developing scientifically based and politically feasible approaches for ensuring the success of the energy transition ("Energiewende").
The Federal German Network Agency ("Bundesnetzagentur" or BNetzA) is the public authority to supervise the power system, telecommunication among others. The implemented a website to provide insights to the current situation of the power system and the electricity market. For example, market data on the German power system is available including generation of different types of power plants, consumption, market prices, balancing power, export/import data etc. All data is licensed under CC-BY 4.0.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the leading research institution in the field of renewable energy for the USA. They provide interesting reports and studies which are also valuable from a global perspective.
The Fraunhofer Institut für Solare Energiesysteme (Fraunhofer ISE) is the leading research institution in the field of renewable energy for Europe. They provide interesting reports and studies which are also valuable from a global perspective.
The Clean Energy Solutions Center is aiming to assist countries with clean energy policies. For example, they offer no-cost training webinars on clean energy policy and finance topics for policymakers around the world. Many recorded webinars are also available on the Solutions Center's YouTube channel. The topics covered in those webinars include clean transport, energy access, energy efficiency, clean fossil energy and renewable energy.
ESMAP, the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program, is a global, multidonor technical assistance trust fund. It is administered by the World Bank and cosponsored by 13 official bilateral donors. It is active in the areas of energy access, energy efficiency and renewable energy. ESMAP has published various studies (political, financial etc.) and has developed a range of tools (assessment, financial analsys, mapping etc.).
The consulting company Ernst&Young (EY) has developed a Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) and published the top 40 countries of this Index according to their research in 2016. The Index considers parameters with regard to macro economics, political support and enforcement of RE, project delivery and technological potential.
The Global Atlas for Renewable Energy Source developed by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is a mapping tool that helps assessing energy yield and power generation potential for a certain country or area. You can identify suitable PV or wind farm locations given multiple constraints and the real wind / irradiation conditions.
The Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS), developed by the Joint Research Centre, Institute for Energy and Transport (European Union), contains static and interactive maps for geographical assessment of the solar resource and performance of photovoltaic technology. The focus is on Europe, Africa and Asia. Air temperature data is also provided.
The project Solar Med Atlas will bring high resolution (1 km), long term coverage (at least 15 years) data on the available resources for the whole target region covering the countries Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Tunisa, Algeria, Morocco, Palestine National Authority, Mauretania and Turkey. The resource data will be derived from Earth Observation satellite data and be validated with existing ground measurements in the region.
The Global Wind Atlas was developed by the Denmark Technical University (DTU), Department of Wind Energy and funded by the Danish Energy Agency Energy’s Technology Development and Demostration Programme (EUDP). It provides wind resource data and microscale modelling with a unified and transparent methodology. It can be used for aggregation, upscaling analysis and energy integration modelling for energy planners and policy makers.
The NASA Surface meteorology and Solar Energy (NASA SSE) website is a platform providing data sets for particular locations as well as global data sets. There is also data available to be used in the tool called "Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables" (HOMER) or in the software RETscreen.
The Global RE opportunity tool developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) enables quick, intuitive analysis and visualization of the technical potential, economic opportunity, and market size for a variety of renewable energy technologies (e.g. solar, wind, biomass, geothermal) as well as hydrogen and transportation technologies.
The Energy Toolkit 2.0 is a collection of leading instruments and methodologies for climate-compatible energy planning, offering energy practitioners, policymakers, and experts a quick reference guide to some of the best-established instruments available at no or low cost. The result is a compilation of 26 tools from agencies around the world.The toolkit was produced as a team effort with the many members of the Low-Emissions Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP), in particular its Energy Working Group (LEDS EWG).
Agora Energiewende, a German think-tank and policy laboratory, hosts the "Agorameter", an interactive chart that tracks changes in power consumption as well as in the production of power from conventional and renewable sources.
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) represents 42 electricity transmission system operators (TSOs) from 35 countries across Europe. Its transparency platform provides data on power generation, transmission and consumption as well as information on balancing, outages and congestion management for the European grid.
The Hybrid Optimization of Mutiple Energy Resources (HOMER) model is a tool for microgrid optimization, used to design and size small-scale grids. The tool can handle a variety of renewable energy sources, loads and grid types. The software can use real data sets and a detailed analysis of results is possible.
The Renewable Energy Mini-Grid Policy Toolkit developed by the EU Energy Initiative Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI PDF) consists of an elaborate report on policy and business frameworks on successful mini-grid roll-outs. It comes as a manual for policy-level decision-makers and senior technical staff in developing countries and supports them in shaping up the policy and regulatory framework for rural electrification through renewable energy or hybrid mini-grids.
The RETScreen Clean Energy Management Software helps decision-makers quickly and inexpensively to determine the technical and financial viability of potential clean energy projects, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and cogeneration. The software was developed by the Government of Canada with the support of REEEP, IESO, NASA, UNEP and the World Bank. The viewer mode is free of costs.
Planning tool developed by Lars Koerner to enable accurate and customer-oriented photovoltaic projects. The tool includes energy efficiency evaluation, an integraded NASA, SSE or PVGIS web interface and a database of modifiable standard industry components. It is possible to design DC-/AC coupled (hybrid) systems or a mix of both.
Estimates the energy production and cost of energy of grid-connected photovoltaic energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations.
This calculation tool allows to design different PV systems like grid-connect, off-grid and hybrid- PV systems all over the world.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) covers energy efficiency topics (among many others). It publishes frequently market reports and market indicators on global developments in the area of energy efficiency. Subtopics on the website comprise different energy efficiency sectors, emerging markets and links to further data bases in this area.
The International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC) was established in 2009 and is an autonomous partnership of nations comprising 16 out of the Group of 20 (G20) countries. IPEEC seeks to accelerate the adoption of energy efficiency practices and policies. It governs different work groups for different sectors and regularly publishes market data and analyses.
The Energy Efficiency Watch - Initiative and Project is a European organisation that established a constant feedback loop on the implementation of European and national energy efficiency policies and thus enable mutual learning on effective policy making across the EU. The website provides key policy conclusions and case studies among others.
The Energy Efficiency Finanical Institutions Group (EEFIG) Underwriting Toolkit is designed to assist financial institutions to scale up their deployment of capital into energy efficiency projects. The toolkit was developed by many different companies and organizations from the sector. The objectives of the toolkit are e.g. to help staff in financial institutions to better understand the nature of energy efficiency projects and therefore better evaluate both their value and the risks; and to promote a common language between different stakeholders (e.g. project developers, project owners and financial institutions).
The Copenhagen Centre’s Knowledge Management System (KMS) engages stakeholders in energy efficiency initiatives through knowledge sharing and outreach. The KMS provides users with access to selected information, reports, publications, and databases on energy efficiency.
The De-risking Energy Efficiency Platform (DEEP) is an open-source initiative from the European Union. The aim is to up-scale energy efficiency investments in Europe through the improved sharing and transparent analysis of existing projects in buildings and industry. The platform is available in different languages (EN, ES, FR, DE etc.). You need to create an account to access the platform.
This website of The World Bank on Climate Finance covers projects and programs, data and other resources as well as latest news on climate finance issues.
The IRENA Project Navigator is an online platform providing comprehensive, easily accessible, and practical information, tools and guidance to assist in the development of bankable renewable energy projects, designed for project developers or banks to develop and assess renewable energy projects. You can use the tool to enter project specific data, let the system do the calculation and print out reports etc.
Check out the presentation.
FIRST (Financial Institutions: Resources, Solutions and Tools) for Sustainability is a one-stop shop for financial institutions to get information and learn about the benefits of environmental and social risk management and how to identify and take advantage of environmental business opportunities. The platform is primarily dedicated to managers and staff of financial institutions, interested in financing and investing in environmental business opportunities.
The Derisking Renewable Energy Investment (DREI) framework systematically identifies the barriers and associated risks which can hold back private sector investment in renewable energy. It then assists policymakers to put in place packages of targeted public interventions to address these risks. The DREI framework comprises of regular reports and a financial tool. It has been developed by UNDP.
Solar Bankability is part of the project “Horizon 2020” funded by the European Commission. Although the project terminated in Feb. 2017, several interesting reports are still available on the website. They deal with guidelines for risk identification, risk assessment and risk mitigation for solar PV projects as well as cost calculation, financial modelling and many other topics. The aim of the project was to improve the financeability and attractiveness of sustainable energy investments in PV.
The Renewable Energy Toolkit (REToolkit) provides a broad set of tools to assist bank staff and country counterparts to improve the design and implementation of renewable energy (RE) projects, incorporate best practices and lessons learned from RE projects supported by the Worldbank Group and other institutions, and is operationally oriented to address practical implementation needs at each stage in the RE project cycle.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a new international institution established by 196 governments, with an ambitious mission. The Fund's vision is to promote a paradigm shift to achieve low emission and climate-resilient development, by supporting investments in developing countries.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) serves as financial mechanism for several international conventions, among which are the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Since its establishment in 1992, the GEF has provided $14.5 billion in grants and mobilized $75.4 billion in additional financing for almost 4,000 projects.
The Climate Technology Initiative Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI PFAN) is a multilateral public-private partnership that nurtures promising, innovative clean and renewable energy projects by bridging the gap between investors and clean energy entrepreneurs and project developers.
The data portal archives over 20,000 data points covering renewable energy and energy efficiency information from 2010 to 2016 for the 15 ECOWAS Member States (West Africa).
The Global Renewable Energy Policies and Measures Database offered by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) provides information on policies and measures taken or planned to encourage the uptake of renewable energy in all IEA and IRENA Member countries and signatories. One can select a specific country and filter different options to quickly find results.
The Climate Policy Database collects information on currently implemented policies related to climate change mitigation from countries worldwide. The objective of the portal is to provide an open, collaborative platform for quick information access, policy analysis and good-practice sharing. It was established by Next Climate Institute with support from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and contribution from Wageningen University and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
The Conference of the Parties (COP) requested the secretariat of the UNFCCC to publish the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) of each country. This website provides the full list of submitted INDCs and is regularly updated.
The Worldbank publishes a new and comprehensive global policy scorecard called Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE). In its report, two important questions are answered: Are policymakers around the world truly rising to the challenge posed by the new global sustainable energy agenda? Where is further action most critically needed? The last version of the report was published in 2017.
The wiki-based platform Energypedia is looking for a collaborative knowledge exchange on renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies in developing countries, in order to improve access to sustainable energy services. As of spring 2016, the platform includes 3,180 free articles and 5,759 registered users.
Appropedia is a wiki site for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development. Its English glossary includes translations of all terms in French annd Spanish.
Contains some definitions of specific solar energy terms that you might not find in the RENAC glossary. Glossaries for wind-, hydro- and bioenergy canalso be found on the site.