U.S. DOE's National Renewable Energy Lab develops electronic atlas mapping U.S. renewable energy sources, designed to facilitate policy development, investment, education

Tracy McDonald

LAKEWOOD, Colorado , January 6, 2012 (press release) – A new geospatial application developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) allows users to easily and accurately map potential renewable energy resources in the United States.

The interactive tool, RE Atlas, is free to use and available online at http://maps.nrel.gov/re_atlas.

"Ease of use and breadth of data make RE Atlas an excellent tool for policymakers, planners, energy developers, and others who need to better understand the renewable resources available in the United States," said Dan Getman, whose team in NREL's Strategic Energy Analysis Center developed the tool. "RE Atlas is an important addition to NREL's suite of geospatial tools, because it brings together so many renewable energy datasets in one easy-to-use tool."

RE Atlas is designed to facilitate energy policy development, investment, and education by making high quality data accessible and easy to understand. The tool creates dynamic maps of renewable resources, including biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind. RE Atlas can display resources individually or in a composite fashion.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

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