IRENA Unveils REsource — “Google” For Renewable Energy Information

January 13th, 2015 by Sponsored Content

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)* is about to launch an awesome new tool called REsource. While we here at CleanTechnica do what we can to be the world’s leading source of cleantech information, we are always happy to see others to do a great job in this space. IRENA has long been one of the top places I go for renewable energy information, but its resources have gotten better and better in the past couple of years. REsource takes that to another level. As you can see from the sneak-peak screenshot below, it is akin to a Google of renewable energy.

“The rapid growth of the renewable energy industry outpaces the information available to monitor and analyse the sector,” IRENA writes. “To date, renewable energy information has been scattered, and is perceived as less accessible, less detailed and less accurate than the information on conventional energy. This lack of information has created a falsely uncertain environment for investors and fuelled misperceptions in public opinion.”

Indeed, if you go looking for some renewable energy fact, there are dozens of organizations where you have to consider searching for it. Sadly, Google often isn’t that helpful, and sources you come across via Google may seem dodgy. Perhaps you get to other knowledgeable website, but be careful — data may be years out of date, and forecasts are so abominable, you’d be better off asking your talking parrot for her or his prediction.

Like I said, we here at CleanTechnica have been working on slowly accumulating and creating useful resources for solar energy information (see here, here, and here), wind energy information (see here, here, and here), and electric vehicle information (see here and here), but we are very limited in what we can achieve, and everyone know’s CleanTechnica‘s key strength and focus — being the top website in the world for cleantech news and commentary. It’s a relief off my shoulders to see IRENA’s continual progress as a resource for renewable energy facts and reports, and REsource is clearly the capstone at this point.

IRENA adds: “The international renewable energy community is working to increase the relevance, quality and timeliness of the information available on renewable energy. The common goal is to support improved decision-making, increase awareness and investor confidence, and accelerate the adoption of renewable energy technologies.” Exactly. In my humble opinion, REsource looks like one of the best supplements out there to the work CleanTechnica is doing. Now I know where to go for country-specific information on renewable energy, the latest facts on relevant renewable energy trends for a story I’m writing or editing, good forecasts for renewable energy growth, useful charts or maps that will add visual context to a story, and more.

I imagine I’ll be using REsource on a weekly basis for my work here on CleanTechnica, as well as on Solar Love and Planetsave. And I imagine many of you will as well. So, a huge thanks to IRENA.

REsource will be launched at IRENA’s 5th Assembly next week. We’ll publish an update at that time.

Also keep an eye on IRENA’s Twitter and Facebook pages. Also keep an eye on #REsourceIRENA — IRENA is going to be releasing a number of reports in the coming weeks and will tag them with #REsourceIRENA on Twitter and Facebook.

*IRENA kindly sponsored this article.









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