Cleantech Features News
NASA collaboration means extensive weather data for RETScreen users

May 3, 2022 – “Near-real-time hourly weather data is now available directly within the RETScreen Software’s Performance Analysis module for the entire surface of the planet!” reports Gregory Leng, creator of RETScreen Clean Energy Management Software platform.

This feature is the result of RETScreen’s ongoing collaboration with the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), Leng adds.

The “Download NASA Data” option in the latest version of RETScreen Expert allows you to download daily and hourly historical and near-real-time solar and meteorology data from the NASA Near Real-time Global Radiation and Meteorology database, Leng explains.

“The NASA Langley Research Centre has developed an automated database of satellite-derived values of surface meteorological parameters for a 30+ year period—and in near real-time—for the entire surface of the planet,” Leng continues. “Parameters include, for example, daily and hourly temperature from July 1983 to present, with a maximum delay of one week relative to real-time.”

RETScreen Expert is a comprehensive Clean Energy Management Software platform that enables professionals and decision-makers to identify and assess the viability of potential energy efficiency, renewable energy and co-generation projects. It is also used to measure and verify the actual and ongoing energy performance of buildings, factories and power plants around the world.

Used by over 750,000 people in every country and territory of the world, the software is developed by the Government of Canada in collaboration with international partners.