The Victorian Government has released its Victorian Solar Atlas tool, which maps the state’s solar energy resources in a bid to help investors and developers to make decisions about the best sites for new solar projects.

 

State Energy Minister Michael O’Brien said the tool featured highly detailed data on the state’ solar energy that would prove a valuable asset for companies making decisions about solar power projects.

 

“The Victorian Solar Atlas is a powerful tool that will help attract solar investment and jobs and encourage the development of new renewable power sources,” Mr O’Brien said.

 

“The Atlas provides investors, developers, researchers and communities with up-to-date information about some of the best solar resource regions in the world.

 

The Solar Atlas provides time-series data measured at one minute intervals from three separate ground stations, as well as hourly solar and climatic data for five kilometer grid sections across the state. The atlas’ data is based on satellite measurements sourced from NASA.

 

In the Solar Atlas, solar energy data can be overlaid with infrastructure that is critical to successful solar projects, including electricity networks, to help potential developers make decisions about the best sites for their projects. The data will allow users to better predict the potential energy generation of all types of solar energy technology, including solar photovoltaic power stations, solar thermal power generation and solar hot water.

 

The Solar Atlas is available online and can be found here