RETScreen
The RETScreen® Clean Energy Project Analysis Software is the world’s leading clean energy decision-making software, enabling users to calculate the financial viability of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. It is provided completely free-of-charge by the Government of Canada. Elements of the software are supported by REEEP.
The RETScreen Tool
The free-of-charge software can be used anywhere in the world to evaluate the energy production and savings, life-cycle costs, emission reductions, financial viability and risk for various types of energy efficient and renewable energy technologies (RETs).
The software includes product, cost and climate databases, and a detailed online user manual. Other tools include: a case study based college/university-level training course and an engineering electronic textbook. All of these tools are available free-of-charge in both English and French, with many of the tools available in other languages.
REEEP provided funding to RETScreen to translate the tool into ten additional languages, bringing the total number of supported languages to 35, covering more than 2/3 of the world's population. REEEP funding also supported the expansion of the tool to cover energy efficiency analysis in addition to renewable energy projects.
Most recently, in the 7th funding round of May 2009, REEEP announced it will support the development of a Monitoring, Targeting and Verification (MTV) tool to enable the software to document and attribute the lifecycle savings delivered and the energy generated.
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Workshops
A vast range of RETScreen-focused workshops are delivered around the world. Click here for the latest information about upcoming free workshops: http://www.retscreen.net/ang/11_form1.php
Webcasts
For people unable to attend RETScreen workshops, or who would rather learn online, new webcasts have been added to the RETScreen website. The Webcasts provide a basic overview of RETScreen 4, including its applicability for various clean power, heating and cooling technologies, and introduces the new energy efficiency model in the software. Click here to see the webcasts (lower-centre section of home page): http://www.retscreen.net/ang/home.php
Training Material
The RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis Course has been created for use by educational centres and training organisations around the globe, as well as for use by professionals and students in "self-study" distance learning format. 166 colleges and universities worldwide now use RETScreen for training. More than 25,000 people visit the RETScreen website each week to access this information. A significant amount of new course content has recently been added to the website and software manual. Click here to access the training material free of charge: http://www.retscreen.net/ang/d_t_info.php
RETScreen 4 Software Updated
An updated version of the RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis Software was recently released. The improvements include: project templates & case studies added for numerous types of facilities & applications; bug fixes for a number of minor items in the software; manual & website upgrades with a significant amount of new content added; NASA global climate data set temporal span increased to more than 22 years; 21 more energy resource maps (e.g. wind) linked to the software; product data added for new product lines and for additional manufacturers; training course material improved and expanded, including new Webcasts available; and, new languages added (Farsi, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai & Turkish), to 35 total.
There are now more than 208,000 RETScreen users in 222 countries, where the software has been directly responsible for over $4 billion in user savings to date; a figure expected to grow to more than $8 billion by 2013.