3TIER, a Seattle-based provider of energy assessment and power forecasting solutions, has launched Firstlook Solar Assessment, a Web-based tool that helps developers discover potential solar project sites in North America.
Firstlook Solar provides developers with instant access to the National Solar Radiation Data Base and relays that highly technical data in an easy-to-use, understandable format, the company says. The data set is based on satellite observations at a 10 km resolution over the contiguous U.S.
‘This powerful and innovative tool delivers technical information straight to the user through an easy-to-use Web interface,’ says Kenneth Westrick, founder and CEO of 3TIER. ‘Now, anyone can use this assessment tool and receive a thorough, cost-effective power resource report delivered to a laptop within minutes.’
The Firstlook Solar report gives users the values for monthly solar irradiance, diurnal variability and hourly distribution information, as well as a data file with the complete hourly time series of global horizontal, direct and diffuse irradiance values for the period 1998 to 2005. The solar zenith and azimuth angles to each hourly value are also included to facilitate further analysis.
Assessment reports can be generated via the Internet 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at www.firstlook.3tiergroup.com.
