PREFACE
Energy is an important foundation for economic and social development. Mankind uses energy, historically we have converted energy sources from firewood to fossil such as coal, oil, and natural gas, to renewable energy such as hydro, wind and solar energy, every change is accompanied by a huge leap in productivity and major progress in human civilization. Energy, as the driving force for the development of modern society, contributes to the nation’s economy and its citizens’ interactive dynamic, as well as to their welfare. The massive development and use of traditional fossil energy has led to increasingly prominent problems such as resource shortages, environmental pollution, and climate change, which seriously threaten human survival and sustainable development. In essence, the core of sustainable development is clean development. The key is to promote renewable energy, and replace fossil energy with renewable energy such as solar, wind, and hydropower.

Scientific and accurate quantitative assessment of resources is the critical foundation for large-scale development and utilization of renewable energy. At present, the globally installed capacity of hydro, wind and solar power has exceeded 30% of the installed capacity of power sources. Although some achievements have been made in the development of renewable energy, there is still potential for it to expand. Therefore, it is of great importance to conduct a fine assessment on resource reserves. On the basis of establishing and improving the global renewable energy resources database, the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO) has established an assessment system and digital fine assessment models for renewable energy resources. These models carry out systematic calculation and quantitative assessment of theoretical potential, technical potential installed capacity and economic potential installed capacity of hydro, wind and solar energies from a global perspective. An achievement of the Global Renewable-energy Exploitation ANalysis (GREAN) platform has been made, thereby the accuracy and timeliness of global renewable energy resources assessment will be effectively improved, subsequently providing an important support for large-scale development and utilization of renewable energy in relevant countries and regions.

Systematic and efficient macro site selection of power bases is an important prerequisite for large-scale development and utilization of renewable energy. The site selection of renewable energy power bases is related to the cost-effectiveness of power station development, which crucially contributes to economic development and the efficient utilization of renewable energy. There are many factors affecting the site selection of power bases, hence the site selection analyses and decision-making process are convoluted. The desk top study of site selection is often limited by the integrity and accuracy of data. Site selection must rely on site surveys, which requires a huge amount of manpower, financial resources and time. By taking into account factors such as global topography and terrain elevation, land covers, water systems, natural reserves, geology and historical seismic activity frequency, power supply and power grid, population and economy, GEIDCO has developed a set of basic database, models and tools for macro site selection for renewable energy power bases which significantly increase the breadth and depth of data collection and analysis processes, thereby, greatly improving the accuracy, economy and effectiveness of the desk top study of site selection, and achieving systematic achievements in promoting the development of global renewable energy resources. The data collected and analyzed by such models and tools are referred as “Reference Book” and “Data Manual” and used during the world’s energy strategy research and policy formulation.

Focusing on the world’s resource assessment and base development of all continents, GEIDCO has prepared a series of scientific reports on renewable energy development and investment globally, specifically in continents such as Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, Central and South America and Oceania. As the general report of achievements, the report, on one hand, systematically expounds the technical route and model method for global renewable energy resource assessment and digital macro site selection, and on the other hand, outlines the research achievements in a global perspective of renewable energy development and investment. In addition, it showcases the research data of renewable energy resource assessment and the detail analysis of investment results.

In this report, Chapters 1 and 2 present the research methods and data, which provide a comprehensive description of the methodology, key data and mathematical model used in preparing the renewable energy resource assessment and macro site selection of the power stations. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 systematically present the research achievements in global hydro, wind and photovoltaic resource assessment, and the large-scale base development using the digital methods. Chapter 6 presents the research on the power consumption and outbound transmission scheme of the bases, which comprehensively analyzes the power supply, demand trend of each continent, and puts forward the power transmission direction and mode. Chapter 7 summarizes the investment and financial policy environment of the global renewable energy development, and puts forward investment and financial suggestions to promote cleaner energy development across all continents.

The Global Renewable Energy Development and Investment series of reports made by the GEIDCO are committed to providing guidance and reference for the large-scale development and utilization of renewable energy around the world and accelerating the implementation of clean alternatives on the energy supply side. This report provides guidelines and acts as a reference guide for government departments, international organizations, energy enterprises, financial institutions, universities and relevant individuals who take part in renewable energy resource assessment, strategic research, project development, international cooperation, etc. However, due to the time constraints for data collection and report research writing timeframe, the contents may be incomplete. Comments and suggestions are welcome for further improvements.