RETScreen is a Clean Energy Management Software system for energy efficiency, renewable energy and cogeneration project feasibility analysis as well as ongoing energy performance analysis.
Additional information about RETScreen is available in more than 35 languages on the RETScreen website: www.retscreen.net.
RETScreen Decision Engine
RETScreen empowers professionals and decision-makers to rapidly identify, assess and optimize the technical and financial viability of potential clean energy projects. This decision intelligence software platform also allows managers to easily measure and verify the actual performance of their facilities and helps find additional energy savings/production opportunities.
Virtual Energy Analyzer
Rapidly determines the energy production and savings potential for any location in the world employing a five-star benchmark ranking system — and without requiring a site visit.
Smart Project Identifier
Accurately identifies the best projects to be implemented at the facility and intelligently completes a pre-feasibility analysis for further refinements onsite.
Financial Risk Assessor
Automatically assesses the financial risk of the proposed investment and systematically determines the sensitivity of key parameters on a project’s viability.
Performance Tracker
Comprehensively measures and verifies the actual performance of implemented projects and helps find opportunities for further energy improvements at the facility.
Benchmark Analysis
The RETScreen Benchmark Analysis Module allows the user to quickly establish reference climate conditions at a facility site for any location on earth and compare the energy performance of various types of reference (benchmark) facilities with the estimated (modelled) or measured (actual) annual energy consumption of a facility. Energy benchmarking can help designers, facility operators, managers and senior decision-makers quickly gauge a facility’s energy performance, i.e., expected energy consumption or production versus reference facilities, and the scope for improvements.
Feasibility Analysis
RETScreen is the most comprehensive product of its kind, allowing engineers, architects, and financial planners to model and analyze any clean energy project. Decision-makers can conduct a five step standard analysis, including energy analysis, cost analysis, emission analysis, financial analysis, and sensitivity/risk analysis.
Fully integrated into these analytical tools are benchmark, product, project, hydrology and climate databases (the latter with 6,700 ground-station locations plus NASA satellite data covering the entire surface of the planet), as well as links to worldwide energy resource maps. And, to help the user rapidly commence analysis, RETScreen has built in an extensive database of generic clean energy project templates.
Performance Analysis
As part of the RETScreen Clean Energy Management Software, a Performance Analysis Module is provided to help the user monitor, analyze, and report key energy performance data to facility operators, managers and senior decision-makers.
Implementing an energy monitoring, targeting and reporting (MT&R) system can be a powerful way to better manage energy project investments as well as identify additional project opportunities. In addition, the measurement and verification (M&V) of actual savings (or production) achieved by a clean energy project is an important final step in the energy decision chain.
To help address this need on a global basis, RETScreen International, in collaboration with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the NASA Langley Research Centre, has developed the RETScreen Performance Analysis Module. This energy management software tool, which integrates near real-time satellite-derived weather data from NASA for the entire surface of the planet, can be used worldwide to track a facility’s actual energy performance versus predicted performance.
Portfolio Analysis
The RETScreen Portfolio Analysis Module enables professionals to manage energy across a large number of facilities. From multiple energy efficiency measures in a single residential property to a portfolio comprising thousands of buildings, factories and power plants around the world, this comprehensive tool helps enterprises achieve their energy-related investment goals.
Within the software, the user can create a new portfolio or open an existing file. This "My portfolio" database file is made up of individual facilities analyzed with RETScreen. Additional facilities can easily be added to the portfolio database. Sub-portfolios can be created to allow for comparison across different facility types and geographic regions, and a mapping tool helps the user visualize assets across the globe.
With a populated database, the user can enable a portfolio-wide analysis dashboard. The dashboard can be configured to include the results of benchmark, feasibility and performance analysis for each individual facility in the portfolio. The dashboard allows the user to consolidate results to readily track energy consumption and/or production, as well as costs and greenhouse gas emissions, all of which can be sorted by facility type, fuel type, country, etc. These results can then be used to report key metrics to various stakeholders.
Partners
RETScreen’s development process exemplifies successful international cooperation. RETScreen is developed and maintained by the Government of Canada through Natural Resources Canada’s CanmetENERGY research centre in Varennes, Quebec and is supported by an international network of experts from industry, government and academia. Principal partners include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
