27 July 2017
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Presentation—Introduction to the webinar and panelists
Presentation—Andrea Watson: Renewable Energy (RE) Explorer and RE Data Explorer: Introduction
Transcript—Webinar audio transcript
The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, hosted this webinar on using the Renewable Energy Data Explorer to inform energy decisions.
The Renewable Energy (RE) Data Explorer, or RED-E, is an innovative web-based platform that allows users to visualize and analyze renewable energy potential. The RE Data Explorer informs prospecting, integrated planning, and policymaking to enable robust renewable energy decisions. RE Data Explorer tools are currently available for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the Lower Mekong region of Asia.
Building on a previous webinar, this training introduced the RED-E tool and provided an overview of its functionality. This webinar offered a detailed look at how private sector developers and investors can use the RED-E tool to explore renewable energy opportunities in various locations. The webinar also detailed a few examples of how the private sector is already using the RED-E tool in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Pakistan.
The webinar was followed by an interactive question and answer session with the audience.
Panelists
Mark D. Jacobson, Senior Project Leader, Wind & Water Technology Deployment, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Mark joined NREL and the NWTC in 2013. Mark's work at NREL is focused in three primary areas: international assistance via renewable resource assessments and developing capacity building strategies; educational outreach for renewable energy technologies, primarily wind; and development of solutions for the various market barriers of wind energy. Mark has led the Wind Resource Mapping effort in Bangladesh and the Philippines, as well as a successful offshore wind demonstration proposal for DOE. He has supported the Wind Powering America initiative and the Wind for Schools program. Prior to joining NREL, Mark’s career spanned a diverse background of energy positions from energy efficiency program development for large commercial and industrial customers, to transmission and interconnection queue management to electric generation development (including utility scale natural gas, wind and solar). He has developed expertise in energy plant siting, stakeholder engagement strategies, permitting, contracting, interconnection queue management and power marketing. He has spent the last 15 years in generation development and has been responsible for leading the siting, permitting, interconnection and marketing aspects of development. Additionally, he has led and/or supported various renewable legislative lobbying efforts within the Midwest and western states. Mark has been responsible for over 1,000 megawatts of generation projects built or under contract, primarily wind.
Andrea Watson, Manager, Integrated Decision Support, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Andrea Watson leads the Integrated Decision Support group at NREL. She and her team lead complex energy projects and programs that require strategy development, analytics and technical decision making. Andrea’s expertise lies in strategic planning, change strategies and decision-making support as applied to clean energy projects and programs. She has specific expertise in clean energy solutions for emission mitigation, international climate change strategies and renewable energy applications applied to the mining industry. Andrea graduated from UC Berkeley with an undergraduate degree in integrative biology and from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a master’s of engineering in engineering management. In 2014, she completed a U.S. Department of State Fulbright Scholarship to Chile where she focused on renewable energy decision-making in the mining industry.