the United Nations Environment Programme (unep) has come out with a detailed map of wind and solar energy resources in 13 developing nations to pinpoint the best locations for renewable energy projects. The move is part of the first results of the project "Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (swera)', released in April 2005 by unep executive director Klaus Toepfer (see map: Clean energy sites). Countries covered are: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cuba, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka. swera is creating a global archive of solar and wind energy resources and maps, available on cd-rom or through it's website.

"As energy planners seek cleaner energy solutions using renewable energy technologies, the availability of reliable, accurate and accessible solar and wind energy information is critical and can significantly accelerate the deployment of these technologies,' said Toepfer. unep coordinated the project that had 25 other institutions working on it.

"In developing countries all over the world we have removed some of the uncertainty about the size and intensity of the solar and wind resource. swera offers these countries the technical and policy assistance,' he added. Geospatial Toolkit, another tool, allows combining wind and solar maps with electrical distribution grids and other information.