Delivering Clean, Reliable, and Affordable Power in the Developing World

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are partnering to support clean, reliable, and affordable power in the developing world. The USAID-NREL Partnership helps countries with policy, planning, and deployment support for advanced energy technologies.

Through this collaboration, USAID is accessing advanced energy expertise and analysis pioneered by the U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. The Partnership addresses critical aspects of advanced energy systems, including renewable energy deployment, grid modernization, distributed energy resources and storage, power sector resilience, and the data and analytical tools needed to support them.

Global Technical Platforms

Global technical platforms provide free, state-of-the-art support on common and critical challenges to scaling up advanced energy systems. These platforms, informed by country demand and NREL’s domestic and international experience, are universally relevant to developing nations and provide a combination of analytical tools, training, and knowledge products. Our technical platforms include:

Renewable Energy (RE) Explorer

The RE Data Explorer is a user-friendly geospatial analysis tool for analyzing renewable energy potential and informing decisions. The web platform provides free renewable energy data, analytical tools, and technical assistance to developers, policymakers, and decision makers in developing countries.

Greening the Grid

Greening the Grid is a platform for expertly curated information, tools, and technical assistance to support countries in power system transformation and grid modernization through three approaches:

Grid Integration

The Grid Integration Toolkit provides state- of-the-art resources to assist developing countries in integrating variable renewable energy into their power grids.

Renewable Energy Zones

The Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Toolkit helps power system planners and other stakeholders to connect areas of cost-effective renewable energy generation to the grid through the REZ transmission planning process.

Distributed Photovoltaics (PV)

The Distributed Photovoltaics Toolkit provides resources to support developing countries in addressing barriers to safe, effective, and accelerated deployment of distributed solar power.

International Jobs and Economic Development Impacts (I-JEDI)

The International Jobs and Economic Development Impacts (I-JEDI) model is a free online tool for analyzing the potential economic impacts and job benefits from wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy projects around the world.

Resilient Energy Platform

The Resilient Energy Platform provides expertly curated resources, training materials, data, tools, and direct technical assistance in planning resilient, sustainable, and secure power systems. The platform enables decision makers to assess power sector vulnerabilities, identify resilience solutions, and make informed decisions to enhance power sector resilience at all scales.

Country Support

In addition to the technical platforms, the Partnership addresses country-specific challenges through targeted, fully customized technical assistance. These activities, often based on the technical platforms, address technical energy sector challenges that may include planning, policy formulation, and market barriers.

For More Information

• Visit the USAID-NREL Partnership website
• Contact: Sarah Lawson or Jeremy Foster