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Energy Explorer · click anywhere on Earth

What could the sun and wind give you here?

Click any point, search a town or use your location. In two seconds you get solar yield, wind capacity factors, climate and the local grid mix, from 30+ years of NASA satellite data.

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Try a place

Click anywhere on the map. Drag the marker to fine-tune.

One click, a full energy profile

The Energy Explorer answers the first question of any renewable-energy project, how good is this place?, for any point on the planet. Click the map (or search an address) and it queries NASA’s POWER service for the long-term climate at that point, then turns raw weather into numbers you can act on: how many kilowatt-hours a solar panel would produce per year, the best tilt angle, how often a small or a large wind turbine would be turning, how cold the winters are for a heat pump, and how clean the local electricity grid already is.

What the numbers mean

Solar

Estimated PV yield is the electricity per kilowatt-peak of panels per year; multiply by your system size. As a rule of thumb, under 950 kWh/kWp is a weak resource (Scotland, Norway), 1,000–1,200 is typical of Central Europe, 1,400–1,700 of the Mediterranean, the US South or South Africa, and above 1,800 the world’s sunniest deserts. GHI is the total solar energy reaching a horizontal square metre in a year, and the optimal tilt is the fixed panel angle that maximises annual output. The monthly chart shows the seasonal swing: near the equator the bars are flat, at 50° latitude December brings five to ten times less sun than June.

Where available we also show the Global Solar Atlas PVOUT value for the same spot, an independent, higher-resolution model by Solargis. If the two agree within about 10%, you can trust the order of magnitude.

Wind

Wind speeds come from NASA’s MERRA-2 reanalysis at 10 m and 50 m above ground. From the 50 m value we estimate capacity factors for a 10 kW small turbine (7 m rotor) on a 24 m tower and for a modern 3.6 MW turbine at 120 m. Coarse reanalysis data smooths out ridges and coastlines, so the high-resolution Global Wind Atlas speed at 100 m is shown alongside; on hills and coasts it is often noticeably higher. See the wind potential map for the bigger picture.

Climate and grid

Mean, coldest-month and warmest-month temperatures tell you how hard a heat pump will work and how much cooling demand to expect. The grid mix and carbon intensity of the country (latest year) show how much CO₂ each kilowatt-hour you generate yourself would displace. A solar roof in a coal-heavy grid avoids far more emissions than the same roof in hydro-powered Norway.

Accuracy and limitations

All values are long-term averages for screening and comparison, not bankable yield assessments. The solar estimate assumes an unshaded, south-facing (north-facing in the southern hemisphere) array at the optimal tilt and a performance ratio of 0.80; the wind estimate assumes a Rayleigh-like wind distribution. For a decision, run the detailed solar panel calculator, which simulates every hour of a real year, or the wind turbine calculator. Compare places at a glance on the solar potential map and see what each country already generates in the Energy Time Machine.

Frequently asked questions

How is the solar yield estimated?
We take NASA POWER’s long-term average global horizontal irradiation (GHI) for the point, multiply it by a latitude-dependent gain for panels mounted at the optimal tilt (about 1.04 near the equator, 1.12 at 30° and 1.16 at 45°), and by a performance ratio of 0.80 that covers temperature, inverter, wiring and soiling losses. The result, in kWh per kWp per year, is a first estimate, usually within ±10% of detailed simulations. For an hourly simulation with your own orientation, use the solar panel calculator.
What do the wind capacity factors mean?
The capacity factor is the average output divided by the turbine’s rated power. We scale NASA’s 50 m mean wind speed to each turbine’s hub height, assume a Weibull distribution with shape k = 2, correct for air density at the site’s elevation and temperature, integrate a generic power curve and deduct 15% for wake, availability and electrical losses. Large modern turbines reach 25–45% at good sites; small turbines on short towers often only 5–15%.
Why do NASA and the Global Wind Atlas give different wind speeds?
NASA POWER uses the MERRA-2 reanalysis, with grid cells about 50 × 60 km, which averages out hills, ridges and coastlines and often underestimates wind on exposed sites. The Global Wind Atlas downscales similar data to 250 m with a terrain model, so it is much better at local detail. It is shown at 100 m where available.
Is the data free to use?
Yes. NASA POWER data is public domain, the Global Solar Atlas and Global Wind Atlas are CC BY 4.0, and country statistics come from Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). You can share any result with the “Share this spot” button; the link reopens exactly the same point.
Which calculators can use this location?
The buttons open our solar panel calculator (with the optimal tilt pre-set), the wind turbine calculator and the heat pump calculator with the same coordinates, so you can go from screening to a detailed estimate of energy, savings and payback in one click.

Sources & references

  1. NASA POWER: Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (climatology API) — public domain
  2. Global Solar Atlas 2.0: World Bank, ESMAP, Solargis — CC BY 4.0
  3. Global Wind Atlas 3: DTU, World Bank, ESMAP — CC BY 4.0
  4. Our World in Data: Energy dataset — CC BY 4.0
  5. Open-Meteo Geocoding API