caREL

Computer-Aided Renewable Energy Language

"With the "European Green Deal" and its centerpiece, the EU Climate Act, Europe is pursuing the long-term goal of becoming the first climate-neutral continent. Identifying the best, highest-yield sites for wind and solar power plants is a necessary prerequisite for this" (Klärle & Seuß 2020).

Futher Links

Please visit us on our project website:

https://carel-energy.eu/

Press release - Open data helps achieve climate protection goals

Hessian Ministry

Project goal

The identification of the best and most profitable locations for wind power and solar systems is a necessary prerequisite for the implementation of the climate protection goals of the federal government as well as the European Green Deal and is addressed in the caREL project. The project focuses on technology transfer based on existing geodata as well as already developed methods and algorithms. The INSPIRE guideline, which has been regulating the basis for a uniform geodata provision and use in the entire EU since 2021, has created ideal framework conditions. Existing algorithms from our own completed research projects SUN-AREA (German only), WIND-AREA (German only) and ERNEUERBAR KOMM! (German only) will be blended with EU-wide standardized geodata.

Through caREL, the path and methods for automated potential analyses are to be made available to the economy, science and administration. Thus, independent potential analyses for solar and wind power can be carried out within the EU in order to achieve the climate protection goals.

Pilot countries

Based on an extensive data research and feasibility study, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Slovenia and Spain were selected as pilot countries. Here, laser scan data or high-resolution terrain models as well as administrative boundaries, protected areas, wind data (EuropeanWindAtlas) and land use data (Copernicus Land Cover) are available in sufficient quality as open data or in the INSPIRE annexe.

In each of the five pilot countries, two sample regions were selected for the calculation. These are one urban and one rural region. Within these project areas, 25 km² analysis areas were then identified and calculated as examples. The results can be found below.