The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is in the business of information sharing. They provide the public with recycling tips, work to conserve the nation’s environmental resources by being legally and politically active, and now, they have provided a program that shares information about were renewable energy facilities will and can be across the country. 

This week, NRDC launched a mapping technology that shows where existing renewable energy facilities like windmills currently lie. Additionally, the map provides information about where proposed facilities may be located. What is most useful about this technology is that it provides data about localized long-term weather patterns across all 50 states to share information about where new renewable facilities could feasibly be located. 

Known as Renewable Energy for America, this mapping technology gives free investment information to farmers researchers, and entrepreneurs on a county-by-county basis. Talk about information sharing! 

By providing information about where a potential wind farm might be successful, that is, by doing the legwork for a farmer, that farmer might consider converting his/her land from growing a product that might take nutrients from the land and instead, install windmills.

Conversion of that land to a wind farm, calls for the purchase of materials to create each windmill, which creates jobs and invests in America’s renewable energy power grid. In effect, this map is a call to action for farmers, entrepreneurs, politicians, manufacturers, and many others to renew a nation full of dirty power with fresh, clean energy, renew the nation’s economy, and renew a nation’s relationship with its natural resources. 

This technology can be invaluable. It completely supports the Obama administration’s work to fuel a renewable economy by showing the great potential of successful projects. The technology is one more way the NRDC can share information about protecting the environment and eliminating additional contributions to climate change. 

It’s so easy to use. All the information one needs to plan a project, provide information to an investment banker for a loan or a grant, is on a map! The interactive map can show the potential projects in a state, or it can show all the possible locations for a bioreactor across the country. If you can read it, you can plan it. 

NRDC is providing this information in an altruistic fashion: to save the polar bear, the coral reefs, the air, and even the economy. It’s like a treasure map that leads to the ultimate treasure, "the enormous potential for new energy systems that reduce global warming emissions, protect[ion of] critical environmental values and move[ment of] the United States toward energy security" Nathananel Greene, NRDC.