Courtesy of The Source, Natural Resources Canada's employee newsletter

The honours just keep piling up for RETScreen, the software package that is helping some 253,000 users in 222 countries evaluate the cost and impact of renewable and energy efficiency projects.

Yesterday, RETScreen Version 4 won the Public Service Award of Excellence for Innovation. On June 3, it was chosen "National Winner for Canada" for the ENERGY GLOBE 2010 Awards announced at the UN World Environment Day conference in Rwanda. It is also nominated in the Innovation category of the Departmental Achievement Awards, which are being presented June 16.

Yet RETScreen director Greg Leng feels that the product has “barely scratched the surface of its potential. We expect to have a million users in another 10 years.” He acknowledges that all the accolades just generate more enthusiasm and commitment from his team. “The impact of the software is so big and so much fun,” he says.

Here are some of the new features that earned the RETScreen Version 4 the 2010 Public Service Award.

From bungalows to petrochemical plants

While the initial focus of RETScreen was renewable energy, it now encompasses all aspects of energy efficiency in all kinds of buildings and facilities – from bungalows to petrochemical plants.

“RETSsperanto”

RETScreen is now available in 35 languages, making it accessible to two thirds of the world’s population. It isn’t at all uncommon for a building project to involve, for example, an architect who speaks French, an engineer who speaks English, a manufacturer who speaks Mandarin and a banker who speaks German. Everybody views RETScreen analysis in their own language as the project moves along.

Built-in weather reports

To determine energy costs and savings, you need extensive data on climate. The RETScreen climate database now includes data from 4,700 ground station locations and NASA satellites. All of this data is fed directly into the software.

One-stop software

While different energy sources once each had their own piece of software, all sources are now integrated in one comprehensive piece of software.

Case-studies integrated

Over 100 case studies are now integrated with the software. This provides users with templates that serve as valuable starting points for their own analyses.

Legal toolkit

A RETScreen legal toolkit provides users with template legal documents that can provide users with a head start on meeting requirements and substantial savings on legal fees.

“The RETScreen team from the CanmetENERGY research centre in Varennes is busy developing the next advanced release of the software,” says Greg. “RETScreen Version 5 will see the beginnings of “intelligent” decision-making capabilities integrated into the tool.”

RETScreen Version 4 Team Members

The RETScreen 4 Team consists of the following individuals: Gregory J. Leng (Director); Urban T. Ziegler (Chief Engineer); Nathalie Meloche (Project Manager); Dinesh S. Parakh (Program Advisor); Farah Sheriff (Project Engineer); Kevin Bourque (Project Engineer); Julien Poirier (Software Engineer); Tommy Anderson  (Software Engineer); Amélie Richard (Information Officer); and Josée Ottavi (Website Support).

Click here, to download RETScreen free-of-charge and learn more.

The RETScreen International Clean Energy Decision Support Centre  seeks to build the capacity of planners, decision-makers and industry to implement renewable energy, cogeneration and energy efficiency projects. This objective is achieved by: developing decision-making tools (i.e. RETScreen Software) that reduce the cost of pre-feasibility studies; disseminating knowledge to help people make better decisions; and by training people to better analyse the technical and financial viability of possible projects.

The RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis Software is a unique decision support tool developed with the contribution of numerous experts from government, industry, and academia. The software, provided free-of-charge, can be used worldwide to evaluate the energy production and savings, costs, emission reductions, financial viability and risk for various types of Renewable-energy and Energy-efficient Technologies (RETs). The software (available in multiple languages) also includes product, project, hydrology and climate databases, a detailed online user manual, and a case study based college/university-level training course, including an engineering e-textbook.

RETScreen International is managed under the leadership and ongoing financial support of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan )'s CanmetENERGY. RETScreen is developed by a core team  at CanmetENERGY in collaboration  with a number of other government and multilateral organisations, and with technical support from a large network of experts  from industry, government and academia.

Click here to download RETScreen 4 (44 MB) .