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Afghanistan Resource Maps and Toolkit

Map depicting meteorological stations and their elevations in Afghanistan.

This page contains high-resolution wind and solar resource maps and data products for Afghanistan. The data were output in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) format and incorporated into a Geospatial Toolkit (GsT). The GsT allows the user to examine the resource data in a geospatial context along with other key information relevant to renewable energy development, such as transportation networks, transmission corridors, existing power facilities, load centers, terrain conditions, and land use.

The high-resolution (1-km) annual wind power maps were developed using a numerical modeling approach along with NREL's empirical validation methodology. The high-resolution (10-km) annual and seasonal solar resource maps were developed using weather satellite data incorporated into a site-time specific solar mapping approach developed at the U.S. State University of New York at Albany. Data products from the wind and solar maps have been output in a GIS format and incorporated into the GsTs. Working within the GsT, the user can also incorporate location-specific data directly into the micropower optimization model, HOMER, to design least-cost hybrid renewable power systems to meet electric-load requirements at the village level.

These products were developed by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy Cooperation (SARI/E). Access the Bilateral Partnerships page for more on NREL's work with SARI/E.

Please contact David Renne for any additional information.

You also can visit our NREL Geospatial Toolkits page for more information on this and other countries.

Some of the following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.

Wind Resources

Maps

  • Wind Power Density (W/m2) at 50-m Above Ground Level (PDF 508 KB)

GIS Data

  • Graphical files of seasonal and diurnal data from surface weather stations (ZIP 16.7 MB)
  • Wind Power Density at 50-m Above Ground Level GIS Data (ZIP 1.4 MB)

Documentation

  • Wind Resource Assessment Presentation (PDF 3.9 MB)

Solar Resources

Maps

  • Map of Meteorological Stations and Elevation (ZIP 272 KB)

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)

10-km Resolution Annual Maps (Direct)
Low-Res (JPG 104 KB) | High-Res (ZIP 330 KB)

40-km Resolution Annual Maps (Direct)
Low-Res (JPG 176 KB) | High-Res (ZIP 314 KB)

10-km Seasonal Maps (Direct):

40-km Seasonal Maps (Direct):

Photovoltaic (PV)

10-km Resolution Annual Maps:

40-km Resolution Annual Maps:

10-km Seasonal Maps (Latitude tilt):

40-km Seasonal Maps (Latitude tilt):

GIS Data

Documentation

  • Satellite-Derived Resource Assessment in Afghanistan and Pakistan in support of the USAID South Asia Regional Initiative (PDF 1 MB)

Geospatial Toolkit

  • GsT with full (high resolution) data interfaced to HOMER (EXE 59.4 MB)
  • GsT with "lite" data (lower resolution) interfaced to HOMER (EXE 40.6 MB)
  • Read Me File (MS Word 37 KB)