The RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis Software recently passed the 100,000 users milestone.

The RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis Software recently passed the 100,000 users milestone. Mr. Dermot Gibbons of the Kinspan Group plc, a building products manufacturer headquartered in Ireland, was officially the 100,000th registered user.

RETScreen is experiencing exponential growth with demand for the software now expanding at more than 500 new users every week. RETScreen is used in 217 countries, lead by Canada (27,613), with the following countries rounding out the top 20: United States (12,891); France (11,106); United Kingdom (4,628); Italy (4,216); Spain (3,635); Australia (1,927); Germany (1,785); Belgium (1,629); Greece (1,574); Portugal (1,493); India (1,485); Ireland (1,030); Brazil (1,029); Mexico (826); Romania (674); Netherlands (634); Switzerland (630); Poland (627); and China (577).

The profiles of the users are broken down as follows: 20% professional services; 19% educational institution/R&D centre; 10% project developer/owner; 6% product suppliers; 6% financial/government/multi-lateral; and 3% association/NGO.

49% of users are using the software and related tools for assessing projects; 27% for project development; 25% for market studies or sales; 24% for training; 15% for information dissemination; 14% for product R&D; 13% for project due-diligence; 9% for policy analysis; and 13% for other purposes.

Demand for RETScreen is expected to explode following the upcoming release of Version 4. In collaboration with Natural Resources Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE), in this major new version, the software's capabilities have been expanded from renewable energy, cogeneration and district energy, to include a full array of financially viable clean power, heating and cooling technologies, and energy efficiency measures. The international appeal of this decision support tool has been improved through the expansion of climate data with NASA, covering the entire surface of the planet, as well as through a collaboration with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) to translate the software into 21 languages that cover roughly 2/3 of the world's population. The expected outcome of this work is that by the end of 2012, an estimated 300,000 planners, professionals and decision-makers will have been empowered to make better energy decisions as a result of the knowledge transferred and by the subsequent use of the improved decision-making tools.

For additional information or to download free-of-charge the RETScreen Software and related tools, please visit the RETScreen Website.