Impact Assessment Tools

The USAID-NREL Partnership delivers detailed analyses with impact assessment tools that empower stakeholders to identify potential social and economic benefits and challenges associated with varying policies and actions.

Impact analyses are essential in understanding how shifts in energy policy and development might affect economic structures, public health, and community resilience. These analyses help stakeholders identify the social and economic benefits and challenges of energy policies, enabling informed decision-making that prioritize energy security, stability, and economic growth.

Key impact analysis areas related to tools and programs delivered through the USAID-NREL Partnership are highlighted in table below.

Category	Category Description	Tool/Program	Tool/Program Description
Air Quality and Human Health	Energy system transformation and modernization can significantly improve air quality, thereby decreasing health risks and enhancing the quality of life for millions globally.	Global Intervention Model for Air Pollution InMAP	Global InMAP is an innovative global air quality model to evaluate the health and environmental impacts of renewable electricity deployment, aimed at informing public health strategies and policy development. Read more about the benefits of air quality improvements.
Cost savings	Transitioning to advanced energy sources is a cost-effective way to improve building energy efficiency.	The National Residential Efficiency Measures Database (REACT)	A decision support tool that integrates robust open-source resources from NREL and partners to help users assess and compare cost-effective retrofit options for enhancing energy efficiency in homes and buildings.
Energy Access	Ensuring energy access is pivotal for advancing economic development and enhancing the provision of essential services and opportunities for productive activities.	Renewable Energy (RE) Data Explorer and the System Advisor Model (SAM)	As indicated on YouTube, RE Data Explorer provides renewable energy data, analytical tools, and technical assistance to developers, policymakers, and decision makers in developing countries, enabling meaningful decisions that support long-term energy planning. SAM, a free desktop application for techno-economic analysis, complements RE Data Explorer by allowing project managers, engineers, policy analysts, and researchers to evaluate the technical, economic, and financial feasibility of energy projects. Together, these tools facilitate system siting and project development.
Energy Access	Ensuring energy access is pivotal for advancing economic development and enhancing the provision of essential services and opportunities for productive activities.	PVWatts	PVWatts estimates the energy production of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers, and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations.
Jobs	Renewable energy project development creates meaningful energy sector job opportunities.	The International Jobs and Economic Development (I-JEDI) Model	I-JEDI is a free tool for analyzing the economic impacts of renewable energy development around the world. I-JEDI estimates the employment, earnings, gross domestic product, and output from the construction and operation of renewable energy projects across the domestic supply chain. The model results include total economic impacts, as well as impacts by industry (e.g., construction, manufacturing, and banking services). This information helps align renewable energy actions with key economic development goals.
Resilience	Enhancing the resilience of energy systems is crucial for maintaining reliable energy access and mitigating the risk of disruptions from extreme weather events and cybersecurity threats.	The Resilient Energy Platform (REP)	The Resilient Energy Platform provides expertly curated resources, training materials, data, tools, and direct technical assistance in planning resilient and secure power systems.
Resilience	Enhancing the resilience of energy systems is crucial for maintaining reliable energy access and mitigating the risk of disruptions from extreme weather events and cybersecurity threats.	REopt	The REopt web tool allows users to evaluate the economic viability of distributed PV, wind, battery storage, combined heat and power (CHP), and thermal energy storage, identify system sizes and dispatch strategies to minimize energy costs, and estimate how long a system can sustain critical load during a grid outage.
Resilience	Enhancing the resilience of energy systems is crucial for maintaining reliable energy access and mitigating the risk of disruptions from extreme weather events and cybersecurity threats.	Customer Damage Function (CDF) Calculator	CDF is a resource for facility owners and resilience planners to understand the costs of an electric grid outage at their site. The calculator provides a process to elicit facility outage vulnerabilities and estimates how costs vary with outage duration.
Resilience	Enhancing the resilience of energy systems is crucial for maintaining reliable energy access and mitigating the risk of disruptions from extreme weather events and cybersecurity threats.	Distributed Energy Resource Cybersecurity Framework (DER-CF)	DER-CF is a no-cost, interactive web tool that holistically evaluates a facility's distributed energy resource cybersecurity posture—or health—and makes customized recommendations.