The Knowledge Platform

The knowledge platform has the mission of promoting cooperation between the countries worldwide and specifically, among the agents of each country, in order for the Observatory to allow them to share all information that could be helpful to promoting the local, national and regional investment situation in the field of Renewables, such as:

• technologies
• successful experiences
• information on specific projects
• existing financing mechanisms
• successful legal practices

The knowledge platform rests on an information database that will allow the fluid exchange of knowledge amongst its users, who will be connected to a network through the Internet. At the same time, procedural rules and guidelines will be distributed – communication protocol – with the purpose to allow all users to offer and access information in an orderly manner, guaranteeing in all instances the quality of the shared knowledge. In this way, the knowledge platform will not only allow access to the existing information, but will also allow the agents to share information related to their area of expertise.

In order to make sure that this exchange is carried out in such a way that the quality and relevance of the information is guaranteed, a National Coordinator in each country will play an active role in the standardization of the information, offering assistance to all agents who wish to share information on the platform. At the same time, the national coordinator will feed the platform with a series of documents, analyses, and reports that will increase the usefulness of the knowledge platform.

The information found on the knowledge platform will be placed in perfect order and classified according to the different disciplines that the issue of renewable energy encompasses:

• Technology: the market agents at all levels (regional, national, and local) that use energy generating technologies on the base of renewable sources will find a useful window in this section, one that will allow them to obtain detailed information on the different technologies that are being used in the region with the different renewable sources. In this manner, the consumers of these technologies will be provided with a necessary instrument for the correct selection, adaptation and validation of technologies. Furthermore, the different suppliers of technologies will be able to offer their products through this section, offering all kinds of details related to their technologies. Also in this section, the knowledge platform will have space for information related to all technological developments and their supplier industries that are found in other regions and which can be applied in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Regulatory Framework – the knowledge platform will consolidate a homepage that compiles the regulations related to renewable energies in each country, highlighting those laws that, due to their application and scope, have strengthened the implementation of renewables generation systems. A close relationship with public parties is necessary in order to obtain such information. These, at the same time, will find this section useful since they will be able to contrast the laws that are being applied, therefore enabling them to extract the best practices and adapt them to their own geographical area. Also investors and private developers will be able to find here essential information for the success of their investment projects. 

• Financial framework: In this window of the knowledge platform, the financial mechanisms that investors interested in the region can access will be described. Also, special attention will be drawn to the financial facility that the Observatory will offer.

• Management: The best practices will be described and all institutions and enterprises that provide services related to the implementation of renewable energy projects will be announced. The purpose of this is to strengthen the capacities of market agents to implement specific investment actions in the renewable energy field.

• Education and Culture: This window of the knowledge platform will include detailed information on the centers, institutes, and universities that offer different sorts of educational programs related to renewable energy. From this section, alliances between educational entities within and outside the region will be promoted in order to consolidate in Latin America and the Caribbean a proper educational scenario that will allow future generations to obtain the necessary knowledge on the subject without having to import it from other regions.

To guarantee the maximum usefulness of the Knowledge Platform, in addition to a thematic filter that will guide the user through the described areas, a classification of the information will be guarantee based on geographic criteria, so that any user interested in a particular zone of the region can access all the information that refers to the geographic parameter employed.

The knowledge platform has a fundamental characteristic that makes it even more useful to the agent-user, namely the constant up-dating of the information. The platform will demand, from the agents that feed it with information, a firm and lasting commitment to supply it with punctual and periodic data.

The platform will generate and distribute multidisciplinary knowledge on energy, especially renewables, becoming an extraordinarily useful tool that provides specialized guidance to the agents involved into the investment processes, at the regional, national and local levels, enhancing them to take appropriate decisions at the right moment.