International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

(Reuters/Planet Ark) Member states of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) voted to locate their headquarters in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt’s state news agency MENA said on Monday. … IRENA’s innovation and technology center would be located in Bonn and that an office for contacts to the U.N. would also be set up in Vienna. “I’m quite happy about this agreement,” said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel in a statement. He said the agreement to include IRENA operations in all three countries would send out “the right signal.” IRENA, which was founded in January, has 114 members and aims to promote a rapid transition toward the widespread adoption of renewable energy, according to its website.
The UAE … the world’s third-largest oil exporter, had said it wanted to place itself at the forefront of developments that may shape the future energy industry, and hosting IRENA was part of that plan. … it plans to house IRENA in Masdar City, a project underway to build a carbon-neutral town in the desert, and said the IRENA headquarters would be ready by 2011.

Background: Founding an International Renewable Energy Agency (.pdf)
26 January 2009
A milestone for future-oriented energy supply
The aim of the new Agency is to close throughout the world the gap between the enormous potential of renewables and their current relatively low market share in energy consumption. IRENA is the first international organisation to focus exclusively on the issue of renewable energies. The main work of IRENA will be to advise its members on creating the right frameworks, building capacity and improving financing and the transfer of technology and know-how for renewable energies.
10 October 2008
Breakthrough for the expansion of renewable energies
International Agency to be set up in January 2009