In the last year, a number of partners have leveraged Virtual Earth technology to deliver innovative environmental solutions:

• Sungevity designed a global mapping platform, based on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, which lowers the cost of solar energy installation, helps homeowners easily see the value of solar energy, and aims to make solar usage more widespread. For more on their solution, see "Sungevity uses Virtual Earth to quickly, remotely assess customer sites."

• Geomatic Technologies delivered a Virtual Earth-based groundwater management tool to map out areas of intensive groundwater use for the Department of Environmental Sustainability in Victoria, Australia. The solution will help their customer determine optimal management actions for stressed aquifers and makes information on the aquifers quickly and widely available to stakeholders. For more information, see "Virtual Earth Brings Limited Water Resource into Focus."

• Infusion Development combined Microsoft Virtual Earth with the data power of Microsoft SharePoint to develop JEPRS an extremely effective tool for managing environmental events. The solution will empower more effective environmental disaster management. For more information, see "Microsoft Technology Powers Environmental Crisis–Response Tool."

These partners not only demonstrate that the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform enables environmental solutions for a number of critical environmental issues but, more importantly, that the partner ecosystem is moving towards realizing the potential of VE to deliver these solutions.