Building the Power Atlas: How Wildtribe’s Head of Digital Made Global Renewable Data Clickable
Building the Power Atlas: How Wildtribe’s Head of Digital Made Global Renewable Data Clickable
The renewable energy transition is the biggest story of our generation. But too often it’s told in dense reports, spreadsheets, and policy PDFs that don’t exactly invite curiosity.
What if it could be explored, spun, and clicked instead?
That’s the idea behind the Power Atlas: a new interactive tool built by Wildtribe’s Head of Digital, Sam Passmore. A side project turned showpiece, the Atlas takes global renewable energy data and turns it into something you can actually play with: a 3D globe you can rotate, zoom, and click on to see how every country is progressing in the switch to clean power.
Why Sam Built It
“I wanted people to see the energy transition, not just scroll past it,” Sam says.
The inspiration came from a fellow digital creative: Rob Hawkes’ Wasted Wind tracker, which shows in real money how much green energy Britain wastes by turning off wind turbines and firing up gas instead.
“That project really hit me. It was simple, visual, and it made the problem instantly relatable. I thought, what if we could do the same for the bigger global picture? Show people the transition in a way they could explore, almost like Google Earth, but focused on renewables.”
Under the Hood
The Power Atlas isn’t a standard website. It’s built with a modern stack designed for performance, flexibility, and beautiful visuals.
- Next.js 15: Lightning-fast performance with automatic code splitting and server-side rendering.
- Three.js + react-globe.gl: The backbone of the interactive 3D globe, powered by WebGL.
- Tailwind CSS 4: Utility-first styling for a clean, consistent design system.
- ShadCN, Radix UI, Lucide Icons: For the smooth interface, accessible components, and crisp icons.
- TypeScript: Ensuring data consistency and catching bugs before they ever go live.
- Data sources: IRENA, IEA, Ember, REN21 and others.
Sam’s favourite feature to build? “The click-to-country view. I love how you can spin the globe, pick any nation, and instantly see its renewable energy stats in context. It turns abstract numbers into a story you can touch.”
Why It Matters
For us at Wildtribe, the Atlas is more than just a cool digital experiment. It’s a proof of concept for what we believe in: making the energy transition clear, human, and engaging.
Because here’s the reality: Big Oil outspends clean energy organisations 27 to 1 in advertising and lobbying. They’ve mastered the art of storytelling. And too often, our sector is left playing catch-up with facts and figures that never cut through.
The Power Atlas shows another way forward. It’s part of the same fight we’ve been championing in our work with the Net Zero Tech Curve: if you want people to engage, you need to match the message to the market - and the medium.
Data tables don’t win narrative wars. Experiences do. And more often than not, it’s digital experiences first.
What’s Next for the Atlas
The Power Atlas is just the beginning.
Sam is already experimenting with new layers: policy milestones, carbon reductions, and maybe even real-time energy flows.
“This is a living tool. My hope is that it keeps growing - and that people use it not just to learn, but to challenge how they think about progress. Suggestions are more than welcome.”
Wildtribe’s Work
At Wildtribe, we help renewable energy and cleantech brands tell the stories that win hearts, minds, and markets. The Power Atlas is a glimpse of how we do it: combining creativity, technology, and strategy to make the transition not just understandable, but compelling.
If we can turn global renewable data into something this engaging, imagine what we can do for your brand.
