Energy blogs

National Day of Civic Hacking

Graham7781 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 16:48:00 +0000

The National Day of Civic Hacking is coming to a city near you. Internationally-supported, these civic hacking events will be in cities around the world bringing together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate and build solutions to data, code, and technology.

Energy Department Launches Competition to Spur Creation of Innovative Energy Apps Built with Open Data

Graham7781 — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 22:14:26 +0000

New Presidential Memorandum on establishing Quadrennial Energy Review

Graham7781 — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:40:49 +0000

A new memorandum from the President to the heads of executive departments and agencies announces the development of an interagency Quadrennial Energy Review Task Force. The tast force includes members from all relevant executive departments and agencies, who will be tasked with developing an integrated review of energy policy that integrates all of these collective perspectives.

Suburbs offset Low Carbon Footprint of major U.S. Cities

Graham7781 — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 20:12:36 +0000

New research from the University of California-Berkeley shows that those who live in cities in the United States have significantly smaller per-capita carbon footprints than their suburban counterparts. The difference is such that suburban dwellers essentially offset the low carbon footprints of urban dwellers.

NREL releases 2012 Renewable Energy Data Book

Graham7781 — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 19:53:54 +0000

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released the 2012 Renewable Energy Data Book on behalf of the Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

New report from White House outlines largest problems facing United States energy grid

Graham7781 — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 19:21:34 +0000

DOE Report Describes Progress in the Deployment of Synchrophasor Technologies for Improved Grid Operations

Graham7781 — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 16:09:30 +0000

Geothermal Regulatory Roadmap featured on NREL Now

Graham7781 — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 20:18:48 +0000

Navigating the complex system of federal and state regulations to secure project approvals is one of the biggest hurdles geothermal power developers face—but not if they’ve got a map outlining every twist and turn.

Four new publications help advance renewable energy development

Graham7781 — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 21:37:54 +0000

Four publications giving guidance to policy and decision makers on particular challenges facing renewable energy deployment were released yesterday. As renewable energy becomes more competitive with fossil fuels in OECD countries, reports of this nature can go a long way to supporting more and more development. The four new reports in short:

President Obama presents new Climate Action Plan

Graham7781 — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 19:39:10 +0000

President Obama layed out his much anticipated Climate Action Plan tuesday. The President's plan calls for major actions that the administration believes will mitigate the environmental and economic costs of climate change.

Obama's six Climate Action Initiatives:

1. Phasing out Fossil Fuels

NREL's Energy Databus storing big energy data

Graham7781 — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 16:17:27 +0000

The Energy Databus began as a project aimed at addressing campus energy consumption and tracking issues at NREL. Now, with the ability to store large amounts of data, some of which measured by the second, along with rich functionality, the open-source software tool could offer the same solutions to many facilities.

Introducing FRED, Enabling Unique Visualization and Manipulation of Energy Data at Multiple Scales

Sfederspiel — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:28:52 +0000

The U.S. Department of Energy, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Planetary Skin Institute recently released a new open platform hosted by OpenEI which enables state and local governments, agencies, corporations, and other energy analysts to effectively visualize energy use data and make energy data more useful for decision-making processes.

EIA officially recognizes utility rate database on OpenEI

Sfomail — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:42:21 +0000

Good news, everyone! The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) now officially recognizes the OpenEI utility rate database. Up until just a few months ago, the EIA website stated:

Commercial and Residential Hourly Load Data Now Available on OpenEI!

Sfomail — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:03:41 +0000

Image source: NREL

Files:

System Advisor Model Tool for Downloading Load Data

Utility Rates API Version 2 is Live!

Sfomail — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:14:17 +0000

After several months of development and testing, the next generation web service for the utility rate database is finally here! I encourage you to check out the V2 Utility Rates API at http://en.openei.org/services/doc/rest/util_rates

OpenEI Showcased in Geothermal Exploration Best Practices Workshop

Graham7781 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:05:30 +0000

This week, Denver hosted the US DOE Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) 2013 Peer Review. The purpose of the peer review is to offer geothermal stakeholders an opportunity to learn about the projects funded by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) across a wide spectrum of technical complexity and funding magnitude, from research and development to demonstration and analysis.

OpenEI launches new Water Power Gateway and Community Forum

Graham7781 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:16:59 +0000

OpenEI has launched a new Water Power Gateway, which contains links to critical public data sets, up-to-date information on technologies and events, a community forum to discuss topics of interest, links to major research and industry reports, and more.

New Result Formats on OpenEI

Jweers — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:22:26 +0000

As a result of the recent upgrade, and some internal improvements, OpenEI now features a host of new result formats to enhance your wiki content. You can find a list of them right here: http://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Result_formats

I would like to call extra attention to two of these:

Quarterly Smart Grid Data available for download on OpenEI

Graham7781 — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:23:02 +0000

SmartGrid.gov is a resource for information about the Smart Grid and government-sponsored Smart Grid projects. The information on SmartGrid.gov helps consumers and stakeholders understand the basics of a Smart Grid, and also brings data generated by recipients to the public.

That data is key to the long-term success of a true Smart Grid, and you can download it, only on OpenEI.

OpenEI maintenance March 8-9, 2013

Rmckeel — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:23:24 +0000

We would like to inform the OpenEI community that OpenEI will be undergoing a significant software upgrade during a maintenance window this weekend. We will be upgrading the wiki and semantic mediawiki portions of OpenEI, which means /datasets, /apps, /lod, /sparql and /community will continue to function normally. Additionally, web services that rely on Ask queries (utility rate database API) may have some downtime as we transition.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu to host DOE's first google hangout at 2 EST

Graham7781 — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:32:13 +0000

The DOE Energy Secretary Steven Chu will be hosting a google hangout open to the public tomorrow afternoon to answer questions related to the Sunshot Initiative.

More about the Google Hangout tomorrow:

Reegle mentions OpenEI in video on new Content Pool API

Graham7781 — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:25:36 +0000

Reegle and OpenEI share the vision that easy access to energy information will help drive future developments in clean energy development.

IRENA launches global atlas of renewable energy potential

Graham7781 — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:18:42 +0000

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) recently launched the Global Atlas project in January, bringing robust tools and maps of renewable energy potential to your fingertips.

OpenEI is also involved, serving as a portal to the IRENA global atlas on our platform.

Wind Powering America Guidebook officially launched on OpenEI

Graham7781 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:55:50 +0000

Wind Powering America's Small Wind Guidebook is now featured in OpenEI, the U.S. Department of Energy's wiki platform for energy information. This guide and the state-specific versions are some of the most successful communications products ever produced by Wind Powering America, with tens of thousands of copies printed and downloaded.

The Consumer Electronics Show round-up

Graham7781 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 20:57:51 +0000

Every January, Las Vegas hosts the Consumer Electronics Show. The CES is the world's largest technology-related trade show.

The highlights of this year's show were OLED TVs, ultra-thin laptops, tablets, and smartphones. However, a few smart grid-related technologies were making an impression.

U.S. Global Change Research Program publishes "National Climate Assessment" report for United States

Graham7781 — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 22:46:08 +0000

The U.S. Global Change Research Program, established under the Department of Commerce in 2010, and partnered with NOAA, released an extensive National Climate Assessment report, projecting future climate changes in the United States under different scenarios.

The 1,200 page report highlights some rather grim findings about the future of climate change.

Here are 5 of the more disconcerting graphics from the report:

1. U.S. Average Temperatures

SDG&E Customers Can Connect Home Area Network Devices With Smart Meters

Graham7781 — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:09:58 +0000

article reposted from Smartgrid.gov

Swinerton Renewable Energy Awarded Contract to Construct and Operate 250 MWac K Road Moapa Solar Plant

Graham7781 — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 21:21:04 +0000

Key energy efficiency measures signed into law by President Obama

Graham7781 — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:53:08 +0000

President Obama recently signed into law the American Energy Manufacturing Technical Corrections Act, a piece of legislation that includes provisions that are aimed at aggressively moving clean energy and energy efficiency forward.

For a more in-depth article, visit Smartgridnews.com

Public Perception of 13 Different Energy Topics analyzed in new Study

Graham7781 — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 21:27:21 +0000

Pike Research, part of Navigant, recently released a White Paper that takes an in-depth view at public perception of 13 energy topics.

The study uses a 1,000 person sample to show favorability and unfavorability energy topics such as transportation, renewable technology, nuclear, clean coal, and smart grid topics.

Some of the highlights of the study are as follows:

The Apps for Vehicles Challenge has begun!

Graham7781 — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:40:37 +0000

**Update: Visit the Apps for Vehicles page for all the information you need on the challenge.**

LOD Workshop Wrap-up courtesy of REEGLE

Graham7781 — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:41:44 +0000

Dubbed as the first "Linked Open Data" workshop, last week REEEP and NREL ran a clean energy workshop in Washington, D.C. to discuss the enormous potential of LOD in supporting the transition to a cleaner energy economy.

OpenEI dashboard

Rmckeel — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 19:58:44 +0000

Did you know that in the last month, 621 people in Bangalore, India spent 16 hours browsing OpenEI.org? Or that in the last year, 14,243 people found out about an energy app through the OpenEI apps browser?

East Coast Utilities prepare for Hurricane Sandy

Graham7781 — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:46:36 +0000

As Hurricane Sandy continues to track towards the coast of the Eastern United States, utility companies have been preparing for an imminent threat that could lead to a substantial and prolonged power outage for utility customers not only on the East Coast, but also as far west as Chicago and as far north as Canada.

Green Button in the News

Graham7781 — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:54:46 +0000

Last week, Green Button was once again making news, this time at NREL.

A full-length article about how utility companies are using Green Button standards set by the Department of Energy, NREL, and the White House to give consumers the ability to easily access and share their personal energy data.

Tim O'reilly interviews Todd Park

Graham7781 — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:49:26 +0000

Check out theTim O’Reilly interview of Todd Park, US Chief Technology Officer, on his innovation agenda and his tips for creating a culture of innovation inside the United States Government.

Nominations open for $250,000 Multimedia Clean Energy prizes

Graham7781 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 20:01:34 +0000

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 27, 2012) – Representatives of the $250,000 Energy Visions Prize (EVP) competition will attend the Cleanweb Hackathons in NYC, Houston and SXSW Eco in Austin to preview innovative clean energy apps and encourage nominations. The EVP rewards innovative software and video makers who advance clean energy solutions.

White House Energy Datapalooza live on Whitehouse.gov

Graham7781 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:32:16 +0000

Today, Whitehouse.gov and Energy.gov collaborated to showcase the White House Energy Datapalooza, an event aimed at highlighting innovators and entrepreneurs that use open energy data sourced from the government.

Datapalooza Announcements

Ianjkalin — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 22:52:41 +0000

New data has been liberated!

OpenEI part of the Federal Digital Strategy

Graham7781 — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 21:32:01 +0000

Town Hall Meeting October 1st, 2012

Graham7781 — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:40:21 +0000

What: OpenEI's town hall meeting is a half-hour open forum for discussions on energy topics with NREL's OpenEI team. Find out how your fellow researchers, students, teachers and energy professionals are using energy data, maps and tools.

Current and historical incentive data available as XML!

Rmckeel — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:41:35 +0000

Visualize energy APIs with a new OpenEI browser

Rmckeel — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:54:40 +0000

OpenEI has created a simple way to see energy APIs available to developers. See commercial and free energy APIs such as NREL's developer network, Genability, 3TIER, OpenEI APIs and more! Click here to get started.

OpenEI search improvements

Rmckeel — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 19:52:47 +0000

Today OpenEI.org released some changes to search that have been in the works for 1-2 months. With some minor UI updates, we have also included new icons for our search results. Now, spotting and discovering a dataset, definition, tool or map file should be easier.

New Gapminder Visualizations Added!

Wzeng — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:37:33 +0000

OpenEI now features some cool new Gapminder Visualizations for users to browse and discover interesting trends. This dynamic chart, also called a motion chart, allows users to view changing data over time with four different axis, all changeable with a click of the mouse.

The Transparent Cost Database (TCDB)

Graham7781 — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:30:38 +0000

This new web application collects cost and performance estimates and makes it available to everyone to perform analysis. Utilities, policy makers, consumers, and academics can all take advantage of the app that makes electric generation, advanced vehicles, and renewable fuel technologies' performance estimates transparent and open.

Visualizing OpenEI Data

Graham7781 — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Want to create a visualization like the one on the new OpenEI front page? There are several online tools that make organizing and visualizing data free and easy.

New OpenEI Homepage

Graham7781 — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:02:00 +0000

OpenEI has gotten a makeover, and we couldn't help gush over how nice we think we look.

Top Innovation Ideas from the New York Energy Data Jam

Ianjkalin — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 19:05:59 +0000

S & P Opines on Securitizing Distributed Generation

Graham7781 — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:04:00 +0000

Article originally published at NREL's Renewable Energy Project Finance website