Open Energy Information

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) created the OpenEI (Open Energy Information) platform in 2009 to make its data catalog more accessible and usable. As Data.gov describes it, OpenEI “is a knowledge-sharing online community dedicated to connecting people with the latest information and data on energy resources from around the world. . . . OpenEI offers access to real-time data and unique visualizations that will help you find the answers you need to make better, more informed decisions.”

OpenEI features an OpenEI wiki that enables crowdsourced data contributions, a community section for dialogue around energy data, a data sets section that catalogues DOE data assets with a focus on data quality management, data provenance, and providing access to the metadata for datasets in various open and machine-readable formats as well as a searchable catalog of energy applications. There are currently more than 1600 datasets available on OpenEI, and about 200,000 pages on topics including renewable energy, policy and regulations, and data analysis.