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Open energy data on the European Data Portal

Discover open energy data and its applications on the European Data Portal

Open energy data

Open energy data is one of the European Data Portal's (EDP) most popular data domains due to its implications in the energy and environmental sector. With growing awareness of topics such as climate change and renewable resources and initiatives to increase energy efficiency, governments around the world are introducing directives and targets focusing on energy data. One example is the European Union Renewable Energy Directive, which aims to increase the use of renewable energy throughout Europe with energy data - i.e. energy production per solar panel unit and wind energy generated from wind turbines. The Directive sets the target that the total EU energy usage will be generated from 20% renewable energy sources by 2020, and 27% by 2030.

This article focuses on open energy data on the European Data Portal and its use cases.

Open energy datasets

The EDP offers over 1,300 datasets related to energy. For example:

These datasets are accessible on the European Data Portal, which harvests metadata from national open data portals. The national open data portals publish the data or harvest data from different institutions within their countries, such as federal, regional and local portals; national, regional and local government bodies; national or international businesses; or research and academic institutions.

Open energy data use cases

In the EDP library of open data use cases, there are ten use cases of open energy data reuse. For example, the website OpenOil and the service Sun Energia.

OpenOil is a German company that gathers data from government sources, NGOs and oil companies. The company aims to create an open data framework to manage natural resources (such as oil), to provide services that increase transparency in natural resource management, and to provide a cost-benefit analysis of the industries in this sector.

Sun Energia is a Finnish service that uses energy data, such as open meteorological data and weather data, to analyse energy production and potential savings for buildings and homes. By assessing the solar energy production of buildings and homes, Sun Energia advises its clients on how many solar panels they will need on their roof to save energy and money.

For more examples, look at the European Data Portal's datasets and use cases from different European countries that exemplify the value of open data and aim to address the current and future challenges in energy. If you know of any open energy data use cases, share them with us via mail, and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn to stay up to date!