DOE Publishes Nationwide Utility Rates

Thanks to OpenEI.org, a website that enables collaborative sharing of energy data, everyone from consumers to utility regulators can now view prevailing electricity rates across a wide swath of the United States.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, the Open Energy Information platform – which blends elements of social media with Wiki-style technological information gathering – now offers a fully accessible energy data aggregator that provides “one-stop shopping” whether one is a consumer planning to install a residential rooftop wind turbine, or a policy maker hoping to adjust area electricity rates to encourage renewable energy programs.

Launched in December of 2009 to improve government transparency, the site has since its inception earned the reputation as a “flagship initiative” in the DOE’s Open Government Initiative Plan. This newest gateway now provides previously unavailable information on electricity rates and sources in locations as geographically distant as Bellingham, Washington and Miami, Florida.

On the OpenEI site consumers and others can find information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on how effective geothermal energy is at various depths and locations. They can also discover how to qualify for those amazing renewable energy incentives available from the federal government, various states, and even utilities.

Solar companies can find rates of solar insolation (the amount and strength of sunlight reaching the earth), while wind and geothermal developers can see how their state rates in the overall renewable energy picture. Most important, the information is single-source and readily accessible; no more need to surf the Web state-by-state to find out if regulator-approved electricity rates and policies in Minnesota, for example, provide enough “wiggle room” to consider a utility-scale wind farm.

The site allows browsing by region or by subject (buildings, geothermal, smart grid, oil and gas), and provides an extensive archive of maps on everything from U.S. continental shelf boundaries (for offshore wind or oil drilling), to federally-held leases in the Pacific Ocean near Santa Barbara. It even has its own associated blog and YouTube channel, as well as a Twitter feed!

Open EI is not merely U.S-based, though. Researchers, students and homeowners can input or extract information on 211 countries, from Azerbaijan to Uganda, and on every subject from the solar technologies marketplace to carbon reduction and climate-change mitigation schemes based on farming and forestry techniques.

Finally, OpenEI is lasting proof that only knowledge shared is true power. Or, as Energy Secretary Steven Chu noted:  “The true potential of this tool will grow with the public's participation.”