[open-energy] Starting work on a European energy data mini-app!

[Jonathan Gray]

A few thoughts/notes to kickstart brainstorming process for the energy mini-app:

= What should we do? =

  * Something very simple, with good use of colour and nice simple
pictograms. I think we want to focus on doing one small thing very
very well on the basis of data that we definitely have (preferably
from Eurostat), rather than focus on too much and risk not having
enough complete high quality data, or enough domain expertise to make
reasonable inferences on the basis of the datasets we have available
to us. It should be web-based and interactive, but we should also be
able to use it to generate animations / sequences that can be
displayed without input from users (animation / screen cast?).
  * In the first instance I suggest we focus on the last two of the
20-20-20 targets, putting them into context and making them easy to
understand. What are the three targets?
    a) The first is on carbon emissions, which I suggest we don't
focus on for this time (partly as this is the more familiar of the
three, and getting good data to do interesting things for this might
be difficult in our time frame).
    b) The second is on getting percentage share of renewables to 20%
(of total EU consumption) by 2020. The targets vary from country to
country and are expressed as a percentage of total consumption (see
[1]). More on this below. Suggest we focus on this one first, and move
on to (c) if we have some extra time to play with. ;-)
    c) The third is on cutting consumption by 20%. If we had the data
we could look at the estimate impact of different measures (e.g.
installation, solar panels, etc). Also interesting to put consumption
targets into context of current and past consumption across EU. But as
above, suggest we focus on (b) for now.

[1] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tsdcc110

= Pictograms =

  * Pictograms:
    - Pictograms for different sectors? For example when looking at
total consumption [1], categories include: industry (factory),
transport (train), households (house), agriculture (tractor), services
(?), other sectors (?) -- need to know what services and other sectors
include, and what could be an easily recognisable representative
example of these categories
    - How can we represent different EU countries without text? E.g.
flags rather than names? Or even incorporate flag designs into the
backgrounds of different graphics?
    - Looking at primary production [2], coal and lignite, crude oil,
natural gas, nuclear energy, renewable energy.

[1] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tsdpc320&plugin=1
[2] Tables ten00076 to ten00081

= How can we represent progress towards the renewable energy target? =

  * Renewable energy targets:
    - How can we compare total primary production of renewables [1],
expressed in terms of 1000 toe, with share of renewable energy [2],
expressed as a percentage of gross final consumption?
  * Thinks we might want a visualisation to do:
    - Help user understand energy mix in different countries and across Europe
    - Help user compare energy mix between different countries
    - Help user show how energy mix has changed over time in different
countries, and across Europe
    - Help user see what targets are (as a percentage of total consumption)
    - Help user compare production and consumption. E.g. mix of energy
consumed vs. mix of energy produced?

[1] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=ten00082&plugin=1
[2] http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tsdcc110&plugin=1

= Understanding the tagets, and putting them into context =

  * Would be good to understand a bit more about how the targets were
set, calculated and so on. Perhaps there is someone at Eurostat who
might know, or who might know someone who does?
  * Noticed that the European Wind Energy Association put out a press
release recently saying they think we'll meet the targets [1]. Could
be interesting to understand the assumptions behind this claim.
  * Is the target 20% of total consumption in 2020? If so, what are
projections for 2020 consumption and what are they based on?

[1] http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/policy/i/3685/

This email is already unwieldy, so I'll stop here! ;-)

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 8:27 PM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This is an email to get the ball rolling on a small web application on
> European energy data which we will be developing in the next couple of
> weeks:
>
>  * What is it? A small, striking mini-app on the EU energy efficiency
> targets based on data from Eurostat (and possibly other sources)
>  * When is it for? We will be aiming to have this finished in *two
> weeks*: for the 2nd February 2011.
>
> We will be using the following pad for notes/planning:
>
>  * http://energy.okfnpad.org/planning
>
> Here are a few of the kinds of questions we could look into:
>
>  * How do the renewable energy targets compare between different
> member states? (Different countries have different targets: see
> below.)
>  * How far are countries from meeting their targets? Are they on
> course? (I.e. what is energy mix like now, and how has it changed in
> recent years.)
>  * How does the energy mix compare between different countries
> (percentage renewables, etc)?
>  * How does energy demand vary from country to country? (E.g. top
> level breakdown into transport, etc.)
>
> As they can be quite tricky to find, here are the renewable energy
> targets for all EU27 member states:
>
>  http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tsdcc110
>
> If you know anyone else who is up for the challenge (journalists,
> developers, designers, policy folks, researchers, etc), I would be
> grateful if you could direct them to this list!
>
> In particular we'd appreciate input on:
>
>  * finding / interpreting sources of data - Eurostat and beyond
>  * European energy policy in general, and on the energy efficiency
> targets in particular
>  * how we can do interesting data visualisations on the basis of this data
>  * interesting stories / narratives we could tell using this data
>
>
> All the best,
>
> Jonathan
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>



-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://blog.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg