What Open Energy Information does

Open Energy Information (OpenEI) is a free, public-domain collaborative wiki platform for open energy information, data, and resources. Founded in 2009, it is operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC as the Management and Operating Contractor for the National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly the National Renewable Energy Laboratory), under U.S. Department of Energy Prime Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. The platform serves energy analysts, researchers, policymakers and government officials, industry professionals, and the general public, providing access to hundreds of energy topics and 801+ free datasets covering renewables (geothermal, solar, wind, water, hydrogen), utilities, buildings, smart grid, and transportation fuels, alongside a comprehensive U.S. and international utility rate database.

The product architecture is built on MediaWiki extended with Semantic MediaWiki, exposed through RESTful APIs (Utility Companies, U.S. and International Utility Rates, Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, term extraction with content recommendation), SPARQL endpoints, and inline Ask queries. OpenEI also functions as a directory and distribution layer for 49+ EERE Analysis Tools developed internally and by partner national laboratories (BEopt, SAM, PVWatts, WEC-Sim, ReEDS, GREET, OpenStudio, SLED, Solar Power Prospector, MAP, TransAtlas, etc.), plus the Green Button Apps catalog and the Apps for Energy Challenge. Recent additions include experimental generative AI research assistants (AskGDR, AskOEDI, AskPRIMRE) on the Energy Wizard platform that use large language models delivered through Microsoft Azure and AWS Bedrock to answer natural-language questions against the underlying energy data.

OpenEI does not generate commercial revenue. All content is free under Creative Commons Zero, all APIs are free with key sign-up, and there are no paid pricing tiers. Distribution is entirely self-serve (web, APIs, partner platforms, and the NREL Developer Network) supported by an international partner and sponsor network that includes REEEP, reegle, UNEP, CDKN, IRENA, the Clean Energy Ministerial, Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, and multiple universities. The platform is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and is structured as a public research infrastructure asset rather than a venture-backed or commercially monetized company.

Name

Open Energy Information

Legal name

Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC

Website

https://openei.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Open Energy Information (OpenEI) is a free, public-domain collaborative wiki and API platform, operated under U.S. Department of Energy contract by the National Laboratory of the Rockies, providing open energy data, 801+ datasets, semantic APIs, and 49+ analysis tools to researchers, policymakers, industry, and the public.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Energy Data Platform

NAICS

Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192), Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (519290), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

OER Authoring, Remixing & Publishing Tools/Platforms (EDAGAJAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open Educational Resources (OER) & Open Access Academic Publishing (MPAJABAG), Developer & Open-Source Communities (MPACAJAK)

Keywords

• Energy data platform
• Open energy information
• Utility rate database
• Renewable energy analytics
• Energy datasets API

Headquarters

HQ city

Boulder

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Free Public Data Platform: OpenEI is a free, publicly accessible platform for energy information and data. The platform is developed and maintained by the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) with funding and support from the U.S. Department of Energy. Content is available under Creative Commons Zero (public domain). The platform does not charge users for access to data or tools.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

OpenEI is a free, open collaborative wiki platform that hosts hundreds of energy topics, 801+ datasets, and over 49 analysis tools covering renewable energy, utilities, energy efficiency, buildings, and smart grid. It provides REST APIs, SPARQL endpoints, and generative AI research assistants for programmatic and semantic access to energy data including utility rates and incentives.

Product overview

Open Energy Information (OpenEI) is a collaborative wiki platform, similar to Wikipedia, providing open energy information, data, and resources. The platform operates as a multi-product ecosystem centered on the OpenEI Wiki Platform for crowdsourced energy content, combined with Dataset Sharing capabilities and Developer Services offering REST APIs for utility companies, utility rates, and incentives. OpenEI serves as a directory for over 49 EERE Analysis Tools spanning building energy optimization (BEopt), wave energy simulation (WEC-Sim), solar PV estimation (PVWatts), renewable energy project modeling (SAM), vehicle cost analysis, and various GIS and policy analysis tools. The platform also hosts the Green Button Apps Catalog and supports the Apps for Energy Challenge initiative, functioning as a hub for energy data consumers and tool developers. OpenEI is developed and maintained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Green Button Apps: Applications that use Green Button electricity usage data to help consumers explore and manage their energy usage.
• BEopt
• System Advisor Model (SAM)
• PVWatts
• WEC-Sim
• State and Local Energy Data (SLED)
• Solar Power Prospector

Products and services

• OpenEI Wiki Platform A collaborative wiki platform, similar to Wikipedia, for viewing, editing, and downloading open energy information and data. Users can contribute content on hundreds of energy topics, with data crowdsourced from industry and government agencies.
• OpenEI Developer Services / REST APIs RESTful web services providing programmatic access to OpenEI's energy data, including utility companies, utility rates, incentives for renewables and efficiency, and term extraction with content recommendation.
• OpenEI Dataset Sharing Platform for sharing, downloading, rating, and commenting on datasets. Users can upload their own data or download existing datasets for free.
• Green Button Apps Catalog Catalog of applications that use Green Button electricity usage data to help consumers explore and manage energy usage, perform virtual energy audits, and receive efficiency tips.
• BEopt (Building Energy Optimization) Software tool from NREL for evaluating residential building designs and identifying cost-optimal efficiency packages at various levels of whole-house energy savings along the path to zero net energy.
• WEC-Sim (Wave Energy Converter Simulator) Open-source wave energy converter simulator developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK using multi-body dynamics solver SimMechanics for modeling devices with rigid bodies, power-take-off systems, and mooring systems.
• PVWatts Calculator Interactive web application from NREL that estimates grid-connected photovoltaic system performance based on location, system size, array orientation, and cost parameters.
• Vehicle Cost Calculator Online calculator comparing total cost of ownership and emissions among alternative fuel vehicles, advanced technology vehicles, and conventional vehicles.
• System Advisor Model (SAM) Performance and financial model for renewable energy projects, facilitating decision-making for grid-connected solar PV, concentrating solar power, wind, biomass, and geothermal power systems with cash flow analysis.
• TransAtlas Interactive web-based geographic information system for exploring alternative fueling stations, alternative fueled vehicle concentrations, and related transportation data in the United States.
• State and Local Energy Data (SLED) Online tool providing state and local decision makers easy access to energy data including electricity rates, fuel sources, demand by sector, renewable resource maps, and policies/incentives.
• Solar Power Prospector Interactive mapping tool from NREL for the CSP industry to help developers site large scale concentrating solar power plants by providing solar resource datasets.
• Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) Multi-regional, multi-timeperiod GIS and linear programming model of capacity expansion in the U.S. electric sector, designed for analysis of conventional and renewable electricity generating technologies.
• GREET Fleet Spreadsheet tool from Argonne National Laboratory for comparing petroleum displacement and greenhouse gas emissions of medium and heavy-duty vehicles and off-road equipment.
• OpenStudio Policy Analysis Tool Data manipulation and visualization tool for perturbations and application of codes and standards for commercial buildings, using OpenStudio development platform with EnergyPlus.
• NREL Levelized Cost of Energy Calculator Simple LCOE calculator for comparing combinations of capital costs, O&M costs, performance, and fuel costs across different energy technologies.
• Mooring Analysis Program (MAP) Library for modeling steady-state forces on multi-segmented quasi-static mooring lines, with Python bindings and integration with NWTC FAST modularization framework.
• EERE Analysis Tools Category of 49 energy analysis tools including models, software, and calculators funded by the U.S. Department of Energy for renewable energy and energy efficiency analysis.

Quantifiable outcome

• 801 free datasets available on the platform
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability4 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered primary, major, core and supporting.

• National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR)primaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpenEI is developed and maintained by the National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly the National Renewable Energy Laboratory). NLR provides the technical infrastructure, staff, and operational support for the platform under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.
• reeglemajorStrategic or Co-development Partnerreegle Country Profiles pull renewable resource maps, tools and programs from OpenEI country pages. Hundreds of definitions from the OpenEI Glossary have been shared with the reegle Thesaurus. The partnership involves bidirectional data sharing.
• Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerREEEP is an organization behind reegle. The cooperation means seamless access to important information, less duplication of effort, opportunities for joint ventures, collaboration on cutting-edge development projects, and has resulted in increased funding opportunities and visitor traffic to mutual sites.
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)primaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerNREL (now part of National Laboratory of the Rockies) is the primary operational partner developing and maintaining OpenEI. Many tools hosted on OpenEI are NREL-developed applications.
• Green Button InitiativemajorTechnology or IntegrationOpenEI is the recognized go-to site for Green Button Apps. The platform contains apps from contests like the Apps for Energy Challenge as well as apps submitted directly by developers. OpenEI helped promote the Green Button initiative by providing content to the White House.
• Argonne National LaboratorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization that develops tools and resources shared through OpenEI, including the VISION Model for Vehicle Technologies and Alternative Fuels.
• Oak Ridge National LaboratorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization developing tools shared through OpenEI, including the MARKet ALlocation (MARKAL) model and MA3T Consumer Choice Model.
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)Strategic or Co-development PartnerInternational partner providing environmental data and supporting OpenEI's global energy information mission.
• Climate Development Knowledge Network (CDKN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational partner supporting climate and development information sharing through OpenEI.
• Clean Energy MinisterialcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational forum partner supporting clean energy information sharing and collaboration.
• International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational renewable energy agency partner supporting global energy data collaboration.
• Illinois State UniversitysupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity partner contributing to OpenEI's educational mission and energy data initiatives.
• Western Illinois UniversitysupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity partner supporting OpenEI's academic and research initiatives.
• Geothermal Resources Council (GRC)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndustry organization partner supporting geothermal energy data and resources on OpenEI.
• Climate Knowledge Brokers GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpenEI is home to the CKB Group portal and is an active participant on their strategic direction panel. The CKB Group is an emerging alliance of around 50 leading global, regional and national websites specializing in climate and development information.
• NREL BEopt SoftwarecoreTechnology or IntegrationNREL's Building Energy Optimization (BEopt) software integrates with OpenEI's utility rate database, making thousands of residential utility tariffs available directly in the BEopt user interface for building energy analysis.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA): IRENA is already an OpenEI partner and provides global renewable energy statistics, country profiles, and project-level data. Both platforms serve similar audiences seeking open renewable energy information, with IRENA's datasets contributing into OpenEI's ecosystem.
• U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA): EIA is the U.S. government's primary statistical agency for energy information, publishing open energy datasets, analyses, and forecasts. Like OpenEI, it operates as a public, free resource for energy data; however, EIA is an official statistical authority rather than a wiki, so OpenEI complements rather than directly competes with it.
• Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP): REEEP and its reegle platform are existing OpenEI partners that curate renewable energy and efficiency country profiles. Both organizations serve similar international clean-energy information audiences and share data bidirectionally.
• International Energy Agency (IEA): IEA provides open global energy statistics, reports, and datasets covering renewables, efficiency, and markets. OpenEI and the IEA address overlapping use cases for policymakers and analysts needing cross-country energy data, though IEA focuses on authoritative reports while OpenEI emphasizes crowdsourced and tool integration.

Broad incumbents

• Wood Mackenzie: Wood Mackenzie provides commercial research and data on global energy, renewables, and commodities. It serves overlapping enterprise and investor customers as OpenEI but with paid, curated research rather than open wiki content.
• BloombergNEF: BloombergNEF is a leading commercial provider of energy and climate market data, research, and analytics. It addresses the same enterprise analyst and policymaker use cases as OpenEI but as a paid subscription product with deeper financial and market coverage.
• S&P Global Commodity Insights: S&P Global Commodity Insights (including Platts) offers paid energy market data, pricing, and analytics globally. It competes for the same research and policy customer base as OpenEI but with commercial-grade infrastructure and proprietary datasets.

Emerging players

• Climate TRACE: Climate TRACE is an emerging coalition using satellite and sensor data to estimate global greenhouse gas emissions. It targets a similar policy and research audience to OpenEI but focuses specifically on emissions inventory rather than broader energy data.

Others

• Data.gov: Data.gov is the U.S. federal open data portal hosting thousands of datasets from multiple agencies including DOE. It provides the broader open-government context in which OpenEI operates and is a complementary ecosystem rather than a direct competitor.
• Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia / Wikidata): Wikipedia and Wikidata share OpenEI's MediaWiki foundation and open-collaboration ethos, and energy topics on Wikipedia often draw from OpenEI sources. They are thematically adjacent as the broader open knowledge ecosystem that OpenEI's wiki model is built upon.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/OpenEnergyInfo
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/freedom-field-renewable-energy

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Open Energy Information