Welcome to the Energy Community of Practice Portal

Last modified: 01/16/2007 03:48 PM

Objectives of the CP

The objective of the Energy Community of practice (ECP) is to support GEOSS outcomes related to the application of Earth Observation data for energies.

Relevant areas are:

Siting of power plants and facilities including environmental and sociological issues
Optimized design of power systems and facilities
Yield estimation and resource monitoring based on historic information
Yield forecast based on near real time weather and forecasting
Integration into existing energy supply, e.g. grid & utility system integration
Operation and management of power plants incl. automatic failure detection
Trading and monitoring of power and environmental credits
Environmental monitoring of impacts
Life cycle considerations
Economic analyses

The Energy Community of practice (ECP) will contribute to the goals of the energy benefit area of GEOSS for improved management of energy resources (section 4.1.3 GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan). Especially power and electricity production both on supply and demand side, resource and potential assessment, reliability of supply, and cost effectiveness can be improved with the help of Earth Observation.

The overall focus of ECP is setting up an overview addressing how energies can benefit from Earth Observation and GEOSS in order to provide an important part of our energy supply. This would include requirements for GEOSS to provide the benefits for energy applications.

The usage of Earth observation for energies is currently split into several groups depending on the technology used (wind, solar, ocean, oil/gas, nuclear). There is not much exchange between users of Earth Observation data in the different communities as conferences and trade fairs are organised separately. There is also not much exchange between experts of EO data and industries of the different energy sectors. Objective of the ECP is to bring together the different energy communities and to facilitate exchange of experience gained while using Earth Observation information.

ECP will work based on the following principles:

Develop and act as a focal point for implementing a plan to address the needs of energies community for implementation and use of GEOSS.
Building networks and including existing but distributed efforts
Work closely with the User Interface Committee and other GEO committees to link and coordinate plans. Coordinate with CP teams where overlapping exists.
Facilitate outreach and inform the renewable energies community about GEOSS. Provide opportunities for GEO to interact with stakeholders. Disseminate GEOSS potential and best practice examples.