WS1UC4

This page provides space for notes from workshop discussions of use case 4 during Day 2 of WS1.

Interactive elements

The discussions can also benefit from considering the EERAdata storyboard and/or slido comments. See WS1#Interactive_elements

Notes from the morning session

The morning session is dedicated to database discussions with the aim to select 3-5 databases from below's list of databases for further examination. The first table of the WIKI page is filled out by noon.

Draft list of databases

The databases that were identified as containing data in relation to low carbon energy and energy efficiency policy:

1. Copernicus
2. DataCite
3. ECO data set
4. EnergyData
5. EREK
6. EU Merci
7. EUR-Lex
8. European Buildings Stock Observatory
9. IEA Policies database
10. IRENA, REmap
11. IRENA, Resource
12. JRC-database hub
13. JRC-IDEES: Integrated Database of the European Energy Sector: Metodological note
14. [https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/monitoring-ri-low-carbon-energy-technologies JRC: Monitoring R&I in Low-Carbon Energy Technologies
15. MAGIC
16. NREL data
17. ODIN: Online Data & Information Network for Energy
18. OECD data
19. OEIL
20. OPENEI
21. PETA4
22. PROQuest
23. REEEP
24. Re3data.org
25. RES LEGAL
26. SETIS research and innovation data
27. ZENODO
28. H2020 project COMETS - EU-wide inventory of collective action initiatives in the low carbon energy transition
29. [1] - EU taxonomy for green innovation companies

Discussion on the choice of databases:

• From GIG, apart from IEA Policy database, there will be also a proposition of RESLEGAL, EUR-Lex, DataCite, EU Merci, OECD, and probably also JRC-database.
• @ IUE and ENEA: each of you please suggest 2 other databases and prepare for them a description and an explanation - why we should choose them for further evaluation. Material please put in the Wiki.
• @ all: for databases that you suggested please complete the questionnaire from AIT in OO ([2] and put answers into the folder in OO [3] until Friday 29.05.

COMETS database: EU-wide inventory of collective action initiatives in the energy transition

Description of database: The inventory is a multi-country database of collective action initiatives (e.g., energy cooperatives, eco-villages, community energy projects, and other citizen-led energy projects). For each initiative, the country, the date of foundation/cancellation, the evolution of members and renewable energy units, installation capacities, fields of engagement, legal form, website, address, source, etc. is collected. The entries are sourced from a variety of national, regional, and European registers and websites.

Rationale for choosing this database:

• The database is of policy relevance. Its data interpretation is highly dependent on changes in the legal and policy frameworks across Europe.
• We own the database and therefore have it easier to exercise FAIRification and opening activities.
• The database is being created in a parallel running European project and we would not like that the database ends in the graveyard of dead EU project databases.
• We aim at opening the database to the low carbon research community within the next two years.
• We are interested to explore the options for opening while ensuring that our work in building the database is appropriately acknowledged. This is relevant for later EERAdata discussion. Here, we already started discussing with e3s and tJP of EERAdata.
• We can use synergies with another parallel EU project and have the possibility to assign rich metadata to every single entry, by also using the expertise of researchers from the COMETS project.
• The database itself has a relatively simple structure, however, the inventory contains heterogeneous and dynamic data. Thus, it helps us to investigate how to approach FAIRification for such data. This is a particular challenge for UC4.
• Sources of the COMETS database are coming in a variety of European languages, all brought together in an English database. Thus, it helps us to investigate the relevance of languages for FAIRification and opening activities. This is also a particular challenge for UC4.
• We aim at uploading this database as an example for EERAdata to EOSC. We hope to create a best practice example for a FAIR and open database. Currently, it is F - non-existing, A - non-existing., I - partly as one can, e.g., go to the currently published papers to access the original sources. But it is not machine-actionable. R - no, because it is currently not open.

Reference: Wierling, A.; Schwanitz, V.J.; Zeiß, J.P.; Bout, C.; Candelise, C.; Gilcrease, W.; Gregg, J.S. Statistical Evidence on the Role of Energy Cooperatives for the Energy Transition in European Countries. Sustainability.

IEA Policy database

Description of the database: A worldwide database of past, future and planned policies and measures thematically related to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve energy efficiency and support the development and deployment of renewables and other clean energy technologies. It contains data from IEA/IRENA Renewable Energy Policies and Measures Database, the IEA Energy Efficiency Database, the Addressing Climate Change database, and the Building Energy Efficiency Policies (BEEP) database, along with information on CCUS and methane abatement policies. Data are collected from governments, partner organizations and IEA analysis since 1999.

Rationale for choosing this database:

• A popular, recognized, and world-wide database hosted by a reputable institution.
• Since we are not able to analyze all the databases that we would like to - the selection of the IEA Policy database would indirectly allow us to take into account several other, selected databases because it contains data from: IEA/IRENA Renewable Energy Policies and Measures Database, the IEA Energy Efficiency Database, the Addressing Climate Change database, and the Building Energy Efficiency Policies (BEEP) database,
• Cross-use case relevance, as it contains policies and measures also for buildings efficiency (UC1) and for power transmission and distribution networks (UC2).

EU Taxonomy for green innovation companies

Description of the database: The EU Taxonomy is a tool to help investors, companies, issuers, and project promoters navigate the transition to a low-carbon, resilient and resource-efficient economy. The Taxonomy sets performance thresholds (referred to as ‘technical screening criteria’) for economic activities which: • make a substantive contribution to one of six environmental objectives (Figure 1); • do no significant harm (DNSH) to the other five, where relevant; • meet minimum safeguards (e.g., OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights). The performance thresholds will help companies, project promoters and issuers access green financing to improve their environmental performance, as well as helping to identify which activities are already environmentally friendly. In doing so, it will help to grow low-carbon sectors and decarbonise high-carbon ones. The EU Taxonomy is one of the most significant developments in sustainable finance and will have wide-ranging implications for investors and issuers working in the EU, and beyond.

Rationale for choosing this database:

• It is low-hanging fruit because taxonomy is already in place.
• We could use this taxonomy to see how it aligns with our other assessments (and with other use cases)
• The taxonomy will be enacted in a year from now, so we can provide timely feedback

Reference: [[4]]

EUR-Lex

Description of the database: EUR-Lex is online database that provides the official and most comprehensive access to EU Law and legal documents such as treaties, legal acts from EU institutions, preparatory documents related to EU legislation, EU case-law, international agreements, EFTA documents, references to national case-law related to EU law. EUR-Lex has access to all editions of the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) since the first of December 1952.

Rationale for choosing this database:

• It is available in all of the EU’s 24 official languages
• It is updated daily, which confirms the validity of the documents
• Each document in EUR-Lex is supported by detailed information such as: relations with other legal documents, case-law interpretations, dates of adoption or entry into force etc.
• It is the open and highly recognizable European Union’s database directly related to policy
• Most documents in EUR-Lex, regardless of their language, receive a unique identifier - CELEX number, so all documents have a designed structure and each type of document corresponds to a so-called “a descriptor”.

EU MERCI

Description of the database: The database contains data on the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the manufacturing industry. For nearly 3000 companies from 4 European countries (Austria, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom), the following information has been collected: size of the company, year of implementation of the measure, type of support received (white certificates), statistical classification of economic activities, according to NACE, applied processes and ways to save energy and total final energy savings achieved by the implemented measures. The database contains data also on low-carbon policies, examples of business action to reduce emissions, etc. The database includes data for the 2005-2017 period. Besides the database, also a library, sector reports and static analyses of different countries were made available.

Rationale for choosing this database:

• The database contains good practices that can be used by other actors willing to implement energy efficiency measures,
• Disadvantages of the database: It includes data from the 2005-2017 period, with no updates (no newer examples)

Notes from the afternoon session

The afternoon session is dedicated to discussing metadata for the selected databases. The aim of the afternoon session is to fill out table 2 of the wiki page for the use case and to decide what to report back from the use case to the plenary session the next day (again, see the WIKI template for a suggested structure). Thus, at the end of the day, the WIKI page for the use case is complete.

• Bulleted list item

What to report back to the plenary on Day 3?

• Databases selected (names and short reasoning)
• Main insights from discussions
• Suggested next steps
• Other issues