---
title: "Open Energy Modelling Initiative"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Energy_Modelling_Initiative"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:49:27.553982+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Public policy support ===
In May 2016, the European Union announced that "all scientific articles in Europe must be freely accessible as of 2020".  This is a step in the right direction, but the new policy makes no mention of open software and its importance to the scientific process.  In August 2016, the United States government announced a new federal source code policy which mandates that at least 20% of custom source code developed by or for any agency of the federal government be released as open-source software (OSS).  The US Department of Energy (DOE) is participating in the program.  The project is hosted on a dedicated website and subject to a three-year pilot.  Open-source campaigners are using the initiative to advocate that European governments adopt similar practices.  In 2017 the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) issued a position paper calling for free software and open standards to be central to European science funding, including the flagship EU program Horizon 2020.  The position paper focuses on open data and open data processing and the question of open modelling is not traversed per se.

=== Adoption by regulators and industry generally ===
A trend evident by 2023 is the adoption of regulators within the European Union and North America.  Fairley (2023), writing in the IEEE Spectrum publication, provides an overview.  And as one example, the Canada Energy Regulator is using the PyPSA framework for systems analysis.

== Workshops ==
The Open Energy Modelling Initiative participants take turns to host regular academic workshops.

The Open Energy Modelling Initiative also holds occasional specialist meetings.

== See also ==
Crowdsourcing
Energy system – the interpretation of the energy sector in system terms
Free Software Foundation Europe – a non-profit organisation advocating for free software in Europe
Open data
Open energy system models – a review of energy models that are also open source
Open energy system databases – database projects which collect, clean, and republish energy-related datasets

== Notes ==

== Further reading ==
Generation R open science blog on the openmod community 
Introductory video on open energy system modelling using the python language as an example 
Introductory video on the Open Energy Outlook (OEO) project specific to the United States

== External links ==

=== Official openmod ===
Official website 
Wiki
Discussion forum
Email list archive
YouTube channel
GitHub account
Twitter feed
Manifesto written in 2014

=== Open energy data ===
Open Energy Platform – a collaborative versioned database for storing open energy system model datasets
Energypedia – a wiki-based collaborative knowledge exchange covering sustainable energy topics in developing countries
Open Power System Data project – triggered by the work of the Open Energy Modelling Initiative 
OpenEI – a US-based open energy data portal

=== Similar initiatives ===
soundsoftware.ac.uk – an open modelling community for acoustic and music software

=== Other ===
REEEM – a scientific project modelling sustainable energy futures for Europe
EERAdata – a project exploring FAIR energy data for Europe

== References ==