The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has launched a new website that it says will make data on renewable energy, energy efficiency and alternative transportation more accessible than ever.
The new site, developer.nrel.gov, provides data feeds that computer programmers can access for use in their own mobile and Web applications. The first data set to be offered is a comprehensive, nationwide list of alternative-vehicle fueling station locations, including those that supply electricity, biodiesel, ethanol or natural gas. Developers can retrieve the data through a Web services application programming interface.
‘Every year, we get hundreds of requests for our data,’ says NREL project manager Johanna Levene. "In the vast majority of cases, we've been happy to provide it, but the person on the other end has had to go to the trouble of finding the right person, asking for the data, downloading it and updating it to keep it current. NREL's new sub-site automates that entire process and serves as a seamless data conduit directly from NREL to another organization's application."
