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The National Geothermal Data System is Star of the Show at Energy Datapalooza (TechRepublic)

The Energy Datapalooza is one of several annual conferences that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy convenes to highlight new initiatives in releasing government data and the innovations of the organizations and people who put it to use. The datapaloozas are one of the public forums of the Obama administration's push to open up government data to the public, making health information as useful as weather data. Since the first health datapalooza in 2010, U.S. chief technology officer Todd Park has been working to scale the successful model of the Health Datapalooza, now a major annual industry event, to other sectors, including safety and education.

Beyond the talks on stage or demonstrations in the showcase, the Obama administration introduced several initiatives around energy data, associated standards, and technologies at the event.

The biggest data release announced by Secretary of Energy Ernie Muniz at the Datapalooza was the National Geothermal Data System, powered by the U.S. Geoscience Information Network (USGIN). The database is the result of a four-year process of digitizing information that was filed away, said Kim Patten, associate director of planning and development at the Arizona Geological Survey, in an interview. At launch, there are over 5 million data points in more than 30 categories from 50 states.

"We tried to make it interoperable," said Patten. "This data already existed in paper form in cabinets. People were spending 80% of their time searching, copying, extracting, and structuring data, with 20% of the time spent on research. We're trying to reduce 80% of the time." Patten told me that people are already using the data to choose sites for new wells in Hawai'i, which has significant needs for on-island sources.

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