The Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDE) was formed in 1987 and officially ended 30 June 2014. It was initiated as a multilateral agreement under the

International Energy Agency The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the global energy sector. The 31 member countries and 13 associatio ...

(IEA) agreement network, replacing numerous other bilateral agreements. The multilateral agreement was for the international exchange of energy research and development and information. The exchange resulted in a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

which was the world's largest collection of energy research, technology, and development (RTD) information ( ETDEWEB - described below). The collection of information was generated from energy RTD literature published in member countries and through other partnering arrangements with organizations such as the International Nuclear Information System (a unit of the

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology, nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was ...

). This had the effect of creating a broad spectrum of information that was included in the ETDE database. The range of content included

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geolog ...

s, renewable energies (including

Hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

), End-Use (

Building A building or edifice is an enclosed Structure#Load-bearing, structure with a roof, walls and window, windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, a ...

s, Industry and

Transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

), fusion, energy policy, conservation, and efficiency, and cross-sectional activities. This fulfilled the need for timely exchange of global information towards the goal of a sustainable energy future. ETDE operated under an IEA Implementing Agreement and was governed by an Executive Committee of delegates from ETDE member countries. Officers of the Executive Committee included a Chair and two Vice-Chairs, elected to three-year terms. Day-to-day operations were managed through an operating agent organization, which reported to the Executive Committee.

Energy Database

ETDE's Energy Database was a substantial collection that focused on energy research literature and

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

literature. This database contained more than 4.5 million abstracted and indexed records, and was updated twice per month. Temporal coverage was from 1974 to 2014. The principle access point for this database was ETDEWEB (see next section). However, access was also available through commercial online hosts, and some countries offered their own products for access. Member country representatives supplied the best options for their citizens to access this database. Furthermore, the United States fed this database to Dialog which provided online access. Likewise, Germany fed this database to

STN International FIZ Karlsruhe — Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, formerly Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe, is a not-for-profit company with the public mission to make sci-tech information from all over the world publicly available and to pro ...

. Broad subject coverage included information on energy research and development;

energy policy Energy policies are the government's strategies and decisions regarding the Energy production, production, Energy distribution, distribution, and World energy supply and consumption, consumption of energy within a specific jurisdiction. Energy ...

and planning; basic sciences (e.g.,

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and

biomedical Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

) and materials research; the

environmental impact Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans ( human impact on the environment) or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot reco ...

of energy production and use, including

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

;

energy conservation Energy conservation is the effort to reduce wasteful energy consumption by using fewer energy services. This can be done by using energy more effectively (using less and better sources of energy for continuous service) or changing one's behavi ...

; nuclear (e.g., reactors, isotopes,

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment, and disposal of waste, together with monitor ...

); coal and

fossil fuels A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geologica ...

; and renewable energy technologies (e.g.,

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

wind energy Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ...

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

, geothermal, hydro). The scope of topical coverage was worldwide in some areas. The database was used by scientists, researchers, engineers, policymakers, information specialists, librarians, industry leaders, university faculty, and university students, among others.

ETDEWEB

Energy Technology Data Exchange employed an

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

related database to disseminate the energy research and technology information which was collected and exchanged. The database was named ''ETDE World Energy Base'' or ''ETDEWEB''. ETDEWEB was produced and made available by ETDE. It had over 5 million references for literature that encompassed broad topical coverage, and allowed access to more than 500 000 full text documents and reports, which amounted to more than 1 million pages. ETDEWEB had unique access to these reports, which were often not available through other conventional sources. Over a million other references linked to sites containing cited documents. Open access was provided to member countries, countries with developing country status, or by Executive Committee decision. Online access was extended through the wordwideenergy.org website.

WorldWideENERGY.org (WWE)

After the previous ETDE consortium ended in 2014, the WWE application allowed ETDEWEB and other content to remain accessible, thanks to remaining funds and former member country support. But this extended access also ended in July 2016. There may be a possibility that ETDEWEB will again become accessible at some unspecified time in the future via the US DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) systems.

Subject coverage

ETDEWEB covered an extensive base of topics, the main areas included information on energy research and development along with energy policy and planning. Other areas of coverage included basic sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry and biomedical); materials research; the environmental impacts of energy production and use (including climate change); energy conservation; nuclear energy (e.g., reactors, isotopes, and nuclear waste management); coal and fossil fuels; and renewable energy technologies (e.g., solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydro).

References

External links