Independent, open-source modeling to inform US energy system planning
Mission
The U.S. energy system is undergoing structural changes driven by technological innovation, growing energy demand, climate change, and rising interest in energy resilience, security, and equity. The Open Energy Outlook (OEO) examines how today’s energy system can evolve to meet tomorrow’s needs. We develop model-based projections that inform how the energy system may change under alternative assumptions, and we collaborate with others to study how energy systems interact with broader societal systems such as public health and labor. We publish our models, data, and research products openly to build trust, support consensus, and grow a networked research community.
The OEO Initiative helps develop, maintain, and publish the open-source code and input data associated with Temoa (Tools for Energy Model Optimization and Analysis), a Python-based optimization model. Temoa takes data on fuel supply, end-use demands, technology cost and performance characteristics, and policy specifications, and it projects the least-cost expansion and retirement of the technologies that convert, store, and move energy from extraction to final use. Because Temoa represents the full energy system rather than a single sector, it captures the interdependencies among technologies and policies that narrower models miss.
Get involved
Interested in contributing, collaborating, or have a correction to suggest? Send us a note at openenergyoutlook [at] gmail [dot] com.