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

multilateral agreement A multilateral treaty is a treaty to which two or more sovereign states are parties. Each party owes the same obligations to all other parties, except to the extent that they have stated reservations. Examples of multilateral treaties include the ...

under the

International Energy Agency The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the entire global energy sector, with a recent focus on curbing car ...

(IEA) agreement network, replacing numerous other

bilateral agreement Bilateralism is the conduct of political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states. It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism, which is activity by a single state or jointly by multiple states, respectively. When ...

s. 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 stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases ...

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 The International Nuclear Information System (INIS) hosts one of the world's largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. History INIS is based in Vienna, Austria and has been operating since ...

(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 energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 195 ...

). 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 hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ma ...

renewable energies Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

(including

Hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...

), End-Use (

Building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fu ...

Industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

and

Transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

, 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 knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...

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 Dialog is an online information service owned by ProQuest, who acquired it from Thomson Reuters in mid-2008. Dialog was one of the predecessors of the World Wide Web as a provider of information, though not in form. The earliest form of the Dial ...

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 prov ...

. Broad subject coverage included information on energy research and development; energy policy and planning; basic sciences (e.g.,

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its 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 which r ...

, chemistry and biomedical) and materials research; the

environmental impact Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

of energy production and use, including

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

; energy conservation; 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 monitorin ...

); coal and fossil fuels; and renewable energy technologies (e.g., solar energy,

wind energy Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically, w ...

, biomass, 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 system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

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