It used to be that energy companies were the only ones who had access to information about how much energy we were all using—neither customers nor city governments had access to those numbers. But now, using US Census data, property records, and “never-before-released” information on energy use from public utilities, the UCLA Center for Sustainable Cities has created a first-of-its-kind database and interactive map for Los Angeles County (LA Energy Atlas) that shows energy use all over the city, says a release from UCLA. Finally, a tool to help point fingers at all the energy hogs, right? Not exactly.
Before this map, there wasn’t a ton of detail on how much energy was being used in LA; it was basically “the equivalent of knowing that cars produced greenhouses gases, but not knowing the emissions difference between a diesel truck and a hybrid car,” says UCLA professor Stephanie Pincetl, head of the Energy Atlas project. Not too helpful. But the new interactive map allows users to see specific information by type of building (e.g. residential, commercial), the amount of energy used, or city by city. (The map covers almost all of LA county; there were five cities for which energy records weren’t available.)
· UCLA’s free Energy Atlas uncovers L.A. buildings’ role in greenhouse gas emissions [UCLA Newsroom]
· LA Energy Atlas [Official site]
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