name: Department of Energy API FinOps
description: Financial operations guidance for consuming Department of Energy APIs. All primary DOE APIs are free of charge as public data services funded by the US government.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/doe/refs/heads/main/finops/doe-finops.yml
summary:
  totalCost: 0
  currency: USD
  costModel: Free public government data service
  notes: All Department of Energy APIs are provided at no cost to consumers as publicly funded government data services. No billing, invoicing, or payment is required.

apis:

  - name: EIA Open Data API
    url: https://www.eia.gov/opendata/
    cost: 0
    currency: USD
    billing: none
    authentication: Free API key via registration at eia.gov/opendata/
    costDrivers:
      - type: rows-per-request
        limit: 5000
        format: JSON
        cost: 0
      - type: rows-per-request
        limit: 300
        format: XML
        cost: 0
    optimizationTips:
      - Use pagination (offset/length parameters) to avoid hitting 5,000-row-per-request limit.
      - Use bulk file downloads (updated twice daily) for large dataset needs instead of repeated API calls.
      - Throttle recursive programs to avoid temporary key suspension.
      - Cache responses locally to minimize redundant API requests.
      - Use facets and date range filters to retrieve only required data subsets.
    dataFormats:
      - format: JSON
        rowLimit: 5000
      - format: XML
        rowLimit: 300
    alternativeAccess:
      - type: Bulk Download
        url: https://www.eia.gov/opendata/
        notes: Bulk files updated twice daily at 5am and 3pm ET. No API key required.
      - type: Excel Add-in
        url: https://www.eia.gov/opendata/
        notes: EIA Excel add-in v2.1.0 (released March 30, 2023).

  - name: NLR/NREL Developer Network APIs
    url: https://developer.nlr.gov/
    cost: 0
    currency: USD
    billing: none
    authentication: Free API key via registration at developer.nlr.gov/signup/
    costDrivers:
      - type: requests-per-hour
        standardKey: 1000
        demoKey: 30
        cost: 0
    optimizationTips:
      - Register for a free API key to get 1,000 requests/hour vs 30/hour for DEMO_KEY.
      - Monitor X-RateLimit-Remaining header to proactively throttle before hitting limits.
      - Contact NLR support if you consistently need more than 1,000 requests/hour.
      - Cache responses for static or slowly-changing datasets (e.g., alternative fuel station locations).
      - Use the most specific API endpoint parameters to reduce response payload size.
    domainCoverage:
      - Buildings energy efficiency
      - Climate resource data
      - Electricity costs, generation, transmission
      - Energy optimization / microgrids
      - Solar resource data
      - Transportation / alternative fuels / EVs
      - Wave resource data
      - Wind resource data

  - name: OSTI.GOV API
    url: https://www.osti.gov/api/v1/docs
    cost: 0
    currency: USD
    billing: none
    authentication: None required
    optimizationTips:
      - No authentication needed; begin querying immediately.
      - Use pagination (rows/start parameters) to page through large result sets.
      - Cache search results to reduce load on the public endpoint.
    dataFormats:
      - JSON
      - XML
      - BibTeX

costAlerts: []
budgetThresholds: []
notes: >
  As US government agencies, the Department of Energy, EIA, and NREL/NLR provide
  their APIs as public services at no cost. FinOps considerations are limited to
  engineering costs (developer time) and infrastructure costs for consuming and
  caching API data. No vendor invoices, contracts, or procurement processes are
  required to access these APIs.