Energypedia - History

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2021	Energypedia Develops the Mozambique Off-grid Knowledge Hub With funding from the Green People's Energy for Africa (GBE), energypedia launched a hub focused on renewable energy and energy access sector in Mozambique: the Mozambique Off-grid Knowledge Hub. This hub contains information in English and Portuguese on different energy technologies: solar home systems (SHS), improved cookstoves (ICS), mini grids and productive uses of energy (PUE). The contents of the portal are featured and discussed together with key stakeholders through a series of webinars dedicated to the current market status of each of the technologies in collaboration with the Mozambican Renewable Energy Association: AMER.
2019	Energypedia Develops New Webinars In 2019, energypedia launched a series of online seminars on different topics such as the Sustainable Energy in Humanitarian Settings in collaboration with the ICRC and the UNITAR; Mini-grid Series 2019 in partnership with the HPNET and the WISIONS of Sustainability Initiative and the Energy Access Series 2019 in collaboration with the ACCESS coalition. Energypedia also celebrated 7 years of knowledge sharing. The user base increased to 9,894 registered users and on average 64,000 unique visitors visited energypedia every month. Energypedia also hosted over 4,700 energy articles. The energypedia user survey 2019 also provided insights on our users needs and what can be improved in the future. The team also launched the launched the PMCC portal in collaboration with GIZ Mexico.
2018	Energypedia Grows Further In 2018, energypedia saw an increase in the number of unique visitors from  41,000 to over 50,000 (on average every month). The registered users also grew from 7,932 to over 8,924 and it now hosts over 4500 articles on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy access topics. Energypedia also became a permanent observer organization to the UNFCC and participated in the Conference of Parties (COP) 24. The team also launched new knowledge products such as the Energy Access Portal (one-stop hub for all energy access information) and hosted new tools such as Solar Powered Irrigation Toolbox (SPIS), Electrification Approaches Tool and Solar Pumping Toolkit. Energypedia also welcomed the Energy for Access Coalition as its new partner.
2017	Energypedia Unveils New Knowledge Products for its Ever-Expanding Audience In 2017, energypedia developed two new knowledge products: Climate Change Portal for information on climate change related topics and Mini-grid Portal to consolidate all information related to mini-grid issues on energypedia. Along with the mini-grid portal, the team also launched a series of three webinars on micro/mini hydro based mini-grids. In addition to developing new knowledge products, energypedia participated in many international conferences, including the COP23 and the Sustainable Energy for All conference. The team also launched the second energypedia user survey to improve the user's experience on energypedia. In 2017, energypedia also celebrated its 5th birthday with all its users and supporters.  Energypedia also grew from 6800 registered users to 7900 registered users and it now hosts about 4100 articles on renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy access topics.
2016	Energypedia Launches New Portals and Forms New Partnerships In 2016, energypedia launched two new knowledge products: Micro/mini Hydropower Library (MHL) for publications on micro/mini hydropower as well as Opportunity Database to consolidate the latest opportunities related to financing, awards, call for papers, training courses etc in the off-grid renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy access sphere. The team also revamped the Help portal and the homepage to increase the user friendliness of the platform. In 2016, energypedia formed many new partnerships and collaborated with other initiatives as well as organizations to promote clean and sustainable energy for all. For a list of all the partners, click here.
2015	Energypedia Promotes Organizational Transparency In 2015, energypedia launched a new database on energy efficiency project documents called Energy Efficiency Project Resource Center. The energypedia team also conducted the first user survey to improve the user's experience on energypedia. Furthermore, to promote organizational transparency, energypedia has joined the  Initiative Transparente Zivilgesellschaft  (Initiative Transparent Civil Society) by the German chapter of Transparency International.
2014	Energypedia Develops New Features Two new portals, Powering Agriculture and Community Portal and a new database on renewable energy project documents called Renewable Energy Project Resource Center were launched. Energypedia also introduced a new toolbar with new design and features.
2013	Energypedia Develops New Portals and Cooperates with New Partners By the end of 2013 new information portals such as Solar, Hydro, Wind, Bioenergy, Improved Cooking, Mobility , Countries, Impact, Grid, Productive Use and Financing & Funding were launched. Energypedia also partnered with other prominent organizations to promote knowledge sharing on renewable energy and energy efficiency topics.
2012	Energypedia becomes an Independent Nonprofit Organization The year 2012 was characterized by huge organizational changes. In July 2011, “energypedia UG (haftungsbeschränkt)” was officially founded as a German non-profit company. However, only in 2012 did this newly created body take over the responsibility for www.energypedia.info. Energypedia has been in charge of its operation and continuous development since March 2012. A month later, the energypedia team started working in their new offices.
2011	Energypedia Opens to the Public Energypedia's development speeded up quickly in 2011. In April, the first easy-to-use wiki database was installed. The PicoPV Database encompasses a unique collection of more than 90 small photovoltaic systems. Other databases followed like the Total Energy Wiki, a new online grassroots data collection system about energy access, which was developed in cooperation with GIZ and Practical Action. In spring 2011 energypedia.info was opened to the general public. In September 2011, energypedia became accessible to all web users without prior registration. This was a major step to an open and free knowledge-exchange on the platform. In this year, energypedia also experienced a tremendous increase in registered energy experts, even though registration was not obligatory for reading rights anymore.
2010	Award-winning EnDev Wiki becomes www.energypedia.info In May 2010, the EnDev Wiki received the GTZ (now GIZ) quality award. Shortly afterwards energypedia was officially launched as an independent platform on June 8th 2010! However, interested experts still had to register to be able to read and write. Since then, energy experts, academics and other interested stakeholders all over the world are invited to use it for knowledge exchange and collaboration on renewable energy and energy access issues in developing countries.
2009	Energypedia is Born In January 2009, EnDev finally launched the internal EnDev Wiki. The number of users increased rapidly as more GIZ staff requested accounts. With the wealth of information developed in the wiki, EnDev decided to open up the wiki to non-EnDev users at the end of 2009. This development led to the idea of launching a general wiki on renewable energy and energy efficiency. The idea of "energypedia" was born.
2008	Development of the EnDev Wiki After initial positive experiences using the wiki, a concept was developed by EnDev describing the benefits of using wikis for knowledge and project management. As a result a first version of the prospective EnDev Wiki was developed.
2007	Exploration of Web 2.0 Applications Energypedia was developed within the Dutch-German Energy Partnership "Energising Development" (EnDev) implemented by GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH). It all started end of 2007 when EnDev first tested wikis for internal communication and organization purposes.