This 2012 paper presents the case for using "open, publicly accessible software and data as well as crowdsourcing techniques to develop robust energy analysis tools".

[9] The UK TIMES project (UKTM) is open source, according to a 2014 presentation, because "energy modelling must be replicable and verifiable to be considered part of the scientific process" and because this fits with the "drive towards clarity and quality assurance in the provision of policy insights".

[10]: 8  In 2016, the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) is seeking to improve its modelling methodologies, a key motivation being "the intertwined goals of transparency, communicability and policy credibility.

"[11]: S27  A 2016 paper argues that model-based energy scenario studies, wishing to influence decision-makers in government and industry, must become more comprehensible and more transparent.

The authors note however that they "consider open source approaches to be an extreme case of transparency that does not automatically facilitate the comprehensibility of studies for policy advice.

The authors also conclude that, in terms of openness, energy research has lagged behind other fields, most notably physics, biotechnology, and medicine.

[14]: 214 A one-page opinion piece in Nature News from 2017 advances the case for using open energy data and modeling to build public trust in policy analysis.

But most published energy datasets carry proprietary licenses, limiting their reuse in numerical and statistical models, open or otherwise.

[18] In December 2017, participants from the Open Energy Modelling Initiative and allied research communities made a written submission to the European Commission on the re-use of public sector information.

[21][22] In mid‑2021, participants made two written submissions on a proposed Data Act — legislative work-in-progress intended primarily to improve public interest business-to-government (B2G) information transfers within the European Economic Area (EEA).

[23][24] More specifically, the two Data Act submissions drew attention to restrictive but nonetheless compliant public disclosure reporting practices deployed by the European Energy Exchange (EEX).