The Clean Energy Transition Institute (CETI) launched the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas in May 2022. The Atlas is designed to provide regional stakeholders interactive tools to explore energy data relevant to deep decarbonization in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The data visualizations are described here. This blog helps users understand how to navigate the Atlas.

Explore a Category or Choose a Visualization

The Atlas home page prompts you to choose among three categories to get started:

• Emissions
• Energy
• Utilities

However, you can also view the list of all visualizations and choose where to start based on the title, preview image, and question(s) answered for each visualization.

Once you have chosen a category of visualizations and are in that section, you can choose another category from the left-hand sidebar or choose View All to be taken to the list of all visualizations. You can also visit visualizations in order by clicking “Next Visualization” at the bottom of each visualization page.

Learn More on Each Visualization Page

Each visualization page opens with the Question(s) Answered at the top, followed by the visualization. All but one visualization is created with Tableau software. All visualizations are interactive, meaning you can apply filters and click on elements of the visualization to learn more and answer specific data questions.

Below each visualization, you will find a Description that helps you learn more about the data. Also below each visualization is a brief How to Use section with tips for how to interact with the visualization.

Additional Help for Making the Most of the Atlas

In addition to the visualization pages, the Atlas contains:

• An about page that provides information about the history of the Atlas and the people who made it possible, including everyone who provided crucial feedback during our beta testing phase.
• A glossary that defines key terms from the visualizations.
• A resource called Tableau Tips to help users understand how to interact with Tableau visualizations. Visit this page to learn how to reset the visualization after making a selection, how to apply filters, and more.
• Within the Energy category, there is an additional set of visualizations called Northwest State Energy Flows Additional Analysis that explores 2018 energy data in more detail and provides comparative analysis of the four states. This page is linked from the Energy category as well as from each relevant visualization.

Share Feedback

CETI hopes that the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas promotes engagement and interaction among policymakers, advocates, and other stakeholders.  We would be grateful if you would share your feedback, including any future data visualizations you would like to see, with us here.

Get started exploring the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas!