OpenEI:General disclaimer

OpenEI Terms of Use

Effective July 31, 2023. These Terms of Use explain how Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC (“Alliance”, “we”, or “us”) collects, uses, and shares information about you when you use the openei.org website, wiki, or any web application, application programming interface (API), or web tool hosted on openei.org (collectively “OpenEI”) which is provided by Alliance as Management and Operating Contractor of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (“NREL”) under Prime Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 for the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”), or when you otherwise interact with us or receive a communication from us about OpenEI. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use OpenEI. By using OpenEI, you consent to the privacy practices described in these Terms of Use. By providing any information discussed herein, you are representing and warranting to Alliance that you are authorized to disclose such information for the purposes set forth in these Terms of Use. By submitting information to Alliance via or in association with OpenEI, you are representing and warranting to Alliance that you have the authority to disclose that information and grant us permission to use content submitted by you in OpenEI if we choose. Unless otherwise stated herein, and/or unless you choose to provide such information to us, we collect no personal information about you or other information from you when you visit or use OpenEI. Furthermore, unless otherwise stated herein, we will not sell or otherwise share any personal information about you, or other information received from you with any third parties.

Privacy Policy

Types of Information Collected and How It is Handled

1. We collect and store certain information automatically using Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses cookies to identify unique users. This information includes:

The Internet Protocol (IP) address of the domain from which you access the internet (i.e. 123.456.789.012) whether yours individually or provided as a proxy by your Internet Service Provider (ISP); the date and time you access OpenEI; the pages you peruse (recorded by the title and internet address of that page) and, the internet address of any other internet source from which you linked directly to OpenEI.

We may use the summary statistics to help us make OpenEI more useful to visitors, such as assessing what information is of most and least interest to visitors, and for other purposes such as determining OpenEI’s technical design specifications and identifying system performance or problem areas. This information is shared with the support staff of OpenEI and is used only as a source of anonymous statistical information.

2. To create an account, you must provide your first and last name, a username and password for your account, and your email address. We use this information to maintain the security of OpenEI and to manage your account and our relationship with you.

Alliance has the right to suspend or terminate your account or refuse any and all use of OpenEI if it suspects your account information is inaccurate, not current, incomplete or if your contributions to OpenEI content are suspected of being inaccurate, insensitive, or inappropriate.

You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the password and username you provided during the registration process, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account. You agree to promptly notify Alliance if you discover or suspect any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security. You may not license, sell, or transfer your account without prior written permission from Alliance.

3. You may choose to provide us with other information, such as in an e-mail message containing your ideas, suggestions, comments, or questions (“Feedback”).

We may use your Feedback to improve, revise, or update OpenEI, or to respond to your request. There are times when your message is forwarded, as e-mail, to other Alliance employees who may be better able to help you or who are responsible for maintaining OpenEI.

Any Feedback about OpenEI that you provide to Alliance is entirely voluntary, and by providing Feedback you are agreeing that Alliance may use such Feedback without restriction and without compensation or obligation to you. To the extent any license would be required to utilize or implement your Feedback, you automatically grant Alliance, when submitting such Feedback, a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license under any rights necessary for such use or implementation.

Situations When Disclosure of Data May Occur

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, we reserve the right to disclose your information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to (i) take precautions against liability, (ii) protect ourselves and others from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses or activity, (iii) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, (iv) protect the security or integrity of OpenEI and any facilities or equipment used to make OpenEI available, (v) protect our property or other legal rights (including, but not limited to, enforcement of our agreements), or the rights, property, or safety of others, (vi) comply with the audit, inspection, and copying requirements of our Prime Contract with the United States Government, or (vii) to comply with relevant open records laws.

We also may disclose your information as may be described in a notice to you at the time the information is collected, or in any other manner to which you consent. We will attempt to inform you of how we are going to use your information. We will achieve this through this Privacy Policy and by informing you how your information is used each time we collect it.

Changing Data Provided

You may, of course, decline to share certain information with us, in which case we may not be able to provide all features and functionality of OpenEI to you. You may update, correct, or disable your account at any time. If you wish to access or amend any other information we hold about you, or request that we delete any information about you that we have obtained through OpenEI, you may submit your request by contacting at us at OpenEI Webmaster <openeiweb@nrel.gov>. Requests are subject to verification of identity. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

Content Disclaimer

Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by DOE, NREL or the ALLIANCE. The views and opinions expressed in available or referenced material, including any data, text, drawings, calculations and/or graphical and other images (hereinafter “Information”) do not necessarily state or reflect those of the DOE/NREL/ALLIANCE. THE INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE FROM OPENEI IS “AS IS,” AND NEITHER THE DOE, NREL, ALLIANCE NOR ANY OF THEIR EMPLOYEES, OFFICERS OR CONTRACTORS MAKE ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ASSUMES ANY LEGAL LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR USEFULNESS OF ANY SUCH INFORMATION, OR OF ANY APPARATUS, PRODUCT, OR PROCESS DISCLOSED, OR REPRESENT THAT ITS USE WOULD NOT INFRINGE PRIVATELY OWNED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. THE DOE/NREL/ ALLIANCE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO CLAIMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE LOSS OF DATA OR PROFITS, WHICH MAY RESULT FROM AN ACTION IN CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS CLAIM THAT ARISES OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE ACCESS, USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS DATABASE. These Terms and any posted rules on OpenEI constitute the entire agreement of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof. No waiver by Alliance of any breach or default under these Terms will be deemed to be a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default. These Terms will be binding upon and inure to the benefit of Alliance and its successors, trustees, and permitted assignees. Alliance may assign this agreement or any of its rights or obligations under these Terms with or without notice to you.

Generative AI

OpenEI's generative AI research assistants (e.g. AskGDR, AskOEDI, AskPRIMRE), collectively referred to as "AI Features", utilize Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI to produce answers to user-provided questions. Generative AI is experimental. The quality of generated information may vary. All answers provided by these tools should be verified independently. Generated answers may reuse text from other sources, and should be treated as the explicit Intellectual Property (IP) of others to avoid plagiarism. The DOE/NREL/Alliance makes no claims or warranties, expressed or implied, on the accuracy or validity of any content on OpenEI, AI-generated or otherwise.

Generative AI Terms and Conditions

These terms (“AI Terms”) are between You and Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC (“Alliance,” “we,” or “us”) and govern Your use of the artificial intelligence (“AI”) and large language model (“LLM”) services or features available through the Energy Wizard platform (“AI Feature”) which is provided by Alliance as Managing and Operating Contractor for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (“NREL”) on behalf of the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) under Prime Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308.

1. Acceptable of the AI Terms

THESE AI TERMS SET FORTH THE TERMS ACCORDING TO WHICH YOU MAY USE THE AI FEATURES. BY USING THE AI FEATURES, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREED TO BE BOUND BY THESE AI TERMS. YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT YOU HAVE THE FULL LEGAL AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO THESE AI TERMS AND IF YOU ARE ACTING ON OR ON BEHALF OF AN ORGANIZATION OR COMPANY, YOU HAVE THE LEGAL AUTHORITY TO BIND SUCH ORGANIZATION OR COMPANY TO THESE AI TERMS.

Further, You acknowledge and understand that the Microsoft Azure Product Terms ( https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/terms/welcome/welcomepage ) and Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) Bedrock Service Terms ( https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/ ) (collectively “Licensed Terms”) govern the use of the AI Feature.

2. License

Alliance hereby grants You a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-sublicensable license to use the AI Features. The use of the AI Features is subject to Your compliance with any and all applicable laws and these AI Terms.

3. AI Content

The output insights generated and returned by the AI Features (“Output”) are based on the metadata processed on and through the AI Features (“Input”), the Input and Output shall collectively be referred herein as “AI Content.” The AI Content may be used for any legal or lawful purpose, including commercial purposes and publication, at Your own risk. Prior to publication, it is recommended to add a disclosure that the Output was generated by AI tools. Due to the nature of machine learning, Output may not be unique and the AI Features may generate the same or similar Output for other users. Output may not be protectable yet may be subject to IP protections.

4. Accuracy

Alliance does not guarantee accuracy of any Output generated by the AI Features. Given the probabilistic nature of machine learning and AI, the use of Our AI Features may in some situations result in incorrect Output that does not accurately reflect the action generated. You should evaluate the accuracy of any Output and should not rely on us to do so.

5. Acceptable Use Policy

You hereby represent and warrant that You will not, nor will you authorize anyone on Your behalf to: (a) mislead anyone that the AI Content was human-generated; (b) use the AI Feature to generate content that expresses or promotes hate, harassment, or violence, exploits or harms children, encourages self-harm, presents illegal, sexual, political, harmful, false, deceiving or misleading information, misuses personal data, contains malware, unsolicited bulk content, ransomware, viruses, or other software; (c) use the AI Feature for activities which have high risk of economic harm, for adult content, adult industries, and dating apps; offering tailored financial advice without a qualified person reviewing the information; to provide health advice; political campaigning or lobbying; (d) use the AI Feature in a way that infringes, misappropriates, or violates any third party rights; (e) reverse assemble, reverse compile, decompile, translate or otherwise attempt to discover the source code or underlying components of models, algorithms, and systems of the AI Feature (except to the extent such restrictions are contrary to applicable law); (f) use the AI Feature to develop foundation models or other large scale models that compete with OpenAI; and/or (g) use any method to extract data from the AI Feature, including web scraping, web harvesting, or web data extraction methods, other than as permitted through the OpenAI API.

6. Third-party Providers

The AI Features are provided through AI technology developed and provided by Microsoft and AWS. Any input may, depending on the type of API, be used by Microsoft and/or AWS for model training and improvement. The Inputs may be shared with and manually reviewed by a person, including by third party contractors located around the world. Therefore, You shall not use or provide any information that is sensitive or that should not be viewed by others, including personal data. You assume the risk for any violation of privacy laws or loss of intellectual property protection due to Your Input. Alliance has no control over the use of the Input, thus, any use of such is at Your own risk and Alliance does not represent, undertake or warrant to any security or control of or to the Input.

THE AI FEATURES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND AS “AVAILABLE” BASIS. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT AI CONTENT MAY BE SUSCEPTIBLE TO RISKS COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH INFORMATION STORED ON THE CLOUD. ALLIANCE AND OPENAI MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE OPERATION OF THE AI FEATURE, OR THE INFORMATION, TEXT, AND AI CONTENT INCLUDED IN THE OUTPUT, OR THE USE OF THE INPUT, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ACCURACY OF THE RESULTS, AVAILABILITY, SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, OR AI CONTENT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED THROUGH THE AI FEATURES. ALLIANCE WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY ARISING IN ANY WAY FROM THE USE OF THE AI FEATURES OR ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS CONTAINED IN THE AI CONTENT. ALLIANCE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, OR DATA OR OTHER LOSSES, EVEN IF ALLIANCE HAD BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

RAPID Toolkit

The information presented in the RAPID Toolkit provides an unofficial overview of regulatory, permitting, and other policies. It does not constitute professional legal advice or other professional regulatory guidance, and it should not be used as the only source of information when making purchasing decisions, investment decisions or project development decisions, or when executing other binding agreements. Please refer to the individual contact provided to verify that a specific regulation or other policy applies to your project. The content has been reviewed by relevant agency, developer, and legal personnel, and are meant to serve as a guide to obtaining the permits needed for power plant development and a way to communicate the process among interested parties. This website is not intended to constitute legal advice or the provision of legal services and none of the individuals or agencies involved in developing this document warrant or certify that the information on this page is accurate. The services of a competent professional should be sought if legal or other specific expert assistance is required. While the RAPID Toolkit staff strive to provide the best information possible, they make no representations or warranties, either express or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or suitability of the information. The team disclaim all liability of any kind arising out of your use or misuse of the information contained or referenced on RAPID Web pages.

Feedback

You may provide feedback regarding any page, feature, or application on OpenEI via email using the "Contact" link or via the Feedback mechanism located in the OpenEI footer. The Feedback can include feedback on the performance, features that may be missing, and any bugs encountered during the use of OpenEI. Any Feedback provided grants Alliance a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide, fully-paid, sub-licensable, assignable license to incorporate into OpenEI or otherwise use any Feedback received from You to improve OpenEI. You irrevocably waive any moral rights in such Feedback pursuant to applicable copyright law. Alliance acknowledges that any Feedback is provided on an “as-is” basis with no warranties of any kind.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

You are solely responsible for ensuring that your systems meet the hardware, software and any other applicable system requirements for OpenEI. Alliance will have no obligations or responsibility under this Agreement for issues caused by your use of any third-party hardware or software not provided by Alliance.

INDEMNIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY LAW, YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, DOE, ALLIANCE, AND THEIR RESPECTIVE SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, AGENTS, AND EMPLOYEES AGAINST ANY THIRD-PARTY CLAIM OR DEMAND, INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEYS’ FEES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR VIOLATION OF THESE TERMS, YOUR VIOLATION OF APPLICABLE LAWS OR REGULATIONS, OR YOUR USE OF OPENEI.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

OPENEI IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. ALLIANCE AND THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DO NOT WARRANT THAT OPENEI OR ANY DATA AVAILABLE VIA OPENEI IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, CURRENT, OR ERROR FREE. ALLIANCE DOES NOT CONTROL, ENDORSE, OR TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY DATA PROVIDED VIA OPENEI OR THE ACTIONS OF ANY THIRD PARTY OR USER. WHILE ALLIANCE ATTEMPTS TO MAKE YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF OPENEI SAFE, ALLIANCE DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT OPENEI OR SERVERS ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. NEITHER ALLIANCE NOR ANY THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS OF DATA AVAILABLE VIA OPENEI HAVE ANY OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE UPDATES, SUPPORT, CONSULTING, TRAINING, OR ASSISTANCE OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER WITH REGARD TO ANY DATA AVAILABLE VIA OPENEI OR USE THEREOF. LIMITATION OF LIABILITYIN NO EVENT SHALL ALLIANCE, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, OR ANY THIRD PARTY PROVIDER OF DATA AVAILABLE VIA OPENEI, NOR ANY OF THEIR OFFICERS, AGENTS, OR EMPLOYEES, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS, OPENEI, OR ANY DATA AVAILABLE VIA OPENEI. ACCESS TO, AND USE OF, OPENEI IS AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK, AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR DEVICE OR COMPUTER SYSTEM, OR LOSS OF DATA RESULTING THEREFROM. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE ABOVE ENTITIES EXCEED TEN U.S. DOLLARS ($10). THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS SECTION WILL APPLY TO ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, INCLUDING THOSE BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, STATUTE, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF THE ABOVE ENTITIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF ANY REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY WILL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION. TERMINATION Alliance has no obligation to continue to support, maintain, and/or operate OpenEI and may cease to do so and/or terminate OpenEI at any time with or without notice to the users of OpenEI. Alliance may immediately terminate your access to OpenEI and, should you have an account on OpenEI, your account, for any reason (or for no reason), without warning. You may terminate your account at any time, for any reason, by contacting OpenEI Webmaster <openeiweb@nrel.gov>. Even after termination, these Terms, including (but not limited to) the PRIVACY AND SECURITY section, the OWNERSHIP AND FEEDBACK section, the INDEMNITY, DISCLAIMER, AND LIMITATION OF LIABIITY section, the GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION section, and the GENERAL section, will remain in effect. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION Any claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or OpenEI will be governed exclusively by the laws of the United States of America and the State of Colorado, without giving effect to their conflict of laws principles. You expressly consent to the exclusive forum, jurisdiction, and venue of the Courts of the State of Colorado and the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in any and all actions, disputes, or controversies relating to these Terms or OpenEI. Subject to Change Alliance may make changes to this Terms of Use from time to time. If we make changes, we will post the amended Terms of Use to OpenEI and update the Effective Date above. By continuing to access or use OpenEI on or after the Effective Date of the revised Terms of Use, you agree to be bound by the revised Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the revised Terms of Use, you must stop accessing and using OpenEI before the changes become effective. You are responsible for checking the Terms of Use for changes and your continued use of OpenEI constitutes acceptance of updated Terms of Use.