London Power test map - how?

The map takes a fresh data extract every hour from OpenStreetMap, a free map of the world created by volunteers and companies interested in creating and sharing free geographic data. It then plots them on the map.

Techie details

A cron-scheduled python script grabs the data using OSMXAPI, processes the data using an XSLT transformation and some extra code to make it more readable, then drops the data into text files for the OpenLayers Text layer. The data I'm grabbing is as follows:

  data scope: power=generator (i.e. anything tagged as a generator is downloaded)
  icon: power_source=type of generator (wind, solar, biomass, waste, gas, hydro, etc.)
  title: power_source= and power_type= (to get combination of source and output, e.g. solar and electricity or gas and cogeneration)
  description: description=details of the generator if entered into OpenStreetMap

In the future it would work better to take the data live from OSMXAPI using Javascript instead of needing an hourly dump, and to develop the data schema used by OpenStreetMap to get a more discerning selection of low-carbon generators.

What counts as "low-carbon"?

At the moment I have only developed the OpenStreetMap data schema to the point where I can make it this discerning:

• Anything renewable, i.e. where the power_source value is wind, solar, wave, tidal, geothermal, biomass or hydro; it doesn't exclude large-scale hydro or inefficient biomass, for example
• Anything burning waste for electricity or heat; it doesn't yet discern between "mass burn" incineration and modern energy from residual waste plants
• Gas-fired co/trigeneration plants (combined heat and power / combined heat, cooling and power)

Any questions / suggestions / offers of copyright-free data? Drop me a line.