Introduction
As the discussions of climate change have been gaining momentum, the use of renewable sources of energy as an alternative tops the list of the changes that can be made to keep the detrimental effects of climate change at a bay. Out of all available renewable sources of energy, hydroelectric energy is the largest source of renewable energy globally.
For this lab report, I worked on the 2015 United Nations’ Statistics Division dataset on Energy Statistics. In order to be able to analyze the data better, we made use of Tableau, an interactive data visualization tool. In order to get hands-on experience on the tool, I created a dashboard using Tableau capturing the essence of the data available on the production of hydroelectricity globally between the years 1990 and 2014.
Inspiration
In order to get started with building the dashboard, I looked for inspiration on Tableau’s official website where I was able to find several dashboards. One such dashboard is as follows.
The dashboard captures the sales of Discount Mart, a fictitious store where the total sales, profit, and quantity are listed on the top while a detailed analysis can be seen below it. I really liked how the stats listed on top can help one get an overview of the data on giving it a cursory glance.
Choosing a topic
In addition to the sample dashboards on Tableau’s official website, I even looked for inspiration on Our World in Data. Here, I was able to find data visualizations across several topics, allowing me to get insights from them. One such visualization was based on renewable sources of energy. After browsing through it and conducting some additional research, I discovered that Hydropower is the most widely used renewable power source globally. Based on the dataset available on Kaggle, I decided to create a dashboard on similar lines.
Methodology
Kaggle
After choosing a topic, I looked for datasets to work on using Kaggle, an online community for data scientists and machine learning practitioners. I came across the International Energy Statistics by UNData, covering the global energy trade and production between the years 1990 and 2014.
MS Excel
Once the dataset was downloaded, I condensed the same using MS Excel in order to get information about the production of hydroelectricity across the world. This was done by applying a filter on the columns of the file.
Tableau
After condensing the dataset, I imported the same on Tableau to start creating individual visualizations. I decided to cover the top 5 countries hydroelectricity producing countries in my dashboard, namely, China, United States, Brazil, Canada, and Russia.
Choosing the visuals
Based on my prior experience in working with dashboards, I was apprised of the fact that with multiple divisions, pie charts can be difficult to read as it can be abstract trying to understand the angular divisions. Thus, while choosing the visuals, I tried making use of trend lines and cards to convey data better and with more clarity.
Color palette
After going through a few visuals on Our World in Data, I decided to choose a color palette using shades of green and blue.
For choosing the colors for the chart with multiple trendlines, I made sure that all 5 colors were distinct for them to be able to be differentiated.
The entire dashboard can be viewed here
Analysis
Cards
The cards on top were used to indicate the percent increase in the production of hydroelectricity from 1990 for the top 5 hydroelectricity producing countries, China, United States, Brazil, Canada, and Russia.
Trend Line
The trend line below the cards covers the trend of hydroelectricity production globally (covering all the countries and not just limited to the top 5) over the timespan of the year 1990-2014.
Trend Line (Percentage difference)
In addition to the trend line on top, I also added a visual to show the percent difference in the production of hydroelectricity each year as compared to the previous year.
Trend Line (Top 5 countries)
Here, 5 distinct trend lines were used to indicate the production of hydroelectricity in the top 5 countries.
Reflections
Tableau is extremely easy to use with its extensive drag-and-drop functionality. Not only does it offer an array of data visuals but also several customizations for the same. What I especially liked about it was the fact that it offered the creation of calculated fields.
As for the future steps, I wish to learn more about the calculated fields to create more visually rich data visuals so as to allow the dashboard to be more interactive and intuitive. I wish to continue working on the dashboard created for this report and improve on the same as I keep learning more.