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Launching Apps for Energy! Developers, Are You Ready?

April 10, 2012 at 6:04 PM ET by Erin Pierce
Summary: 
The Energy Department’s first ever Apps for Energy competition is officially open for submissions.

The Energy Department’s first ever Apps for Energy competition challenges the American developer community to build apps that help consumers get the most out of their utility data.

Apps for Energy leverages Green Button -- an open standard for sharing electricity usage information. For the competition, developers will mash-up Green Button data with other public data sources to create innovative, energy-focused apps (visit our developer page for a list of resources). Submissions can be any kind of software application broadly available to the public -- including apps for the web, personal computers, and mobile devices.

Developers who take on the Apps for Energy challenge have an opportunity to significantly impact the way millions of Americans think about and use their electricity usage data. Building apps that provide insight and useful information into everyday electricity consumption will help empower consumers to effectively manage their energy use in ways that save money and energy.

App submissions will be evaluated by a prestigious panel of judges including:

  • Patricia Hoffman, Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, U.S. Energy Department;
  • Karen Austin, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Pacific Gas and Electric Company;
  • Sharelynn Moore, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Itron, Inc.;
  •  Bill Reichert and Guy Kawasaki, Managing Directors, Garage Technology Ventures; and
  • Aaron Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer, HUGE.

Winners will receive part of a $100,000 cash prize -- including $30,000 for the best overall application. Cash prizes are also available for the best student-built app and for the app that receives the most votes on appsforenergy.challenge.gov during the public contest.

May 15 is the last day to submit an app. Following the close of submissions, an internal review and public vote will take place from May 17 to May 21. The winners will be announced on May 22.

To sign up for the Apps for Energy competition and review the full list of rules, visit our challenge website at appsforenergy.challenge.gov. Resources, FAQ’s and other detailed information about the competition are available at our developer resource page.

Learn more: