An Invitation to Our Latest Open Innovation Ecosystem: Energy.Data.Gov

Today we launched Energy.Data.Gov, the latest installment of our growing family of Data.gov communities to deepen our engagement with stakeholders interested in the analytics to measure our Nation’s energy performance. As with our previous open government communities, in health and law, this platform aggregates tools, high-value datasets, and applications to shed light on energy use.  It includes 216 free datasets and tools have been gathered from agencies across the Federal government with the goal of empowering all Americans to understand energy issues, including energy consumption within the Federal government.

Our motivation in launching these communities is to harness the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit within each of you to catalyze the breakthroughs the President has challenged us to achieve in unleashing a clean energy economy. To further our efforts in this regard, I called on technology and innovation leaders across the government to help scale best practices that embrace this model of open innovation, emphasizing the government’s role as “impatient convener.”

When you visit Energy.data.gov, you will find a portfolio of apps, tools, and ideas about how to better monitor, manage, and save energy.  To maximize opportunities for education and entrepreneurship, Energy.data.gov has simplified access to challenges, prizes, and competitions that relate to energy data in meaningful and engaging ways. Or you can be inspired by existing innovations like the “Mashathon” that cobbled together data from multiple sources across seven cities highlighting opportunities like the following for residents of Milwaukee, WI – that residents might save $903 annually with a 5kW solar (PV) system.

And this is just the beginning.

By the end of the year, we will showcase data on Federal building energy use, prospects for energy efficiency improvements, and the Federal government's energy consumption and costs dating back to 1975 by agency and energy type. 

Whether your interest lies in alternative fuels, electricity generation, managing buildings to be more energy efficient, or trying to better manage energy use in your own home, this platform has the raw material for you to build new products and services that have the potential to deliver our clean energy future. I look forward to celebrating the birth of a new competitive marketplace for innovative applications powered by open energy data that improve our energy security. Let’s get started.

Aneesh Chopra is US Chief Technology Officer