The New York Energy Data Jam brings together business leaders, entrepreneurs, state and federal officials, academics and investors to brainstorm new ways to use the government’s open data to solve pressing energy problems. Participants at the event, located at Google’s New York office, breakout into groups in a fast-paced brainstorming session to come up with solutions to energy challenges using open data.

There was a lot of excitement and, naturally, energy at New York Energy Week’s Data Jam on June 26th. Entrepreneurs, data scientists, programmers, academics, representatives from utilities, federal employees and interested individuals gathered to brainstorm new ways to use Energy Data to address national challenges.

After breaking into groups of seven or eight, each team had two hours to come up with an idea and present it to their peers.

One team suggested using the electrical vehicle fleet as temporary batteries to store energy during off-peak hours and provide it back to the grid during periods of high demand. Another hoped to find new ways to increase the demand of venture capital in developing renewable markets.

After all the ideas were presented, participants voted on the best idea.

The most popular idea was to create a GitHub like repository or to develop a more robust API to provide cleaned and organized energy data. By implementing the proposal, Energy Data could be released in a fashion that would allow all users to leverage it more quickly and easily. This in turn would drive new innovation and lower the barrier of entry for new startups.

If you are interested in joining the team as they prepare for the next Energy Datapalooza, please contact newmedia@energy.gov.