Is the White House’s Open Data Strategy Working for Energy? : Greentech Media

"In 2007, when Barack Obama was running for president, it cost roughly 44 cents to store a gigabyte of data. This year, as President Obama approaches the second half of his second term, the cost to store a gigabyte of data is dipping below the 5-cent mark. The same trend has played out in wireless streaming, sensors and other power electronics, which have all become very cheap compared to their historical costs. That, in turn, is creating entirely new applications for energy that were only just beginning to become reality when the president entered the White House. 'Five and ten years ago, it might have been $150 or $200 dollars a month to provide streaming wireless data from a meter. Now it’s $20, $30, $40 a month,' explained EnerNOC's Gregg Dixon in an interview for GTM's intelligent efficiency report last year. 'The [cost of the] hardware to meter energy is a fraction of what it was a decade ago.'  That doesn't even include the same steady cost reductions in batteries, solar panels and LED lights ..."