“How do you change the world? You challenge its smartest minds.”
That aptly sums up the thinking behind GE’s “ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid,” one of the largest projects ever launched to accelerate the development of the next generation of clean-technologies via open collaboration. Those words headline new print ads congratulating the five “Innovation Award” winners, who were just announced this morning at an innovation summit in New York City by GE and its four venture capital partners.
Selected out of more than 4,000 entries from around the globe, each winner receives $100,000 to develop their ideas, which had to fall into three broad categories: Renewables, Grid and Eco Homes/Eco Buildings.
Winning entry WinFlex breaks the mold with “inflatable” wind turbine rotors that use light, flexible and inexpensive cloth sheets made out of composite materials to capture wind (pictured at bottom). IceCode tackles wind energy efficiency with technology to de-ice turbine blades by using high-power pulses that apply heat from the inside out. On the water front, Capstone Metering won for its technology that eliminates waste by applying remote communications technology to the century-old water meter. And on the power grid front, ElectricRoute is a winner for its technology to simplify electrical substations while GridON got the nod for technology that protects the grid from disruptions and outages.
In the Q&A video below, the winners each explain what inspired them and what impact their innovation will have on the grid and society.
Round numbers: WinFlex says its imaginative design reduces installation costs by at least 50 percent. Watch their animation featuring the technology, which is designed to fold in on itself in very high winds. Photo: WinFlex.
As Gabriel Martinez of IceCode says in the video about his motivation for working on the technology — which likely echoes the thoughts of the thousands of other entrants in the Challenge: “I want to be able to say that I helped in providing energy efficiency throughout the entire world. That’s my goal.”
SaidWired magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson, one of the judges: “Our grids today are where the Internet was a generation ago, with their full interactive potential still largely untapped. Just as we did with the Internet, we can make them smarter and more efficient, using the power of collaboration, open access and a hugely expanded range of entrepreneurs.”
The Challenge also has a $200 million venture capital fund to find and develop ideas that are ready for the market — with the first 12 investments also announced today.
* Read today’s announcement
* Read “Revving-Up Start-Ups in $20 Billion Power Grid Tech Market” on GE Reports
* Read “VC Cash for Cleantech: How Much Is There, and Where Is It Going?”
* Watch a replay of the webcast and panel discussions later today
* Read more ecomagination stories on GE Reports
* Read more smart grid stories on GE Reports
* Read our previous Challenge stories
* See the winners’ original entries on the ecomagination Challenge site: CapstoneMetering; ElectricRoute; GridON; IceCode; Winflex
