The X PRIZE Foundation is set to award its prestigious first prize to an off-grid home design in a much-hyped competition. The winner will receive a $25,000 check on Thursday, February 5th.
Finalists are:
— Alan Silva, from Roy, UT: “The Energy Independence X PRIZE”
A prize to develop energy-independent homes that exist completely off the grid.
— Jonathan Dreher, from Cambridge, MA: “Energy X PRIZE: Reduce Home Energy Usage”
A prize to reduce the home energy consumption of American communities.
— Kyle Good, from Irvine, CA: “The Capacitor Challenge”
A prize to develop a new storage medium, an “ultra-capacitor.”
“What’s Your Crazy Green Idea” asked the public audience to submit their best ideas. To be considered, contestants needed to submit a two-minute video via YouTube.com that identified the specific prize idea, the Grand Challenge or worldwide problem that needs to be solved and how the prize idea could benefit humanity. Videos were judged on creativity, viability of concept, degree of the concept’s revolutionary impact and concept innovation and inventiveness.
The X PRIZE Foundation selected three finalists of the 133 video submissions that were received. The final phase of the competition asked the public audience to vote on the top three videos to determine the winner. More than 4,000 votes were received.