X PRIZE Foundation Opens Official Voting for the $25,000 "What's Your Crazy Green Idea?" Video Contest

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/X-PRIZE-Foundation-Opens-Official/story.aspx?guid=%7B772FB1C1-581D-4289-BC11-83449DAE3808%7D
Public Will Vote to Determine Winner of the Competition

Last update: 7:00 a.m. EST Nov. 17, 2008
PLAYA VISTA, CA, Nov 17, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- The public voting phase of the "What's Your Crazy Green Idea?" Video Contest on YouTube, sponsored by Prize Capital, has begun! Out of 133 video submissions, the X PRIZE Foundation has selected three finalists and is asking the world to choose the idea that should be explored as the next X PRIZE in Energy and the Environment. The contestant whose video receives the most votes before November 30 will win the $25,000 award from Prize Capital and have their Crazy Green Idea explored as the next X PRIZE in Energy and the Environment. The public is encouraged to vote for their favorite entry at: www.xprize.org/crazy-green-idea.
The competition, announced on September 10 at MIT, was to develop a two-minute video describing a concept for the next X PRIZE in Energy and Environment. Submitted ideas ranged from creating microalgae farms to harvesting energy from roads to harnessing the power of time travel. The competition closed on October 31, 2008. A panel of judges from the X PRIZE Foundation scored each of the eligible entries and selected the three top videos.
The three finalists are:
Jonathan Dreher, from Cambridge, MA: "Energy X PRIZE: Reduce Home Energy Usage" A prize to reduce the home energy consumption of American communities.
Alan Silva, from Roy, UT: "The Energy Independence X PRIZE" A prize to develop energy-independent homes that exist completely off the grid.
Kyle Good, from Irvine, CA: "The Capacitor Challenge" A prize to develop a new storage medium, an "ultra-capacitor."
"We were inspired by the sheer number of ideas and inquiries from the YouTube community," said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. "Narrowing the list to three finalists was difficult, and now it's up to the public to decide which one is truly worthy of being explored as an X PRIZE in the area of Energy and the Environment."
"We sponsored this contest because we think the world is full of great ideas from people who don't have a way to share them," said Lee Stein, Chairman and Founder of Prize Capital, LLC. "By offering a prize, we provided a platform to share and surface innovative ideas. We hope this is the first of many prize winning checks Prize Capital will be awarding for smart energy ideas. After seeing the finalist videos, I'll be happy to hand any of them a check for $25,000."
Public voting for the top video ends on November 30, 2008. The winner will be congratulated in person by Dr. Peter H. Diamandis and Lee Stein, and a media announcement will be made.
ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the Foundation captured the world's attention when the Burt Rutan-led team, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world's first private spaceship to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital spaceflight. The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation and its partner BT Global Services are creating prizes in Space and Ocean Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, Education and Global Development. The Foundation is widely recognized as the leading model for fostering innovation through competition. For more information, please visit www.xprize.org.
ABOUT PRIZE CAPITAL, LLC
Prize Capital's mission is to promote the preservation of rich ecological habitat areas around the world, by investing in environmentally sustainable economic development, new technologies and biodiversity preservation. Through its Earth 2.0 programs, Prize Capital combines prizes and capital to solve global energy and environmental challenges, for example, renewable energy, water or deforestation. The company's new financing mechanism combines inducement prize competitions with parallel equity option investment funds to provide capital for innovators to achieve technological breakthroughs and opens market access to early stage environmental opportunities for investors. Prize Capital's first Earth 2.0 program is a prize and fund for sustainable decentralized renewable energy. For further information, visit www.prizecapital.net.
Contacts:
Jean Levasseur
310-741-4883
Jean.Levasseur@xprize.org



SOURCE: X PRIZE Foundation
mailto:Jean.Levasseur@xprize.org

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