One More Reason To Build An Ultracapacitor – Win the X Prize

Written by Yoni Levinson
Thursday, 05 February 2009

In case you forgot, the X Prize Foundation put together a pre-contest contest this past fall. That is, they challenged people to decide what kind of green invention would be worthy of the next $10 million X Prize, and present their proposals in the form of a 2 minute Youtube video. The winners would get $25,000 for their idea, plus the satisfaction of knowing that there would be a whole bunch of X-Prize hungry inventors out there trying to make it a reality.

And the winner is? Ultracapacitors. In their video, a group of students from UC Irvine, led by one Kyle Good, basically said – build a really good ultracapacitor. To reiterate their conditions:

You may only use self-contained capacitors
You must exceed the energy density of a lead-acid battery
The device must recharge in less than a minute and survive half a million cycles
You must use non-toxic, recyclable materials
The device must cost less than 2x the cost of a lead-acid battery.
The device must hold enough power to drive an electric vehicle for 100 miles per charge

And now… we wait. This is the fifth challenge to come out of the X-Prize foundation since 2004, and so far only one of them was met – the team that built a private spaceship in 2004. Granted, lofty goals are what this prize is all about. And if this one becomes a reality, it would be incredibly awesome.

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