Energy & Environment Prize Group

In Development

Carbon Utilization X PRIZE

The Prize Development and Purse are generously funded by Tri-State. The $10 million Tri-State Carbon X PRIZE is designed to help solve the energy challenge by finding productive and valuable uses for carbon by stimulating the innovation of technologies that create value from carbon dioxide. This will create financial incentives to manage carbon dioxide.

We recycle aluminum, glass, paper, plastic, and yard waste – why not carbon? As of now, no company has successfully commercialized a carbon utilization technology. Current government funding is narrowly focused on ultra-expensive geologic sequestration, which treats carbon as a liability, with virtually no attention to utilization technologies, which treat carbon as an asset. The goal is to develop radical new technologies that solve the global carbon challenge by recycling carbon dioxide into brilliant new products. The winning team must create a system that cost-effectively transforms carbon emissions from coal-based power plants into beneficial products. This must be accomplished while maintaining energy producers’ ability to provide reliable cost-effective “base load” power to their customers, including those below the poverty level.

Autonomous Auto X PRIZE

More than six million automobile accidents happen annually in the United States resulting in around 2.9 million injuries and more than 40,000 deaths. This is the leading cause of death behind infant and elderly diseases. The financial cost of these crashes is more than $230 billion, or approximately eight cents/mile – more than the cost of gasoline for an efficient vehicle. An autonomous vehicle can dramatically increase automotive safety, reduce commuting time, and greatly reduce fuel consumption.

The Autonomous Auto X PRIZE is a $10 Million prize that will be awarded to the first team to design a passenger car that, through automation, is safer than today's passenger cars.

Plastic Debris X CHALLENGE

A large percentage of plastics currently end up in the ocean; currently, the ocean has more than 220 billion pounds of plastic debris. An estimated 11 billion pounds more are added each year. Analysis of the plastics producer value chain has revealed three areas of activity that producers have undertaken to manage concerns in the plastic lifecycle: i) Use less newly mined (virgin) raw materials, ii) Expand recycling capacity, and iii) Design environmentally-safe degradable products. While early efforts are promising, the breakthrough that can comprehensively manage the sustainable use of plastic has yet to be achieved. The winner of the Plastics Debris X CHALLENGE will be the team that creates a clear plastic container that is able to degrade in the temperature, salinity and UV environment of our oceans. The winning solution must be an environmentally-safe alternative to petroleum plastics at scalable volume.

Concepts Under Consideration

Aviation Battery (Lite/Heavy)

Batteries currently offer energy storage densities of 100’s of Whr/kg, more than two orders of magnitude smaller than liquid fuels. This highly limits the efficiency of any mobile application. New breakthroughs in lightweight batteries will enable longer lifetimes for consumer electronics and substantial improvements in electric vehicles. Using electric remote controlled helicopters, teams competing in the Aviation Battery competition will demonstrate annual improvements in energy storage density for either lite or heavy battery packs. Each team will provide a set size of batteries that will be used to power a standard electric remote controlled helicopter. The helicopter will be flown and recharged ten times, with the shortest flight time being their score. The winning team will demonstrate the greatest increase (at least 10%) in energy storage density over the previous year’s winner.

Electric Aviation

World aviation burns 200 million gallons of fuel each day - or about the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 5 minutes. A new class of all-electric aircraft would help minimize our dependence on fossil fuels. The Electric Aviation competition would an annual cross-country race rewarding breakthroughs in electric aviation. The winning team will be the one that beats the previous year’s best time by a set margin. The goal is to develop a new generation of fast, safe, long-endurance electric aircraft that will reduce noise and dependence on fossil fuels.

Energy Awareness

Most people are unaware of how their everyday actions and activities at home and work impact the environment. Increasing overall awareness of each individual’s energy use can be an effective way to gain greater support for energy initiatives. The winner of the Energy Awareness competition will be the first team to create a YouTube video and/or website that receives more than 50 million views or generates $2 million in revenue donated towards the X PRIZE Energy & Environment Prize Group. The video or website should be compelling, viral, and deliver a meaningful message on energy and environmental issues.

ePod/Home Energy Storage

Most utilities are paid for the amount of power they sell, providing little incentive for improvements in efficiency. An ePod device can lower peak energy needs, lessen pollution and increase access to renewable power generation; the device will also create greater resiliency to blackouts and brownouts.

The goal of the ePod/Home Energy Storage competition will be to build a home energy storage appliance (ePod) able to measure and understand the typical energy usage of a family as well as the energy cost from the local utility and be able to purchase off-peak energy and provide stored energy to the household during peak energy periods. The winning team must manufacture and deploy 100 units for the competition and demonstrate the ability to scale up to 25,000 units per year within two years. The units must be able to store a total of 5kWh and last at least four years.

Featherweight Solar

Most improvements in solar photovoltaic focus on incremental gains in panel efficiency, not materials or process improvements to reduce weight. This technology is a high risk investment, which is not attractive to the majority of investors, who would rather take the path of least resistance.

Teams competing in the Featherweight Solar competition will build a photovoltaic power module using 90% less mass, without sacrificing power output or cost per watt. The power module must demonstrate the same lifetime kWh output and same Watt peak output and produce the same power at an equivalent cost to similar sized units.

Featherweight Wind

Despite the ready availability of wind, only 2% of total world power needs are currently met by turbines. The successful completion of this prize will allow wind energy to make up a greater percentage of total world power sources. Teams competing in the Featherweight Wind competition will build a wind turbine using 90% less mass, without sacrificing power output or cost per watt. The wind turbines must demonstrate the same lifetime kWh output and same Watt peak output and produce the same power at an equivalent cost to current standards.

Race to Zero CO₂

Personal mobility accounts for the most wasteful and, by extension, most environmentally degrading form of CO2 emissions. Current perception is that no market exists for a new class of personal mobility vehicles that, if implemented today, would result in a global vehicle fleet using renewable energy technologies. A Race to Zero CO2 would get the public excited about ultra-low CO2 emitting vehicles. The winner will be the first privately financed team that can circumnavigate the globe within 80 days with the least emissions of CO2. Land vehicles for the overland legs must be capable of transporting a minimum of two 200-pound adults, and must follow a predetermined route. Upon completion of the global circumnavigation, land vehicles will participate in a 200-mile sprint race, without modification to the circumnavigating vehicles.

Rapid Drilling

Geothermal is viewed as a major new source of renewable energy. However, existing drilling technologies are optimized for shallow oil/gas extraction, not deep geothermal needs, and can bear higher costs for the higher value products. A Rapid Drilling competition would increase investments in geothermal, thus greatly reducing the cost, time, and capability limitations of geothermal drilling. Upon selection of a target region of bedrock and specification on the diameter of the holes to be drilled, teams will compete by drilling three holes into the Earth – one after the other – to a depth of five kilometers, utilizing the same equipment and same crew. The winner of the competition will be the team that can complete the task the fastest.

Residential Waste to Power

In both the US and the developing world, economic constraints drive users strongly towards the cheapest solutions for energy, water and waste disposal, largely ignoring environmental and health concerns. Average home municipal waste bills are roughly $200/yr. If consumers could save half of that and reduce electricity bills by 10%, there could be a sizeable market for the deployment of household clean technology systems. Teams in the Residential Waste to Power competition will build, install and demonstrate a household system able to covert the biomass produced by a typical family of four into energy, greywater and other useful or environmentally neutral products. The winner will be the team that is able to operate a biomass conversion system over a 30 day trial period and demonstrate the greatest savings in energy and water compared to the cost of the system.

Robotic Mole

The successful completion of a Robotic Mole competition could result in the ability to tap into the zone of constant temperature just below the earth’s surface in order to provide dramatic improvements in both heating and cooling costs and environmental effects. Ground source energy sources could even be expanded to retrofit existing homes. Teams competing must develop a robotic “mole” that can safely burrow underground beneath existing structures and install the piping for a 4 ton ground source heat pump. The winning team will be determined by the underground depth the robot can reach, as well as the time and cost to excavate.

Solar Pavement

While nearly 3% of US land area is covered by pavement, it provides no benefit other than surface structure. A significant impact could be achieved if it were made to also produce power. The goal of the Solar Pavement competition will be to turn blacktop surfaces into photovoltaic power generation sources. The winner will be the first team to convert a one acre parking lot surface into a generator that can produce a peak power output of 50kW of solar energy.