Uncategorized

A new X Challenge to clean up oil spills

Posted by:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaFY760OasE&hl=en_US&fs=1]

Being announced right now in Washington, DC: A brand-new X Challenge to combat oil spills. The Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge is a $1.4 million prize to promote development of new technologies and techniques to capture spilled oil. As Peter Diamandis said at the announcement: “We are not rewarding someone for existing technology. We want to help create new technologies.”

The X Challenge is a one-year competition that begins on August 1, 2010, and culminates in summer 2011, with head-to-head competitive demonstrations taking place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHMSETT) in Leonardo, New Jersey.

At the event, TEDTalks star David Gallo said: “This prize is very timely: So that the next time this happens, the next time the President says we’ll do everything we can, we will have the necessary technology to do that.”

Starting today, you can visit iprizecleanoceans.org to find rules, requirements and more details — and register your team to enter the challenge.

This X Challenge was first announced at TEDxOilSpill, held in June in DC. Watch the original announcement on the archived livestream — the announcement, from Francis BĂ©land, VP, Prize Development, comes in Session 2 at 01:12:12.

Watch CNN’s report >>