From the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas GE announced today a new phase of its $200 million open innovation challenge. Building on the record-breaking global success of the “ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid,” GE and its venture capital partners today announced the “Powering Your Home” Challenge, which begins January 18 and seeks the best ideas for harnessing and managing energy at home. GE and venture capital partners seek innovations to improve household energy efficiency and harness wind, solar, hydro and biomass power.
The global challenge invites technologists, entrepreneurs and start-ups to share their best ideas and come together to build and improve the eco home of the future with new technologies. The Challenge is one of the largest ever with more than 4,000 ideas submitted and more than 1,100 in the category of home energy use. In the next phase of the Challenge, these ideas will be reexamined and participants are encouraged to submit new ideas or resubmit an idea if it has evolved. The Challenge will be open between January 18 and March 1, 2011.
“We launched the Challenge to spur innovation that will help transform how we create, connect and use power, and the number of passionate and innovative people who got involved to collaborate on global energy solutions has been a real eye-opener for GE,” said Beth Comstock, chief marketing officer and senior vice president, GE. The Challenge launched in July 2010. The Challenge is part of GE’s ecomagination business strategy and was formed as a global commitment to build innovative, clean-energy technologies and help fund the most promising ideas. Proposals are sought in two broad categories of the eco-home: energy efficiency, including management software, appliances and air conditioning; and renewable power, including solar, wind, hydro and biomass. In addition to investment, commercial relationships and other partnership opportunities, the judging panel of GE executives and leading academics and technologists will select five $100,000 Innovation Award winners whose ideas represent pioneering entrepreneurship and innovation.