Notice to Tinkerers: X-Prize Throws $100 Million Into the Biofuels Pot

The folks who jolted space travel, human-genome sequencing and high-mileage vehicles are now looking to stir up the transition away from fossil fuels. The X-Prize Foundation is going to offer up to $100 million in a cluster of awards for transformative innovation in biofuels, electricity storage and transmission, and other clean technology.

I spoke both to X-Prize CEO Peter Diamandis and foundation President Tom Vander Ark for a story on the new prizes for a piece in today's BusinessWeek on-line.

One item not in the piece is how Vander Ark -- who worked previously on education in Bill and Melinda Gates' foundation -- is helping to take the X Prize in the same direction, meaning toward the developing world. These new energy prizes are somewhat geared to bringing cheap electricity, water and broadband to small villages in an effort to spur their economies. In the biofuels component, too, there's a requirement that the technology be easily transportable, which would make it useable in the developing world. Next, the X-Prizes are going directly into medicine and education, the Gates Foundation's forte.

I also asked Diamandis what it takes to be an X-man, or X-woman, as it were -- what is the right stuff to win one of the cachet-filled $10 million prizes?

Brilliance helps, of course, Diamandis said, but "I'm putting my money on tenacity and perseverance. It's asking over and over and over again for capital, refusing to take no for an answer. It's tenacity combined with passion."

Photo: merfam
Rights: Creative Commons