This week, the X Prize Foundation announced a pair of California students won the $25,000 prize for their crazy green idea, an �ultra capacitor� to store energy. This is a new approach to the age-old problem of how to leap forwardin battery design.

The foundation applauded all participants for their innovative ideas including finalist Alan Silva who proposed an off-grid house.
The ideas generated by Silva and more than 130 other participants are being used to help shape a future prize in energy and environment.
A technology consultant and video producer, Silva didn�t have to cast far for an idea. He needed only to look at last summer�s gas- pump prices at $4 a gallon and his own home energy expenses to get his entrepreneurial juices going.
His proposal? Make affordable homes that can provide all of the energy its occupants use. �Being off the grid would save hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, promote energy independence and provide energy security,� says Silva.
The nonprofit X foundation fosters �revolution through competition� to benefit humanity and has awarded prizes up to $30 million in space travel, genomics and transportation.�We were all impressed by the sheer number of ideas submitted and their level of sophistication,� said Peter H. Diamandis, the foundation�s chairman and chief executive officer. �It truly demonstrates how important this issue is to the public at large.�

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