GE Challenges consumers to come up with the idea of tomorrow... And they want to fund it.

Building & Design

GE launches challenge for ‘eco home of the future’

GE has launched a global challenge looking for the new ideas for the ‘eco home of the future’.
The new phase of the company’s $200 million ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid, which was launched last summer, is seeking innovations to improve home energy efficiency and make use of wind, solar, hydro and biomass power.
     “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,” says Beth Comstock, chief marketing officer and senior vice president.
Comstock explains that of the 4000+ ideas submitted to the ‘Powering the Grid’ challenge, over 1100 were in the category of home energy use.
     “The volume of ideas in this area sparked us to take a new look at consumer energy usage and focus on innovation… that can help harness and improve energy efficiency at home,” she adds.
The ‘powering your home’ challenge will open for new ideas from technologists, entrepreneurs and start-ups on January 18 and will run until March 1, 2011.
     The ideas already submitted will also be re-examined and the five most exciting concepts, as judged by a panel of GE executives, academics and technologists, will be awarded $100,000.
Successful entrants could also be rewarded with a commercial relationship with GE, potentially working with the company’s research and development centres and extensive distribution networks.
     For further information:
www.ecomagination.com/challenge
www.ge.com