WorldChanging Covers Commentary on Clean Tech Open:

www.worldchanging.com/archive...235.html

The idea of using a big cash prize as a catalyst for invention has become pretty popular, from the X-Prize for private space flight to the recent competition to get Windows up and running on an Intel Macintosh. Advocates for environmental technologies often suggest a prize as a way to generate interest in green innovations. With the new California Clean Tech Open, we're about to see if a "Green Prize" will be as successful as the X-Prize at bringing us to a new frontier.

The premise of the Clean-Tech Open is simple: each participant comes up with an overview plan for a technology-enabled green business in one of five categories; finalists then must produce the full-fledged business plan. Winners in each category (Energy Efficiency, Smart Power, Renewable Energy, Transportation, and Water Management) receive $50,000, along with a variety of professional services and a year's worth of office space; the overall winner receives an additional $50,000.

The folks running the competition seem to understand (PDF) the Bright Green big picture:

We believe that a new class of emerging clean technologies can help resolve many of the great challenges of our day:

# Global demand for diminishing resources continues to grow. Demand for energy and raw materials is increasing dramatically driven in large part by the economies of China and India.
# Sustainable development must become a reality - the only option for a world of over 6 billion people.
# Long-term energy prices are trending upward. The many costs of foreign oil force us to consider the need for energy independence.
# Tens of millions of combustion engines powering a growing demand for automobiles and trucks continue to drive the use of fossil fuels and the proliferation of greenhouse gases.
# Managing environmental contamination has real costs including the need for better health care, water treatment, and soil remediation. Not polluting in the first place can be the most economical solution.

From that big picture perspective, it's particularly interesting to look a the list of sponsoring organizations. Alongside expected groups like EPRI and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, you find computer chip maker AMD, car company Lexus, and even Chevron's venture capital group. Sustainability and green technology really is no longer the sole bastion of idealists and activists.