UCI students are finalists in $25,000 “crazy green idea” contest
January 30th, 2009, 7:32 pm · 4 Comments · posted by Pat Brennan, science, environment editor
Their idea is to create the ”ultra capacitor.” And it’s landed them among the top three competitors for $25,000 from the X Prize Foundation – the same organization that awarded $10 million to the team that built SpaceShipOne. 
Kyle Good (at right in photo) and Bryan Le, both 19 and both second-year students at UC Irvine, explain their idea in a Youtube video, one of 133 submitted to the X Prize Foundation in the “What’s Your Crazy Green Idea?” contest.
Their idea is among three chosen by the Foundation as finalists; the public got to vote for their favorite among the three, and the winner will be announced Feb. 5.
“We’re just interested in trying to see how we can increase the interest of the scientific community in alternative energy,” said Le, a chemistry and biochemistry student.
The contestants don’t have to build a working model of their idea; the competition is for the idea itself. But the winning concept could go on to become a higher-stakes contest by the Foundation to create the real thing.
“Whoever wins this video competition, their proposal has the potential to actually become the next X Prize,” Good said.
Good, a film and media student, said he first threw out the idea of doing “something about batteries.” Le suggested the ultra capacitor.
“It’s a super-powered battery, basically,” Good said — though one with important advantages over batteries.
“You could use it indefinitely, over and over again,” Le said. “It would be very interesting to use in cars. It charges instantaneously, and it doesn’t wear out.”
But as their video warns, developing such a device would be enormously expensive, and there is little interest in the scientific community in pursuing such a project. Today’s capacitors also are too low in energy.
“Having a prize like the X Prize really will stimulate that research,” Le said.
The two are up against Alan Silva of Roy, Utah, who suggests a contest to build a “100 percent energy independent home,” and Jonathan Dreher, who would pit communities against each other in a two-year contest to see which uses the least energy. Homeowners in the winning communities would receive $20,000 each.
Both presentations can also be seen on Youtube.
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Could this be used for solar powered refrigerators? I have been researching solar powered refrigerators. And the most expensive part is the battery. The solar panels charge up the batteries during the day. Then use the batteries at night to run the refrigerator. You can not use regular car batteries. The next step up is marine and diesel ( used to start diesel engines ). The best battery is the type used in electric powered fork lifts. It is designed to charge and discharge. It is also a monster, big, heavy and very expensive. ( A note about the expense: the initial purchase price is high. And I have not “run the numbers” to see what the yearly cost would be. But say after 20 years of use the cost would not be that high. I am just guessing. ) Ok could ”ultra capacitor” be used to store the power from the solar panels and then run the refrigerators at night? What about when it is overcast and solar panels are producing electricity at a lower rate?
Oops, silly me. This is just another “crazy green idea”.
This is great! I love seeing smart, driven young people with good ideas, and I applaud the contest sponsors for being far-sighted enough to realize good ideas could use a boost now and then.
test
It sounds absolutely awesome to me. Not knowing much about capacitors, I do know enough to buy into the idea. Yes, one LARGE enough to power a car would be initially quite expensive. However, in mass production WITH the element of competition an ultra-cap “could” feasibly reach the hundreds of dollars, just like computers.
However, there would be enormous resistance from Big Oil, to the sum of billions of dollars to suppress or buy out the technology. Yet, if it could reach high-up governmental agencies and get support it might have a sliver of a chance.
Zot Zot!
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