10 January 2011: During the CES 2011 Keynote: Innovation Power Panel GE CEO Jeff Immelt spoke about GE’s strategy of open innovation challenges, and announced the latest ecomagination Challenge: Powering Your Home.

Building on the success of the “Powering the Grid Challenge,” the new “Powering Your Home” one is an open call to action to businesses, entrepreneurs and innovators for better ways to use energy in the home and harness wind, solar, hydro and biomass power. Winners will be announced in May. Source: GE Powering Your Home

17-11-2010: General Electric unveiled five award winners in its $200 million open innovation challenge, which focused on finding smart solutions to powering our grid. The competition, which was launched in July, is part of General Electric’s Ecomagination initiative to accelerate development of the next-gen power grid and global energy transformation through open collaboration. The five winners of the challenge will each receive $100,000 for their ideas, which will lead to a smarter, cleaner, more efficient electric grid. The winners were picked for their visions, which address the critical issues of water supply, frozen wind farm blades, wind turbine cost, and the security and reliability of the smart grid.

Capstone Metering applies remote communications technology to the century-old water meter. The company’s intelliH2O is self-powered and delivers real-time water system management, which helps conserve water and eliminates the need for manual meter-readings.

Recognizing the substation’s unique location in the electric grid, ElectricRoute created a communications gateway point for transmission and distribution systems. Its cyber-secure, communications network infrastructure eliminates duplicate sensors and thousands of copper lines running inside the substation.



GridON created a fault-current-limiter to protect the electric grid from disruptions and power outages, increasing the grid’s reliability and enabling load growth and generation expansion from alternative energy sources. This technology was developed in collaboration with Bar-Ilan University and Ricor Ltd and was exclusively licensed to GridON by the University’s transfer company (BIRAD).

Seeking to break one of nature’s strongest bonds, IceCode’s technology removes ice by using high-power pulses to apply heat from the inside out. Employing this technology for wind turbines substantially reduces the amount of energy used for de-icing and eliminates downtime for ice removal and inspection. Developed in collaboration with Dartmouth College.

WinFlex produces rotors for wind turbines from light, flexible and inexpensive cloth sheets made out of composite materials. This flexible rotor design reduces installation costs by fifty percent and shortens the return on investment to three-four years, without subsidies. Source: GE Ecomagination Challenge

See also: GE WattStation and Residential WattStation: Easy-to-Use EV Chargers by Yves Behar – GE to buy 25,000 electric vehicles – GE Ecomagination: FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle Power Plant – GE Ecomagination: The Zero Emission Electric Bus of the Future

18-09-2010: GE’s Ecomagination Challenge is a $200 million call to action for businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators, and students to share their best ideas and come together to take on one of the world’s toughest challenges – building the next-generation power grid to meet the needs of the 21st century.

Challenge 1: Create – Renewable Energy. Renewable energy holds extraordinary potential for helping us create the energy to meet our growing needs. But many forms of renewable energy are highly variable in their output. This is where a more intelligent grid comes in, integrating and managing renewable energy sources. Making the best use of the energy created by renewable resources is critical to a reliable supply of affordable energy. What kinds of technologies or processes do you think will maximize the penetration of renewables into the grid?

Challenge 2: Connect – Grid Efficiency. The U.S. should have the most efficient grid in the world. But we don’t. Our grid wastes energy at every point during every day. The solution is to connect advanced power generation to a more intelligent and more efficient grid — that then connects with consumers. GE is looking at different grid technologies that help lower delivery losses and those that anticipate and monitor demand. Reducing losses frees up grid capacity, reduces the need for infrastructure capital expenditure, and protects consumers from steep rate increases. Reducing voltage eliminates the over-delivery of energy, so customers are not paying for unused energy. In terms of technology, processes and policy, what do you think are the best means to help us realize greater gains in grid efficiency and outage management?

Challenge 3: Use – EcoHomes/EcoBuildings. Energy consumption is growing so quickly that it’s creating an imbalance between demand and supply. This mismatch short-circuits power production and distribution, leading to higher energy costs for consumers and businesses. We need to change how, and when, we use energy. We’re looking at many promising technologies to help power companies and their customers share information and manage their energy use better. What new technologies, processes or business models can help consumers use energy more wisely and improve our energy balance?

After registering, you may enter as many ideas as you wish in the three categories: Renewables, Grid Efficiency and Eco Homes/Eco Buildings before September 30, 2010. Your entry must include a clear, detailed proposal describing an innovative, original smart grid technology. Please use English for your entry. Let us know if you have already filed a patent application or received a patent on any part of your entry. GE also like to know about you, your team, and how you came up with the idea. A video is optional but a simple photo of you, your organization or your team is required. At this moment: 2175 ides submitted (1,031 ideas to create power, 530 ideas to connect power and 614 ideas to use power).

In late October, GE will announce those entrants with whom GE intends to pursue commercial relationships. In November, GE will announce any business deals with GE that have been formalized. The entry receiving the most user-submitted votes, will receive, subject to GE’s review for appropriate content, a cash award of $50,000. GE will present each of five innovation challenge award recipients with $100,000 in cash, for a total of $500,000, to acknowledge these entries as examples of outstanding entrepreneurship and innovation. Judges may also award one or more entrant: GE Scientific Merit Award to work with the GRC

The evaluation committee will consider one or more of the following for selected entrants: An equity investment by GE or others. A cooperative agreement to develop a product or technology. A review of your product or service for possible qualification to be a part of the GE Ecomagination program. Source: GE Ecomagination Challenge