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Elon Musk has pledged $100 million as a prize for organizations that can come up with commercially-viable carbon capture technologies.

The space and EV tycoon Elon Musk has significantly raised the bar in setting a new trend to promote and support innovation in the green technology sector.

By pledging $100 million as a prize, he is looking for organizations to convince him that they have come up with commercially-viable carbon capture technologies. 

Bloomberg has reported why this is such a big deal to drive innovation. 

”Winning has to be likely enough that people participate, but not so likely the space is flooded already. Carbon capture falls fairly squarely in this space. There are at least three startups that have crafted experimental contraptions to suck CO2 out of thin air. But frankly, the economics are still ugly. For these folks, the Musk-bucks may be major.”

This is not a new concept, as some of the earliest maritime innovations came about when the British government put up similar prizes in the 18th century. 

And more recently, Boeing has pledged a $2 million prize for a jet pack solution.

The big difference here is the amount of money at stake, which could see anything from a university department to a team of hobby scientists come up with solutions in a much faster way. 


Chris is one of GreenCitizen’s writers who has been a long-time advocate of individual responsibility when it comes to the environment. He shares GreenCitizen's passion for making the world a better place every day of the year.

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