What will it cost to rid the world of its climate change problem? Well, Elon Musk, the University of Calgary and local company Avatar Innovations believe that all it could take is a cool $100 million. This week, in hopes of helping the world’s brightest individuals bring home the prestigious XPrize for Carbon Removal – the latter pair actually announced their partnership with the XPrize Foundation.
What exactly is that you may be asking? Here’s what you need to know!
Founded in 1994 by some of the world’s most powerful people, the XPrize is a non-for-profit organization that hosts various competitions, all of which are “intended to encourage technological development to benefit humanity.”
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This particular contest, though, funded by mad genius Elon Musk, is being held in order to incentivize intellectuals to create, build and share a machine or system capable of fighting climate change and rebalancing Earth’s Carbon Cycle.
The grand prize will give $50 million to the winner, $20 million to second place, and $10 million to third. But that’s not the only money being dished out!
After 18 months, the top 15 teams in the XPrize competition will get $1M each, and 25 scholarships worth $200K a piece will be given to all the student teams still in the competition.
As we mentioned earlier and highlighted by the CBC, Calgary has actually stepped up, offering a state-of-the-art space where competitors from around the world can (potentially) make history through The Avatar Carbon Removal Accelerator program.
The facility offered will open on October 1st in the downtown area and also offer an opportunity for groups to work with UCalgary researchers in their labs and testing facilities. Pretty cool, hey?
Want to learn more? You can actually check out Avatar’s website here, which they’ve basically devoted entirely to the partnership.
Who the heck knows, maybe this will draw Musk to YYC? Stay tuned, folks, something incredible is coming!
