Feb. 6--Alan Silva likes to think big. So, when he heard about the YouTube contest, "What's Your Crazy Green Idea?" he saw a golden opportunity.

"I'm just an idea person," said the Roy resident, one of three contest finalists. "I've always been interested in entrepreneurial things."

This week, the X Prize Foundation announced a pair of California students won the $25,000 prize for their crazy green idea, an "ultra capacitor" to store energy. But the foundation applauded all of the participants for their innovative ideas.

"We were all impressed by the sheer number of ideas submitted and their level of sophistication," said Peter H. Diamandis, the foundation's chairman and chief executive officer. "It truly demonstrates how important this issue is to the public at large."

The nonprofit foundation fosters "revolution through competition" to benefit humanity and has awarded prizes up to $30 million in space travel, genomics and transportation. The ideas generated by Silva and more than 130 other participants are being used to help shape a future prize in energy and environment.

The other finalist team, a trio of MIT students, tackled some of the same issues as Silva in their two-minute video. Viewers voted on all three finalist entries, but the details of the polling were not released.

A technology consultant and video producer, Silva didn't have to cast far for an idea. He needed only to look at last summer's gas-pump prices at $4

a gallon and his own home energy expenses to get his entrepreneurial juices going.

His proposal? Make affordable homes that can provide all of the energy its occupants use. Being "off the grid" would save hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, promote energy independence and provide energy security, says Silva.

"It wasn't that hard actually."

Silva lives with his four children and wife, Wendy, in Roy. The family is accustomed to his endless search for that better mousetrap.

"I drive my wife crazy," he said, "because I'm always trying to find better ways to do things."

Silva already has pored over the application for the $10 million X Prize for 100 MPGe (miles per gallon energy equivalent) vehicles with a reasonable price, size, capability, safety and performance.

Said Silva, "I would love to work with an organization that has the vision to put something like that together."

fahys@sltrib.com

More on the X Prizes

This page has a link to discussion of the energy and environment challenge: http://www.xprize.org/.

Silva's entry can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abYYsVCxZ0Y

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