Google’s Little Box Challenge

Google is cooperating with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers to support a project that “will help change the future of electricity” according to  Eric Raymond of the Google Green Team. Google promised a million dollar prize for whoever comes up with the best design for a device no bigger than a laptop that can efficiently convert direct current to alternating current commonly used in homes and businesses.

The challenge is to shrink power converters to about a tenth of their present size, to make it possible to use them to accomplish handy feats such as creating low-cost power grids in remote places or using car batteries to keep lights on in homes during blackouts, according to Raymond.

Details of the competition are available online at:

https://www.littleboxchallenge.com/