15 moon shots for energy, food and water, courtesy of Google

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:30:07 +0000

Google wants to see the world deliver so-called moon shots, or breakthrough technology that can solve the planet’s most pressing and difficult problems. Naturally, at the top of the list are technologies that can fight climate change, and solve global resource constraints, from energy to food to water.

For Google’s new “Solve for X” initiative, the search engine giant is celebrating these risk-taking entrepreneurs and researchers, and is highlighting these environmental technologies. Here’s 15 moonshots from the Solve for X site that are looking to solve resource constraints and fight climate change:

Danielle Fong: Lightsail, Compressed air energy storage

Damian Palin: Seawater reverse osmosis, or mining minerals from seawater

Doris Kim Sung: Metal that breathes

Michèle Ohayon: Solar roadways.

Joshua Wray: Using waste water to grow algae for biofuel

Jeff Surma: Municipal waste to energy

Joyce Poon: Low power data center communications with optics

Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie: Nuclear power that dissolves waste into molten salt.

Markus Kayser: A solar sinter

Mike Cheiky: Negative carbon liquid fuels

Harald Haas: Wireless data from every light bulb

Fengnian Gia: Replacing silicon with graphene for power electronics.

Aaron Fyke: Energy Cache, and grid energy storage:

Andras Forgacs: Sustainable, scalable meat

Daphne Preuss: Agricultural productivity

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15 moon shots for energy, food and water, courtesy of Google