Google's 'Little Box Challenge' is Now Open for Submissions

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Paul Sawers

Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check h (show all) Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check him out on Google+.

Google is looking to reward engineers and budding innovators for coming up with a more compact solution for transforming energy garnered from renewable sources into something usable in your home.

The internet giant first announced the initiative back in May, but now it’s full steam ahead as Google has finally opened it for submissions. As things stand, the typical power inverter for solar or wind power is roughly the size of a picnic cooler, as Google notes, but it’s looking for clever people to shrink this down to the size of a tablet, roughly a tenth of its current size. “Put a little more technically, we’re looking for someone to build a kW-scale inverter with a power density greater than 50W per cubic inch. Do it best and we’ll give you a million bucks,” explains Eric Raymond from the Google Green Team.

So if you’re up for a challenge, you can sign up now. The registration deadline is September 30, 2014, with a full technical approach and testing application required by July 22, 2015. Exactly a year from today.

Depending on the quality of submissions, up to 18 finalists will be notified of their selection for final testing.