In a spin ... the Climate Change Challenge is looking for ideas from best-of-British inventors. Photograph: Don McPhee
You can now pay £500 for a nifty device called a renewable energy generator, which promises to provide 90% of the UK's electricity needs for free, and to eliminate millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Sounds too good to be true? Well, there is one sticking point: it hasn't been invented yet.
Still, that hasn't stopped the organisation UK8020 taking orders for the generators. What a con, you cry. Not quite - UK8020, a "not for profit community interest group" is also asking people to invent such a device. And it promises not to take your money until they succeed.
With the help of Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wireless radio, and Madonna, yes that Madonna, today they launched their grand Climate Change Challenge. They want British inventors to head for their sheds and emerge with "interesting inventions and ideas" for such a generator. Details are sketchy at this stage, UK8020 says only that the generator must be capable of mass production and retail for £500. In return, they promise £100,000 - and the lasting thanks and admiration of the entire human race. You might even get to meet Al Gore.
There are obvious comparisons to Richard Branson's Virgin Earth Challenge, which offers $25m to anyone who can suggest a viable way to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Cynics said Sir Richard would be better off grounding his aircraft. Others said a quest for such techno-fixes was a dangerous distraction from efforts to cut emissions.
So what should we make of UK8020's move? A prize of £100,000 does seem a bit measly for such a historic breakthrough, especially when you remember that's what Alan Sugar pays his apprentices. What's to stop the inventor patenting and lucratively licensing such a device themselves? Still, as Trevor Baylis puts it: "an inexpensive way of generating energy could improve the lives of millions".
Any ideas? We promise not to steal them.
