General Electric (GE) has announced an open innovation challenge that seeks breakthrough ideas to create smarter, cleaner, more efficient electric grids, and accelerate the adoption of smart grid technologies.

GE will award $200 million to winning ideas, making it the largest challenge of its kind. Deadline for all entries is September 30, 2010.

The global challenge is now open and invites researchers, entrepreneurs and start_ups to share their best ideas and come together to take on one of the world's toughest challenges - making the grids smarter to meet society's needs and cope with today's energy challenges.

GE's ecomagination challenge is the largest ever of its kind and is open now for submissions at www.ecomagination.com/challenge. Idea proposals are sought in three broad categories: Renewables, Grid and Eco Homes/Eco Buildings.

GE will present each of five innovation challenge award recipients with $100,000 in cash, for a total of $500,000, to acknowledge these entries as examples of outstanding entrepreneurship and innovation.

GE's ecomagination leader for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Horst_Tore Land, explained that "ecomagination is GE's commitment to bring to market more energy_efficient solutions to meet market demands.

Now, we are expanding our ecomagination initiative to include open innovation and collaboration with the best technology minds in the world. Working together, we can help to solve our energy challenges on both the supply and demand sides."

The ecomagination challenge is open to the general public who can vote for the idea that they believe will have the most impact on the smart grid of the future. The idea that receives the highest number of votes will receive a cash award of US $50.000.

Finding more efficient electric grids and accelerating the use of smart grid technologies is relevant for Africa. Demand for electricity in Africa grows at an average annual rate of 2.6 percent according International Energy Outlook (IEO) 2010 projections.

Fossil_fuel_fired generation supplied 81 percent of the region's total electricity in 2007, and reliance on fossil fuels is expected to continue through 2035.

Generation from hydropower and other marketed renewable energy sources is expected to grow relatively slowly in Africa, according to IEO 2010.

As they have in the past, non_marketed renewables are expected to continue providing energy to Africa's rural areas; however, it is often difficult for African nations to find funding or international support for larger commercial projects.

The latest Nigeria Power Report forecasts that Nigeria will account for 2.39% of Middle East and Africa (MEA) regional power generation by 2014, with the country struggling to narrow the supply/demand gap.

Direct burning of wood and waste materials was the dominant energy source for Nigeria in 2009, accounting for an estimated 73% of primary energy demand (PED), followed by gas at 16% and oil with a near 10% share of PED.

Regional energy demand is forecast to reach 1,075mn tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) by 2014, representing 19.3% growth over the period since 2010. Nigeria's estimated 2009 market share of 12.37% is set to rise to 12.44% by 2014.

Nigeria's real GDP growth is forecast to average 7.40% a year between 2010 and 2014, with 2010 growth assumed to be 7.50%. The population is expected to expand from 151mn to 167mn over the period, with GDP per capita and electricity consumption per capita forecast to increase by 61% and 26% respectively.

Power consumption is expected to increase from an estimated 23.3TWh in 2009 to 34.7TWh by 2014, providing an improvement in market coverage on the basis of 9.6% average annual growth (2010_2014) in electricity generation, according to the Nigeria Power Report.

Deploying smart grid technologies can help countries, like Nigeria, to increase the amount of its growing energy demand with renewable energy sources.

New solutions are therefore needed to meet demand reliably and efficiently while reducing unwanted environmental emissions.

The Challenge, launched in collaboration with leading venture capital firms Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer and RockPort Capital, and Chris Anderson, Editor_in_Chief, Wired magazine, is part of GE's ecomagination initiative and will help fund the most promising ideas.