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News: Ignite Clean Energy Competition

Since 2004, the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge has sponsored ICE (Ignite Clean Energy), a sustainable business competition with a twist: ICE is judged according to business presentations.

The idea is to encourage companies devoted to reducing the energy sector’s dependence on fossil fuels to develop business plans that might actually attract investors.

The winner of the 2007 competition was RSI Silicon, a Massachusetts-based company that has developed a way to produce solar-grade silicon requiring only 10% of the capital costs of current methods. Considering the world’s silicon crisis, such a process could be of incalculable value.

The runners-up: Fox2 Technologies, for the development of fuel efficiency and carbon reduction technologies for airplane and trucking operators; and Bagazo, whose business plan focuses on encouraging investment in sustainable businesses in developing countries.