Scotland Offers $20 Million (USD) Prize for Marine Renewables Innovation

Scotland is offering a $20 million (USD) prize to innovators who design environmentally friendly marine renewable projects, such as wave, tidal and offshore wind, according to this story. The award, known as the Saltire Prize, is intended to inspire scientists around the world to develop new ideas to combat climate change and global warming.

As I posted here, the idea of using a prize to stimulate innovation is not new; it's been used before in the context of innovations in space. I think that a $20 million prize will certainly provide an added boost to the marine renewables industry (not to mention great publicity), but without sustained support for the program beyond the prize, the efforts may not prove worthwhile.