HO,
Thank you for your post.

What's you're opinion on the X Prize Foundation? Better, worse route to spawn creativity?

The X-Prize is a showboat fire works display for the uber-rich. Only they can afford to fund the multi-million dollar teams for chasing after the showman's "prize".

It would be nice if government actually gave out corruption-free grants to folks who are doing honest research in solving the energy problem. Regretably, grants go to those who are connected and those who know how to fill in those endless bureaucratic forms.

What do you think about Al Gore's "Electranet"? (More here.)