丹尼爾?方

? 年齡：25歲

? 頭銜：聯合創始人兼首席科學家

? 公司：光帆能源（LightSail Energy）

如果丹尼爾?方是個虛構的人物，她的存在會不合常理。她住在一座經過翻新的消防站，12歲開始上大學，致力于提高綠色能源的可行性，還吸引了許多世界上最偉大的思想家的關注。光帆能源（LightSail Energy）的技術代表了一種新的儲能方式，公司稱這種方式更廉價且更高效——可保存70%的存儲電荷，遠遠高于現有的設備。儲能問題一直是風能和太陽能等能源產業面臨的一個巨大障礙，因為這些能源只能在一天的特定時段采集。如果這種方式有效，光帆能源的解決方案將“使可再生能源更實用，而且將使可再生能源首次成為主流能源，”光帆能源早期投資者維諾德?科斯拉表示。他并不是唯一支持該公司的名人。比爾蓋茨和彼得?泰爾也是這家公司董事會的成員，幫助這家初創公司融資超過5,000萬美元。開著特斯拉（Tesla）電動車、帶著谷歌眼鏡（Google Glass）的方住在消防站里，那里曾經是她公司的總部。她說，希望在太空舉辦自己的40歲生日派對。不可能？不見得。——安妮?范德爾梅??

Danielle Fong

? Age: 25

? Title: Cofounder and chief scientist

? Company: LightSail Energy

If Danielle Fong were a fictional character, she wouldn't be plausible. She lives in a refurbished fire station, started college at age 12, and has a plan to boost the viability of green energy that has attracted attention from some of the world's greatest thinkers. LightSail's technology represents a new take on energy storage that it says will be cheaper and more efficient -- retaining some 70% of a stored charge, much higher than what's possible with existing equipment. Energy storage is a serious hurdle for power sources such as wind and solar, which can only be harvested for part of the day. If it works, LightSail's solution could "make renewable energy practical and mainstream for the first time," says Vinod Khosla, an early investor in LightSail. He's not the only luminary backing the company. Bill Gates and Peter Thiel are also on board, helping boost the startup's funding to more than $50 million. Fong, who drives a Tesla and uses Google Glass, lives in the firehouse that was her company's original headquarters and says she'd like to throw her 40th birthday party "in space." Far-fetched? Maybe not. -Anne VanderMey?