Seems IBM is trying real hard to get the word out about renewable energy. This time they are doing it through a new 3d online game. This another in a long line of online games that seeks to teach people about renewable energy and a better way to live.

If any one out there is listening, Planet Helios is being destroyed and we need your help!

Hundreds of years ago the nations of our planet realized that the side effects from burning fossil fuels for energy were damaging the atmosphere and changing the climate. They joined together to develop and build technologies to create electricity from available renewable energy resources like wind, sun and water power. Meanwhile the planet’s citizens–our ancestors–pulled together and pledged to use less energy. This ushered in a Golden Age of energy balance and ecological harmony.

But a few generations later energy was plentiful, clean and cheap and conservation was no longer in fashion. As energy consumption increased, fossil fuel-burning plants had to be fired up again to keep up with ever-increasing demand.

Now the damage has been re-done, and then some! Our atmosphere is choked with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The planet is heating up. Extreme weather threatens almost every ecosystem and all of our citizens, and storms have destroyed much of the renewable energy infrastructure including wind turbines, hydroelectric generators and solar towers. Fossil fuel plants work overtime to pick up the slack, pumping tons of poison gases into the air, and there are strange, new threats. There have been scattered reports of what people are calling “SmogGobs:” dense clouds of carbon based emissions that seem almost alive. Scientists can not explain the phenomenon – but citizens are blaming these SmogGobs for sickness and even death of loved ones. World leaders have appealed for help, but it may be too late…”

Power Up has a bit more production value (although the website is a bit old school) and is actually a multiplayer online worlds (think world of warcraft but with wind turbines).

The goal of Power Up is to use renewable energy to bring a planet on the brink of ecological disaster. There are various missions where you have to use solar wind and other technology to produce power. Seems like it will keep kids interested for at least a couple of hours, and the additional teacher curriculum would make for interesting lesson plans for brave teachers.