Kites the size of football fields, attached to ships by cables, can catch winds almost 50 percent stronger than sea-level wind. While they don't work in head winds and require crews to tend to the kites, these still could put quite a dent in the carbon dioxide released from cargo and cruise ships.

Some companies testing the waters include Germany's SkySails and California-based KiteShip Corp. To give the new product a run for its money, SkySails has readied a 460-foot cargo ship with the kites, and plans for it to journey from Denmark to Houston in mid-December.

But they certainly aren't the only ones eyeing high-altitude wind power. This year's $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship went to Saul Griffith, an MIT grad, high-tech inventor and entrepreneur, whose new company, Makani Power, is researching and designing ways to capture wind that blows much higher than the normal 300-foot wind turbines. On the weekends, he can be found racing his catamaran around San Francisco Bay with extra power from giant kites.