2009 Ashden Awards

This year's international award winners were announced on 11th June, all demonstrating pioneering enterprise with energy efficient schemes:

 - Aprovecho Research Center and Shengzhou Stove Manufacturer, USA/China
   Making affordable, efficient stoves for the masses
 - ECAMI, Nicaragua
   New energy leapfrogs the old
 - GERES, India
   Greenhouses bring better nutrition to the Himalayas
 - International Development Enterprises, India - Outstanding Achievement Award
   Pedalling farmers out of poverty
 - Kampala Jellitone Suppliers, Uganda
   Fuel from waste fires up Uganda
 - Saran Renewable Energy, India
   Business finds green solution to black-outs
 - Solar Energy Foundation, Ethiopia
   Solar scheme sets communities alight

Details on the above award winners can be seen in full on the Ashden website.

2009 Keynote speech from HRH The Prince of Wales

This year's ceremony was lead by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Ashden Awards since 2006, who presented the awards and gave a thoroughly inspiring keynote speech to the 15 finalists and ceremony attendees.  His Royal Highness, commenting on the Ashden Awards, said, “the major value of these awards is that they demonstrate what is possible, not only for small scale projects, but what is achievable for the whole world."

And replication and scalability were, as always, the key focus for 2009's Ashden week. The Outstanding Achievement Award, presented to International Development Enterprises - India (IDE-I) for their continued success with the human-powered treadle pump, is a great example. The team at IDE-I have diversified their operations to expand the energy efficient technologies available to Indian farming communities, which now include anti-corrosive materials for use in coastal regions and drip irrigation systems that can be used in combination with treadle pumps (or indeed traditional pumps) to reduce water consumption even further.

View the IDE-I Treadle Pump Video on the Ashden Award pages (opens in a new window).

ClimateCare has been a proud partner of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy for the past eight years. The awards are given for outstanding, inspirational and innovative local sustainable energy schemes that both protect the environment, tackle climate change and make real improvements to people's quality of life.

They are designed to encourage wider take-up of local energy solutions worldwide - proving to the public and policy makers alike that such schemes offer viable, practical ways of tackling poverty, resource shortages and climate change. To this end the Ashden Awards' aims are very similar to those of ClimateCare.

ClimateCare has provided funding for several Ashden prizes since 2005. In order to qualify for an Ashden Award, applicants must have demonstrated a track record of managing a sustainable energy project and have a plan to show how the prize money will be spent to extend the existing project or start a new one.


2007: ClimateCare award presented by Al Gore

Andy Schroeter of Sunlabob collects his Ashden Award from Al Gore. With the announcement of the 2007 winners, the Ashden Awards for Sustainable energy showed yet again how simple technologies can transform lives in the developing world while also tackling climate change.

Presenting the Awards in June 2007, former US Vice-President Al Gore described the winners as “illuminating a path to a sustainable future together. No one can attend an event like the Ashden Awards,” he said “and fail to be inspired.”

The winner of the Light and Power award 2007, sponsored by ClimateCare, was certainly inspiring. Sunlabob Rural Energy Ltd makes lighting affordable for the people of Laos. Its portable lamps are charged by solar power and rented out by the hour. This means that families can switch from expensive, fossil fuel kerosene lighting to safe, solar-powered lamps to light their homes at night.

Sunlabob, like other first prize winners, received £30,000 to use in continuing its work. Andy Schroeter, Director of Sunlabob (seen above collecting his award from Al Gore) said: “Thank you to the Ashden Awards and ClimateCare for this prize which will help us to continue providing commercially viable and affordable energy services for rural areas.”

The challenge for the world is how to grow sustainable energy at the scale and pace needed. As Sarah Butler Sloss, Executive Chair of the Ashden Awards and chair of the judging panel, stated “If these technologies were expanded and replicated on a large scale, they would play a significant role in helping us to tackle climate change and poverty.”

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