Press Release
Winners announced for world’s leading green energy awards
Al Gore congratulates winners on their inspiring work
Winners personally congratulated by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.
London - 21 June 2007- Winners of the 2007 Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy were tonight
announced following an awards ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London addressed by
former US Vice President Al Gore.
“No-one can attend an event like the Ashden Awards and fail to be inspired… we must find a path from
an unsustainable present to a sustainable future. What impresses me most about these projects is they
truly are becoming the change that’s needed in the world. These awards tell us how to illuminate the
path to a sustainable future together. I hope that we can make it quickly.” said Mr.Gore
Five international awards were given in recognition of the way in which sustainable energy has been
used to improve access to Light and Power, to Food, to Education and Welfare, to promote
Enterprise and to address the challenges of lack of access to essential energy resources in Africa.
An Outstanding Achievement Award was also awarded to a past winner whose work has accelerated
and made a significant contribution to the spread of sustainable energy solutions since winning an
Ashden Award.
4 UK awards were also awarded to pioneering approaches to sustainable energy use across the UK.
Sarah Butler-Sloss, Executive Chair and chair of the judging panel said: “Our winners show how
sustainable energy can improve health, education and livelihoods and at the same time reduce carbon
emissions. 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. What we need now is the political will
to scale-up and roll-out these solutions”
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Ashden Awards personally congratulated all
the winners in a separate private ceremony. A Clarence House spokesperson said of the meeting:
”The Prince of Wales was highly impressed by the diverse range of outstanding sustainable energy
solutions from the UK and across the globe. His Royal Highness was particularly encouraged by the fact
that these pioneering initiatives offer practical, simple and economical solutions that others can easily
follow”
International winners:
CHINA: Beijing Shenzhou Daxu Bio-energy Technology Company Ltd (Daxu) wins the Enterprise
Award (£30,000) for developing and marketing an innovative stove design that replaces coal by burning
widely available crop waste as well as burning wood much more efficiently.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_daxu
INDIA: BIOTECH wins the Food Security Award (£30,000) for developing and installing biogas plants
in Kerala that use food waste which is often left out in the streets to rot, to generate gas for cooking.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_biotech
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LAOS: Sunlabob Renewable Energies Ltd wins the Light and Power Award (£30,000), sponsored
by Climate Care, for developing an innovative and commercially viable business model which provides
high quality solar PV systems to the rural poor at a price they can afford.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_sunlabob
BANGLADESH: Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha wins the Education and Welfare Award (£30,000)
for building up a fleet of 88 boats that use solar energy to bring education, training and renewable energy
supplies to over 400,000 people living in the remote Chalanbeel region of Bangladesh.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_shidhulai
TANZANIA: Zara Solar Ltd. wins the Africa Award (£30,000) for providing high-quality, reliable solarhome-systems at affordable prices to communities lacking access to a reliable source of energy.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_zara
INDIA: Harish Hande from SELCO wins the Outstanding Achievement Award (£15,000) for, in the
words of the judges, “the way in which this visionary individual has demonstrated beyond doubt that it is
possible to run a renewable energy business which is both a striking commercial success, and which lifts
people out of poverty, too.” SELCO is a private business committed to providing the highest quality solar
energy services to poor people on financial terms they can afford.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary_selco
International second prize winners
NEPAL: Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal takes second prize for the Enterprise Award (£10,000)
for upgrading over 2,400 traditional water mills in the Himalayas of Nepal and so improving livelihoods
for millers and mill-users and stemming the rise in diesel mills.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_crt
INDIA: SKG Sangha takes second prize for the Food Security Award (£10,000) for improving the lives
of rural communities in Karnataka, South India by supplying them with both dung based biogas plants for
cooking and a specially designed unit that turns the slurry from the biogas plant into high quality fertiliser.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_skg
PERU: Practical Action/ITDG takes second prize for the Light and Power Award (£10,000) for
transforming the lives of over 30,000 people living in remote villages in the Andes by providing them with
electricity generated by micro-hydro plants.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_practicalaction
PHILIPPINES: Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. takes second prize for the
Education and Welfare Award (£10,000) for developing a ram pump design built to last at least twenty
years and for bringing clean water to over 15,000 people through the installation of these ram pumps in
68 hillside villages in the Philippines.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_aid
GHANA: Deng Ltd takes second prize for the African Award (£10,000) for developing a viable and
sustainable business for the provision of solar-home-systems to rural areas where access to grid supply
is limited.
Full summary: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary07_deng
The Ashden Awards Business Support and Dissemination Programme sponsored by British Gas was
also launched at tonight’s ceremony. This provides award winners with advice or training in business and
human resource development as well as a range of other support to help them reach their full potential.
Notes to editors
For further information, interviews contact Maya Vaughan Tel. 020 7263 2551 or Mobile: 07726926227
E: maya.vaughan@ashdenawards.org
Download photos of the Award ceremony http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners_2007_photos
Download photos with HRH Prince of Wales http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners_HRH_2007
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Download photos of the international projects http://www.ashdenawards.org/projects_2007_photos
For information on the UK Ashden Award winners, see: http://www.ashdenawards.org/uk_press_2007
The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy – now in its 7th year – exists to both highlight and reward
exemplary and successful examples of sustainable energy use both in the UK and the developing world.
The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy were created in 2001 by the Ashden Trust. The 2006
Awards are funded by nine Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts along with the John Ellerman
Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust and Climate Care.
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