TIMELINE: EVOLUTION OF THE PRIZE
2008
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, announces the $1.5 million Zayed Future Energy Prize, designed to inspire innovation and make an impact in the areas of renewable energy and sustainability, at the first World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. The prize receives 150 entries.
2009
The first winner is announced at the inaugural awards ceremony in January: Dipal Barua, founder of the clean energy company Grameen Shakti, which enabled the construction of 245,000 solar electricity systems in homes in Bangladesh. The runner-up is Australia’s Dr Martin Green, for his work in the field of photovoltaics.
2010
Toyota Motor Corp wins for the Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle. There are two runners-up: Shi Zhengrong, founder of Suntech Power Holdings, the world’s largest manufacturer of silicon solar modules, and International Development Enterprises India, which provides low-cost irrigation technologies.
2011
The winner is the Danish company Vestas, the world’s leading provider of wind power plants. The runners-up are E+Co, an American company that invests in clean energy, and Amory B Lovins, chairman and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, for energy-efficient design.
2012
The award is broken into five categories to widen its reach: Lifetime Achievement ($500,000), Small & Medium Enterprise ($1.5 million), Non-Profit Organisation ($1.5 million), Large Corporation (recognition only) and Global High Schools ($100,000 each to five regions). Lifetime Achievement: Dr Ashok Gadgil wins for his sustainable inventions, including UV Waterworks, which disinfects drinking water, and the Berkeley-Darfur stove, which cuts firewood use in half.
Small & Medium Enterprise/ Non-Profit Organisation: The UK’s CDP, a nonprofit that helps companies measure environmental information; runners-up India’s Orb Energy and the US Environmental Defense Fund Large Corporation: Schneider Electric
2013
The first awards ceremony to include the Global High Schools winners.
Lifetime Achievement: Prof Jose Goldemberg of Brazil’s Physicist Institute of Electrotechnics and Energy Large Corporation: Siemens Non-Profit Organisation: Ceres, an American nonprofit advocacy group Small & Medium Enterprise: d.light, a solar lighting company
Global High Schools: Mexico’s Secundaria Tecnica 120; the UK’s Okehampton College; Tanzania’s Kirya Secondary School; Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Bangladesh Islamia School
2014
The Lifetime Achievement winner is Wang Chuanfu, founder and chairman of China’s BYD, which manufacture batteries, electric vehicles and LEDs.
Small & Medium Enterprise: Abellon Clean Energy from India
Large Corporation: Zurich-based ABB, which provides energy-saving technologies to the world Non-Profit Organisation: The European Fraunhofer ISE, Europe’s largest solar energy research institute
Global High Schools: New York’s Bronx Design & Construction Academy; Romania’s Gheorghe Rosca Codreanu National College; Malawi’s Nkhata Bay School Authority; India’s Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya; Tonga High School
2015
Al Gore, former US vice president, is the Lifetime Achievement winner.
Small & Medium Enterprise: The Kenya-based M-KOPA Solar, a payas-you go energy service for off-grid customers
Non-Profit Organisation: Liter of Light, the Phillipines-based company that turns plastic bottles into solar lights
Large Corporation: Panasonic Global High Schools: Canada’s Munro Academy; Romania’s Petru Rares National College; Swaziland’s Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA; the Maldives’ Addu High School; Australia’s Melbourne Girls College
2016
Dr Gro Harlem Bruntland,
the former prime minister of Norway, is the first woman to win Lifetime Achievement.
Small & Medium Enterprise: Tanzania’s Off Grid Electric, the world’s first massively scalable off-grid electric company
Non-Profit Organisation: Kopernik from Indonesia, which delivers sustainable energy to poor communities Large Corporation: China’s BYD Company, the world’s largest rechargeable battery supplier
Global High Schools: Colombia’s Institucion Educativa Gabriel Plazas; Germany’s Schuelerforschungszentrum Suedwuerttemberg; Somalia’s SOS HG Sheikh Secondary School; Korea Science Academy of KAIST; New Zealand’s Cashmere High School
2017
Li Junfeng wins Lifetime Achievement for the development of energy policy in China.
Large Corporation: General Electric Small & Medium Enterprise: Sonnen, a German company providing residential energy storage systems Non-Profit Organisation: The UK’s Practical Action, which helps tackle energy poverty in developing countries Global High Schools: Bolivia’s Unidad Educativa Sagrado Corazon 4; Dublin’s Belvedere College; Nairobi’s Starehe Girls Centre & School; Green School Bali; Australia’s Huonville High School
2018
The Zayed Energy Prize celebrates its 10th anniversary, in conjunction with the Year of Zayed. It receives a record 2,296 entries from 112 countries. For this year’s winners, who will be announced today, go to www. zayedfuturenergyprize.com or read about them at www.thenational.ae.