Organisations promoting clean energy around the world have been honoured at an awards ceremony in London.

The Ashden Awards announced the winners of its 2010 Sustainable EnergyThe ability to perform work, mainly kinetic, potential, thermal energy, but also in forms of gravitational, sound, elastic and electromagnetic energy. Awards at a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society on 1st July.

Presenting the awards, Sir David Attenborough said:
“These award-winners are champions at delivering practical ways of protecting our planet and its precious biodiversityThe total diversity of all organisms and ecosystems at various spatial scales (from genes to entire biomes). (IPCC) through the use of sustainable energy. They are reducing carbon emissionsEmissions of greenhouse gases, greenhouse gas precursors, and aerosols associated with human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, land-use changes, livestock, fertilisation, etc. (IPCC) and protecting local eco-systems, while improving the lives of the people they touch. They deserve to be celebrated for their important role in tackling both climate changeClimate change is a lasting change in weather patterns over long periods of time. It can be a natural phenomena and and has occurred on Earth even before people inhabited it. Quite different is a current situation that is also referred to as climate change, anthropogenic climate change, or ... and poverty.”

d.Light solar lantern

The overall Gold Award winner is D.light Design, India, which has contributed greatly to reduction of the health and pollution problems associated with the use of kerosene lighting through the design, manufacture and promotion of durable and affordable solar lanterns in India and across the developing world. The judges were particularly impressed with their highly effective marketing strategy which has put solar lighting within reach of over a million people in 32 countries with significant potential for further expansion.

The other winners include CRELUZ, Brazil, for creating a safe, clean and reliable electricityA form of energy having magnetic, radiant and chemical effects. Electric current is created by a flow of electrons. supply for rural communities in southern Brazil through the used of micro-hydro powerHydro power is electrical energy produced through the power of moving water.
Power obtained from the (typically gravitational) movement of water. and it was noted that CRELUZ directs a portion of the cooperative’s profits towards social and environmental projects.

TECNOSOL, Nicaragua, was selected for, in the words of the judges: “its enormous commitment and success in offering new opportunities to people in off-gridA grid is a network of transmission lines, usually to distribute electric power . communities across Nicaragua through the expansion of solar PV and other renewable energy options and for its hugely successful marketing strategy which has ensured that solar PV is not only on offer across Nicaragua but also in neighbouring countries.”

There were two winners in Africa: Rural Energy Foundation, for its role in increasing the take-up of solar energySolar energy is the light and radiant heat from the Sun that influences Earth's climate and weather and sustains life. For solar energy as a source for renewable energy, look up photovoltaics (solar power) or solar thermal energy. in Sub-Saharan Africa; and Sky Link Innovators, Kenya, which won the Award for Avoided Deforestation for popularizing the use of biogasBiogas is a flammable gas that accrues from the fermentation of biomass in biogas plants. within rural communities as a clean, cheap and safe alternative to wood for cooking.

The list was completed by the partnership between The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and SNV in Vietnam which has enabled the distributionThe delivery of electricity to the retail customer's home or business through low voltage distribution lines. of biogas technology across Vietnam on a massive scale by popularizing the use of biogas among pig farmers.

Further details, including more detailed project summaries, are available on the Ashden Awards website.