Dipal Barua winner of the 2009 Zayed Future Energy Prize Vignette

Dipal Chandra Barua, Founding Managing Director of Grameen Shakti, has had international recognition and has used the prize to set up a scholarship program through his organisation in Bangladesh. He is training rural women to be solar technicians and enabling green entrepreneurs through a highly successful microcredit program.

Winning the 2009 Zayed Future Energy Prize has been a great honor, and we have worked hard to ensure that this honor has been passed on to the people of Bangladesh who have demonstrated incredible ambition and innovation in adopting clean, renewable technologies to solve their daily energy challenges in the rural areas, said Mr. Barua. The support we have received from the prize will help support this essential work for generations to come.

The Zayed Future Energy Prize aims to inspire innovation and the development of barely imaginable solutions in the global race to address the crisis of climate change and the scarcity of renewable and sustainable energy. By creating a prize that recognizes and awards these future solutions, the Zayed Future Energy Prize hopes to inspire scientists, institutions and energy and technology students to innovate and market their ideas.

Companies, NGOs, individuals and institutions are eligible for the award, which recognises excellence in the innovation, development and implementation of sustainable energy solutions. The scope of the prize encompasses renewable and sustainable energy sources, efficient use of non-renewable energies, conservation, energy policy, and communications and public awareness. The winner receives the prize money this year has been increased to USD 4 mill, to invest back into their award winning project and to help accelerate development of their other ideas to make them marketable.

The prize honours the environmental stewardship legacy of the Late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Founding Father of the United Arab Emirates. Finalists are nominated by experts across the globe, while the winners are chosen by a jury chaired for the past three years by Dr R.K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Category:

Science & Technology

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• Zayed Future Energy Prize
• Long-Term Vision
• Innovation
• Leadership
• Impact
• Clean-Tech
• Sustainability
• Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber
• Low Carbon Economy
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• 4 million USD
• Dipal Barua
• Toyota
• Vestas
• Abu Dhabi
• UAE
• Masdar
• WFES
• ZFEP
• social entrepreneur
• energy
• impact investing
• Solar
• Wind
• rain
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• geothermal heat
• biogas
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