Abu Dhabi: This year's Zayed Future Energy Prize 2011, a $1.5 million award, went to Vestas, a Danish manufacturer of wind turbine technology.
Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, presented the award to Detlev Engel, CEO of Vestas, during an awards ceremony at Emirates Palace on Tuesday evening.
The runner-up prize of $350,000 went to Amory B. Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute for his work on integrative design for energy efficient buildings, vehicles and factories.
E+Co, a clean-energy investment company, was also awarded a runner-up prize of $350,000, for supporting and investing in small and growing clean-energy enterprises in developing countries to impact climate change and energy poverty.
The winners were among six finalists that had been originally chosen from a pool of 391 entrants from 69 different countries.
Upon receiving the award, Engel announced that Vestas would like to split half of the award with the three finalists that didn't make on stage that night.
"On behalf og everyone at Vestas, I'm extremely proud and humbled to receive such an honor," said Engel.
"We would like to share with others because I think it's fantastic and some of these initiatives I had never seen or heard about before and to help them keep going because that's what the world needs," he told Gulf News. "It's not just about Vestas, but creating energy around the world."
"I promise you we will keep fighting for the vision of your father," he told the crown prince.
The three beneficiaries of this gesture are Barefoot College, First Solar and Terry Tamminen, CEO and Founder of 7th Generation Advisors.
"I could have wished 30 years ago when we were really trying that we would have some aspiration and support because this is really what you need," he told reporters during a press conference following the awards ceremony.
The other half of the money will be going into a new initiative that Vestas is starting to get consumers involved in combating climate change.
Engel said that wind energy is" for real" and one that should be taken very seriously.
"In Denmark, where I come from we get 20 per cent of our electricity from wind. The total world figure is 2 per cent, so we've got 98 per cent to go," he said. "Now we have now to harvest it."
"Sometimes it is very frustrating to try and get a new source energy up and running, so to receive that recognition for the work that so many people have done for 30 years I know that a lot of people is going to be proud of."
This is the second time that a company wins the Zayed Future Energy Prize. "It's just a coincidence that for the past two years we've had two corporations win the award," said Dr. R.K. Pachauri, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who led the jury. "There's no such preference whatsoever," he said. "It does not in any way represent a trend."
