2014 Zayed Future Energy Prize Winners (+ Exclusive Interview With ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer)

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I attended the amazing Zayed Future Energy Prize Awards Ceremony tonight (for the second year in a row). The Zayed Future Energy Prize Awards Ceremony is sort of like the Academy Awards of cleantech — quite a show. This year, the event actually included a performance from The Human Orchestra, which has performed at the Academy Awards. Following a few performances, we got into the cleantech fun, with video presentations about each of the finalists

The finalists were each quite exceptional, as always. They were divided into several categories — large corporations, small & medium enterprises, nonprofits, and schools from different regions of the world. Very quickly, I’ll run down the list of finalists and winners. In coming days, I’ll follow up on some of the finalists and will hopefully be able to share the videos summarizing each of them.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Wang Chuanfu — a very successful Chinese chemist and the founder of BYD Company, won this year’s ZFEP Lifetime Achievement Award, which comes with a cool $500,000. Wang founded BYD when he was only 29 years old. (Check out our BYD archives for information on the company’s EV leadership.)

Large Corporations

• GE
• ABB
• Walmart

Winner = ABB* (Check out our ABB archives for numerous stories on ABB’s cleantech leadership.)

At a press conference following the awards ceremony, I had the opportunity to talk with ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer a bit. Regarding solar topics, not much was added beyond what I covered in a number of exclusive articles and videos in November, and I didn’t record that part anyway. However, I did record some great comments on electricity storage and electric vehicles. Here’s the video:

Here’s a story on the flash-charging bus ABB has developed. There were a few more statements from Ulrich that were very interesting. I’ll come back to those in a future article.

Small & Medium Enterprise

• Selco India
• Clean Power Finance
• EcoNation
• Abellon CleanEnergy

Winner = Abellon CleanEnergy

Nonprofits

• Fraunhofer
• Practical Action
• World Resources Institute

Winner = Fraunhofer

Schools

Americas

• Manhattan Comprehensive Night & Day High School (USA)
• Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Peru)
• Bronx Design & Construction Academy (USA)

Winner = Bronx Design & Construction Academy

Europe

• Queen Elizabeth II High School (Isle of Man)
• Gheorghe Rosca Codreanu National College (Romania)

Winner = Gheorghe Rosca Codreanu National College

Africa

• Abaarse School of Science and Technology (Somalia)
• Nkhata Bay School Authority (Malawi)

Winner = Nkhata Bay School Authority (Malawi)

Asia

• Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya (India)

Winner = Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya

Oceania

• Urrbrae Agricultural High School (Australia)
• Tonga High School (Tonga)

Winner = Tonga High School

Disclosures:

1) My attendance at the Zayed Future Energy Prize Awards Ceremony was part of my participation in Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, which is provided courtesy of Masdar.

2) I occasionally write for ABB Conversations.