World Bioenergy Award winner announced

May 29, 2012, Jonkoping, Sweden – The winner of the World Bioenergy Award 2012 has been announced: Mr. Harry Stokes, US.

Mr. Harry Stokes has developed, funded and managed Project Gaia to improve the health, economic status and quality of life of a significant number of families in the developing world. Harry has led a global initiative that promotes alcohol fuel and their technologies for production and end use, for cooking and other household appliances.

The vision is clean, efficient, affordable and safe cooking for African homes, and the opportunity to move away from dependence on perennially scarce firewood, charcoal, dung, twigs, grass and similar fuels.“ Harry Stokes was one of the finalists also in 2010. The scope of his achievements is vast, and there are several dimensions to the benefits of helping developing communities rely more on clean, renewable and domestic fuels,” says Kent Nyström, president of WBA and member of the jury.

Six main nominees

The aim of the award is to recognize a person who has made a contribution to the development of the bioenergy sector. During the nomination process, fellow colleagues nominated persons with great achievements within the international bioenergy sector. Six finalists were selected by the jury. The jury for the award is the board of World Bioenergy Association and the organizer of World Bioenergy 2012.

“This year’s finalists are entrepreneurs, government officials and researchers from India, Russia, Spain, UK and USA. They have all made important contributions to different sectors and disciplines within the global bioenergy sector and they show the diversity of the global bioenergy sector – from small-scale cooking technology for families in poor countries to large scale biofuel production plants.” Says Jakob Hirsmark, initiator of the award and member of the jury.

The first award was presented in 2010 to the Brazilian researcher Laercio Couto, who’s implemented research on eucalypt plantations leads to large amounts of saved carbon dioxide emissions when this biomass replaces fossil fuels for energy production.

Some words from the each of the six worthy nominees:

Mr. Al Costa, Spain
”We live on an increasingly interconnected planet, and for a country not to take advantage of the experience and technological achievements of others simply makes no sense.”

Mr. Aditya Handa, India
”Bioenergy has the capability to provide access to affordable clean energy solutions up to the last mile, protect and nurture the environment, integrate the bottom most layer of rural society into the country’s growth story by creating incomes and opportunities, and make nations energy self-reliant”

Mr. Timur Ivanov, Russia
”The Bioenergy sector will play a key role in the distributed energy development in Russia because it can provide the synergy of energy production and waste utilization. There is a huge potential in Russia for the use of the abundant forests”

Mr. Robert Parker, United Kingdom
”In the long term, we will likely see changes in land avaliability based on agricultural demand and needs, and in the choice of energy crops, which define the biomass yield levels that can be obtained on the available land”

Mr. Dilip Ranade, India
”I envisage a very large number of biogas plants as well as biomass gasifiers coming up in India and other Asian , African and Latin American countries owing to rich agricultural produce”

Mr. Harry Stokes, USA
”Since the global environment links us all and since half the world’s population living in energy poverty will jeopardize everybody, even those who have all the energy needs, it is within everybody’s interest to promote the use of biofuels in the developing world, not only for export but also for local use.”

Read more about the World Bioenergy Association and the conference at www.worldbioenergy.org

About World Bioenergy 2012

Organised every second year this major global bioenergy get-together is based on the unique “Taking you from Know-How to Show-How” concept, combining tradeshow, conference sessions, field excursions and matchmaking into one comprehensive event. Welcome to our web page to read more about the different parts of the event. 2012 the World pellets Conference is arranged as a part of World Bioenergy.  Organisers: Elmia AB and the Swedish Bioenergy Association, Svebio. Venue: Elmia, Jönköping, Sweden. www.worldbioenergy.com