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Ashden Awards


Table of Contents

[top] [end]Origin of funds

Sainsbury Family

[top] [end]Goals/aims

The Ashden Award goes to support outstanding renewable energy projects. The Award's aim is to support a project that will provide support to a rural community in a developing country, in a way that alleviates poverty and improves the quality of life, while remaining fully responsive to existing cultural values. The project would need to provide an energy source either for income-generating or agricultural activities or for improving educational or healthcare facilities.

[top] [end]Main form of support

Grant or Subsidy

[top] [end]Typical budget size

up to GBP 30 000

[top] [end]Support type

Social development,

[top] [end]Countries of operation

Developing countries worldwide

[top] [end]Main target groups

NGOs

[top] [end]General conditions

The aim is to support community based projects that can act as a valuable model for others and demonstrate a real potential for dissemination. Awards will not be made for renewable energy technology per se, but the application of technology in a way that has a positive impact on the quality of life of a community. Projects should represent an innovative approach to technology as an energy service and should meet a clearly demonstrated need rather than being technology led.

Proposals to address the majority of the following criteria:
  • to be environmentally sustainable. This refers to the local and global environment and the need to maintain biodiversity. Projects should minimise local environmental impact and should lead to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
  • to have a significant and measurable positive impact on the quality of life of a community (for example in terms of income generation, education or health)
  • to have an ability and willingness to involve the community (and particularly users) throughout the project's development, and to provide local training where necessary
  • to be exemplary, with the potential for replication and/or expansion
  • to represent innovative approaches to technology application
  • to provide an energy service, rather than a technology alone, and to be clearly demand- rather than technology-led
  • to show evidence of the necessary skills (technical and project management) and a willingness * to work in partnership with others where appropriate (eg. NGOs, banks, credit providers, training providers).
  • to have a proven track record and continuing commitment to renewable energy
  • to lead towards financial sustainability

Absolute start-ups will not be considered. The Panel is seeking existing successful, innovative projects, however small, that are proposing a new phase of development, an interesting adaptation, replication or expansion. Projects that have found ways of overcoming obstacles will be of interest (eg. finance or credit facilities, tackling policy barriers, building technical capacity).

Individuals or organisations working in developing countries anywhere in the world are welcome to apply, and indigenous applicants will generally be favoured. Commercial organisations are not excluded so long as they fully comply with the charitable objects of the Award. Applicants will need to provide strong evidence of a past and continuing commitment to the field of community-based renewable energy. They will also need to demonstrate sufficient experience of project implementation, as well as an understanding of the role that renewable energy technology can play in development, including the necessary institutional and management conditions to make a project successful and sustainable in the long term.

Because of the level of funding available, the panel is likely to favour smaller organisations for whom the award would make a real difference. Given the potential capital costs involved in renewable energy projects, the Ashden Panel recognises that the Ashden Award will not necessarily be the sole, or even largest, source of funding (for example if a bank was willing to provide loan capital for a community-based credit scheme), but would nevertheless expect the award to make the decisive contribution to a project.

[top] [end]Example projects

  • Example One: Solar Water Sterilisation in Tanzania
  • Example Two: Solar Drying in Uganda
  • Example Three: Fuel Efficient Stoves in Kenya

[top] [end]Contact details

Webpage: www.ashdenawards.org
Email: info@...

[top] [end]Sources

This profile, based on initial information contributed by Eco Ltd, was updated within the framework of the Sparknet project supported by the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme.

Click here for the full list of donor, organisation, and project profiles from Sparknet.

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Link to Sparknet

Page created: 12 March 2004; Last edited: 03 July 2008; Version: 3
Knowledge Bank text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

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