2009 Cleantech Awards recipients

Cleantech Leader of the Year

Mossadiq Umedaly

Mossadiq S. Umedaly is the Chairman of BC Hydro. From 1999 to 2008, he was the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of Xantrex Technology Inc. During this time he repositioned and transformed the company from a small niche player to a world leader in advanced power electronics. His focused business strategy, targeted at high growth markets, helped Xantrex to grow its revenues from US$10 million in 1998 to an estimated US$300 million in 2008. He has received a number of awards for his accomplishments in business and contributions to society.

Cleantech Pioneer Award
Stanford Ovshinsky
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of Stan Ovshinsky »

Stanford Ovshinsky is the Chairman and CEO of Ovshinsky Innovation LLC. Stan has been granted approximately 400 patents over the last fifty years, mostly in the areas of energy or information. Many of his inventions have come to play central roles in modern society. Among the most prominent are: his environmentally friendly nickel-metal-hydride battery, which has been widely used in laptop computers, digital cameras, cell phones, and electric and hybrid cars; continuous web multi-junction flexible thin-film solar energy panels; flat screen liquid crystal displays; rewritable CD and DVD computer memories; hydrogen fuel cells; and nonvolatile phase-change electronic memories.

Jorgen Mads Clausen
Clausen is the Chairman of Danfoss, one of the largest industrial companies in Denmark. It specializes in refrigeration & air conditioning, heating & water and motion controls. It is a privately held global company that is family owned, and has more than 23,000 employees worldwide. Clausen is responsible for leading Danfoss’s strategy to minimize the consumption of raw materials and energy in the manufacturing process.

Most Promising Technology

Ener-G-Rotors Inc.

Ener-G-Rotors is commercializing devices that turn low temperature heat into electricity, opening up a new market in waste heat, solar thermal and geothermal installations. The waste heat market is crowded with companies, but Ener-G-Rotors is targeting cost-effective solutions that turn low temperature heat (150°F to 400°F) into electricity at the 0.5kW to 50kW size range. Their systems are based on a patented Trochoidal Gear Engine that allows the company to create cost-effective solutions for a variety of applications from industrial waste heat to commercial buildings to off-grid HVAC.

 

Cleantech Emerging Enterprise of the Year

SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of SFC Smart Fuel Cell »

SFC Smart Fuel Cell is a leader in mobile energy for leisure-time, industrial and military applications. It is a pioneer in the emerging market for mobile fuel cell energy solutions and has been selling its fuel cells for over 4 years. It manufactures all of its SFC fuel cell and cartridges at its headquarters in Brunnthal, Germany, near Munich, and is a fast growing company.

2008 Cleantech Awards recipients

Cleantech Pioneer of the Year
Dr. Hermann Scheer
Browse coverage of Scheer in Cleantech Group's news coverage »

Dr. Scheer has been a member of the German Parliament since 1980. His revolutionary one page law on renewable energy back in 1990, called the “Act on Feeding in Electricity,” and his work on the German National Renewable Energy Act propelled Germany to become the world’s leading solar market, and the world leader in production of wind energy. Scheer is the originator of what has come to be known of as the feed-in tariff, which was based on free access to the grid, guaranteed fixed prices, and the obligation for utilities to purchase.

Arup
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of Arup »

Arup is a global firm of designers, engineers, planners and business consultants. It exerts a significant influence on the built environment and is the creative force behind many of the world’s most innovative and sustainable designs. It has over 10,000 employees, 92 offices in 37 countries around the world. Bringing a fully integrated and holistic approach to clients has been the hallmark of Arup, leading to the structural design of the iconic Sydney Opera House to the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

 

Cleantech Leader of the Year
Dr. Sultan al Jaber

Dr. al Jaber is CEO of the Masdar Initiative of the United Arab Emirates. He oversees a $15 billion dollar fund from the emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest pool of capital yet allocated by a government towards cleantech initiatives (see Google, Masdar receive 2008 Cleantech Awards.)

Patrick Tam

Tam is General Partner of Beijing-based Tsing Capital, formerly known as Tsinghua Venture
Capital. Tam was one of the first Chinese venture capitalists to invest in cleantech, and has since invested more in the Chinese market—a market poised to become larger than any other single market for clean technology—than any other investor. Tam was recognized at Cleantech Forum Shanghai.

 

Cleantech Corporation of the Year
Google
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of Google's cleantech initiatives »

Search juggernaut Google has launched an ambitious effort to try to make renewable energy cheaper than coal (see Google creates renewable R&D group), is working to make its data centers more energy efficient and to save energy on billions of users' computer desktops (see Green Grid joined by Climate Savers initiative from Google & Intel) and has a multi-million dollar program to help accelerate plug-in hybrid vehicles technology borne out of a pet project by company engineers (see Plug-in hybrids can Google for cash.)

 

Cleantech Emerging Enterprise of the Year
Ormat Technologies
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of Ormat »

Ormat is the third largest geothermal power producer in the U.S. It is a vertically integrated company dedicated to providing solutions for geothermal power, recovered energy generation (REG) and remote power. Ormat has successfully supplied more than 950 MW of geothermal power plants, and owns approximately 323 MW of geothermal and recovered energy-based power generating capacity in the U.S. 

 

Cleantech European Corporation of the Year
Virgin Group
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of Virgin's cleantech initiatives »

Virgin flew the world's first partially biofuel-powered 747, taking off from London and landing in Amsterdam. But it was two years earlier, back in 2006, that founder Richard Branson pledged to invest the equivalent of 1.5 billion pounds, or almost 2 billion Euros in late 2006, into renewable fuels.

Today, Virgin Green Fund is putting money to work in biofuels, the solar sector, transportation, lighting and others.

In 2007, Virgin put aside $25 million dollars for an award it calls The Virgin Earth Challenge, to go to the individual or group able to demonstrate a commercially viable way to remove atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without harmful side effects. And Virgin's internal sustainability and social responsibility initiative Project Aware is intended to help the company manage its impact on society and the environment through its operations, products and supply chain.

 

Most Promising Technology
DuraCar
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of DuraCar »

A Netherlands company with a new, all-electric delivery van named the QUICC, DuraCar was voted Most Promising Technology of the Brussels Cleantech Forum in 2008 by investor attendees. DuraCar's QUICC van was exhibited alongside the first European display of Tesla's all-electric roadster at the Cleantech Forum in Brussels.

Simbol Mining Corporation
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of Simbol »

Simbol was voted most promising technology by attendees of Cleantech Forum XVI in San Francisco on the promise of its method for extracting valuable minerals and metals from geothermal brines.

Western Shell Cryogentic Equipment
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of Western Shell »

Western Shell Cryogenic Equipment makes equipment that supplies of methane available to small markets/areas. Voted most promising technology by attendees of Cleantech Forum XX in Shanghai.

Polyflow Corp
Browse Cleantech Group's coverage of Polyflow »

Polyflow intends to be the first to market with viable alternative energy technology to tap the world’s polymer waste stream. It offers an innovative technology that for the first time allows recycling of mixed dirty plastic and rubber waste. The Polyflow process eliminates the need for sorting and increases recycling rates, making municipal blue box recycling programs profitable, and enables single stream recycling. 

2007 Cleantech Awards recipients

Cleantech Leaders of the Year – 2007
Sir Nicholas Stern
Wikipedia on Stern »

Sir Nicholas Stern is a distinguished British economist and academic and was the Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank from 2000 to 2003. During his recent tenure with Her Majesty’s Government as Second Permanent Secretary Treasury, Sir Stern evaluated the effects of climate change on global economics. His groundbreaking research led to the publication of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, which provides a clear economic case and roadmap for policy-makers that higher investments in clean technologies in the short-term would lead to reduced economic disruption.

 

Jesse Fink, Managing Partner and Founding Sponsor
MissionPoint Capital Partners
http://www.missionpointcapital.com/

MissionPoint is an investor in solar company SunEdison and other energy firms. Despite beginning his career as a forest and land manager for Georgia-Pacific, Fink was the founding Chief Operating Officer of priceline.com, running operations from inception through IPO. He and his wife Betsy also established and run Millstone Farm, which produces organic produce and sells it to local markets & restaurants.

 

Bob Epstein, co-founder
E2, New Resource Bank and Sybase
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of New Resource Bank »

Bob Epstein currently splits his professional time between his roles as co-founder of Environmental Entrepreneurs, Director of New Resource Bank and Trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Epstein was Vice Chairman of California's Economic and Technology Advancement Advisory Committee for AB 32. Epstein is a co-founder of five companies: Sybase, New Resource Bank, GetActive Software, Zight and Britton-Lee. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

 

Cleantech Emerging Enterprise of the Year – 2007
Renewable Energy Corp.
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of REC »

Renewable Energy Corp. (REC) is focused on the latest innovations in solar energy and is one of the fastest growing cell and module companies in Europe. The company is the world’s largest producer of solar grade polysilicon wafers. REC is the only international provider of products that address the full value chain of the solar energy market.

SunEdison
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of SunEdison »

Solar project developer SunEdison is a large North American solar energy services provider. The company provides solar-generated energy to a broad and diverse client base of commercial, municipal and utility customers. It develops projects customers, retains ownership of the assets and leases power to its customers.

 

Cleantech Pioneer Award Winner – 2007
Marcel Brenninkmeijer; founder and CEO, Good Energies, Inc.
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of Good Energies »

Brenninkmeijer's Good Energies is a private investment firm focused on solar photovoltaic and wind energy investments. The firm currently holds investments along the solar PV value chain, from silicon feedstock supply to the wafer, cell and module production with additional investments in North American wind developers. Before establishing Good Energies in 2001, Brenninkmeijer was advisor to Anthos Consult in Amsterdam and held a number of management positions with C&A, an international fashion retailer.

 

Most Promising Technology – 2007
Serious Materials
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of Serious Materials »

Since being recognized by attendees at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, CO2-free drywall maker Serious Materials has received serious attention. Founded in 2002 and intially backed by Rustic Canyon Partners, it subsequently raised a $50 million Series B round, in which New Enterprise Associates and Foundation Capital.

ChromoGenics Sweden AB
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of ChromoGenics »

ChromoGenics is developing electrochromic Smart Window technology based on thin plastic foils that change their transmittancy of light and heat radiation by the application of a low electrical voltage. The company's main office and development center is in Uppsala. Shortly after presenting at the Cleantech Forum in Frankfurt, ChromoGenics announced a $6M investment round.

Prism Solar
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of Prism Solar »

Attendees of the 2007 Cleantech Forum in Toronto voted Prism Solar's holographic optical solar concentration the most promising technology of the conference. Prism collects and spectrally selects useful wavelengths from sunlight and focuses them onto solar cells to create electricity.

Horizon Fuel Cell
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of Horizon »

Fuel cell maker Horizon has been playing with toys. Fuel cell-related toys, that is. The company has made a name for itself by developing and shipping the most popular fuel cell-powered toys in the world. Now, it's developing higher powered products targeting emergency power, recreation, industrial, light transport and aerospace applications.

YLX Corporation
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of YLX »

YLX develops solid-state lighting systems based on LED and laser technologies. It is initially focused on projection display applications because of their high brightness, long lamp life, color fidelity and reduced power consumption. Future applications include automotive headlamps and industrial lighting. YLX keeps its systems cost competitive by using standard commercial-off-the-shelf LEDs as opposed to requiring a custom semiconductor fab facility.

2006 Cleantech Awards recipients

Cleantech Emerging Enterprises of the Year – 2006
SunPower Corporation
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage »

SunPower Corporation designs, manufactures and markets high performance solar electric technology worldwide. SunPower's high-efficiency solar cells and panels generate up to 50 percent more power per unit area than conventional solar technologies. SunPower's PowerLight subsidiary is a leading global provider of large-scale solar power systems with plans to compete with retail electric rates by reducing overall system costs by 50% by the year 2012.

 

Schmack Biogas AG
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage »

Established in 1995, Schmack Biogas AG has aggressively invested in the construction and operation of its own biogas plants, building 171 plants with combined nominal output of 41MW.

 

Cleantech Pioneer Award Winners - 2006
Claude Fussler, advisor to the UN Global Compact, chair of the Sustainability Panel of the EDF Group and board director of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction
http://www.unglobalcompact.org/

Fussler is regarded as an expert on business and issues management in sustainable development and corporate social responsibility. He is also a director of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), where he principally acts as special advisor to the UN Global Compact. Previously Fussler worked for Dow Chemical for more than 30 years on a number of international assignments.

 

Reto Ringger, founder and CEO of the SAM Group, Sustainable Asset Management
http://www.sam-group.com

Ringger founded SAM (Sustainable Asset Management) Group in 1995 and quickly built the firm into a leading provider of sustainability investments. Before establishing SAM, Ringger held the post of Managing Director of Vontobel Pacific AG, prior to which he was personal assistant to the CEO of Bank Vontobel. Ringger also launched the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

 

Cleantech Corporation of the Year – 2006
Wal-Mart
http://www.walmart.com/

Wal-Mart began in 1962 with a single store in Northwest Arkansas, and has since grown to become the world’s largest retailer, serving more than 176 million customers each week. Wal-Mart is actively working to integrate sustainable practices into its business, and in doing so on such a large scale, has been single-handedly driving many cleantech markets.

2005 Cleantech Awards recipients

Cleantech Leader of the Year – 2005
CalPERS
http://www.calpers.ca.gov/

CalPERS is the largest public pension fund in the United States, with assets of more than $250 billion. The fund administers retirement and health benefits for 1.5 million current and retired California public employees and their families on behalf of 2,600 State and local government employers. For a number of years, CalPERS has held educational forums for leading institutional investors and other fund trustees to learn about investment opportunities in the cleantech arena.

 

Richard Feldt, president and CEO
Evergreen Solar
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of Evergreen »

Feldt joined Evergreen in December 2003, and shepherded the company's transition from a research and development organization to an emerging manufacturer in the solar power industry. Under Feldt's leadership, Evergreen increased its revenues by more than 370 percent, from $9.3 million for full year 2003 to more than $44 million for full year 2005. Evergreen's String Ribbon technology holds promise for more efficient use of silicon than conventional sliced crystalline technologies, but profits have been "elusive," analysts have since noted.

 

Zhengrong Shi, CEO
Suntech
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of Suntech »

Suntech, which makes both solar cells and completed panels, was an asterisk in overall market share in 2002. By 2005, when founder and CEO Zhengrong Shi received Cleantech's Leader of the Year award, it was the eighth largest solar cell maker in the world. The company went public in the U.S. later that year, and has has had continued success—it's now the number three maker of solar cells in the world, and founder Shi has become the wealthiest man in China.

 

Cleantech Pioneer Award Winners – 2005

Don Ye, President & CEO of Tsinghua Venture Capital Management (THVC) and General Partner of China Environment Fund, LP
http://www.tsinghuavc.com

Ye is the President & CEO of Tsinghua Venture Capital Management (THVC), the leading venture capital firm in China. Prior to founding THVC, he was a founding partner of V2V Ventures in Silicon Valley. In 2001, Ye returned to China to establish the China Environment Funds (CEF) including China Environment Fund 2002 and China Environment Fund 2004, which are the first and most prominent Cleantech funds in China.

 

Philip LaRocco E & Co., Founder and Executive Director, E+Co.
http://www.eandco.net

LaRocco brings more than 25 years experience in international business and project development. E+Co is the pioneer and leading practitioner of the enterprise-centered model of clean energy implementation, having made more than ninety investments in energy enterprises in over thirty developing countries. LaRocco was formerly Director of World Trade and Economic Development for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where he oversaw the World Trade Center and a network of international offices.

 

Tyler Hamilton, The Toronto Star
Toronto Star Clean Break columns »
Clean Break blog »

A recognizable name in cleantech journalism today, Hamilton was one of the few reporters covering the sector in 2005. He's is an energy reporter and business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. For a number of years, Hamilton has written a weekly column and corresponding blog, called "Clean Break," which focuses on emerging trends, technologies and investment opportunities in the North American cleantech space.

 

Most Promising Technology – 2005
MBA Polymers
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage of MBA Polymers »

MBA Polymers has taken principles from the mining and food processing industries to come up with technology that can sort durable plastics from electronic goods such as computers and Xboxes. The Richmond, California-based company is currently building factories in China and Austria and has financial backing from Flextronics, GE Plastics, and VC firm Asia West. Voted most promising technology at Cleantech Forums in San Francisco and Paris in 2005, and in London in 2006.

2004 Cleantech Awards recipients

Cleantech Leader of the Year Award – 2004
Alternative Investment Market (AIM), London Stock Exchange

In 2004, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange emerged as a leading market for growing global companies. In 2004 alone, AIM accounted for 65 percent of all IPOs in Western Europe, attracting more than 110 international companies from 13 different countries. AIM continues to coalesce institutional and brokerage interest in cleantech companies, facilitating the raising of capital for companies, exits for venture investors and liquidity in the market. AIM has emerged as the most successful growth market in the world, listing more than 2,800 companies.

 

Cleantech Emerging Enterprise of the Year – 2004
Comverge, Inc.
Browse the Cleantech Group's coverage »

Lest anyone think the 2007 IPO of Comverge was an overnight success story, the company was our recipient of an emerging enterprise award in 2004. Comverge provides solutions to peak energy challenges through patented demand response technologies. It provides end-to-end energy intelligence for electric utilities, including load management, automatic meter reading and real-time grid management programs. Today, the company has more than 500 utility clients and over 4.5 million devices installed across North America.

 

Cleantech Pioneer Award Winners – 2004
Michael J. Brown, Executive Chairman of the Board for Chrysalix Energy and The National Energy Renewable Laboratory of Canada
http://www.chrysalix.com

Brown was the co-founder of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital in 2001 and previously was the co-founder President of Ventures West Capital Ltd., one of Canada's largest private sources of capital for early-stage technology companies. Brown has been directly involved as a co-founder and director in several companies in the fuel cell and energy technology space, notably as the first venture investor in Ballard Power Systems, Inc. in 1987. Previously in his career, Brown was the founder and director of Fuel Cells Canada, a director of Sustainable Development Technology Canada and Managing Director of the Canada/China Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Coalition.

 

George S. Reichenbach, Managing Director, Chairman and co-founder, Braemar Energy Ventures
http://www.braemarenergy.com

Prior to joining Braemar Energy Ventures as Managing Director, Dr. Reichenbach worked as a partner at Advent International, a venture capital firm with $4.5 billion under management, where he was in charge of the industrial sector group. While at Advent, he was responsible for the firm's investments in power technology and related areas. Reichenbach was a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also served on various committees for the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. National Energy Renewable Laboratory.

2003 Cleantech Awards recipients

Cleantech Pioneer Award Winners – 2003
Rick Defieux, co-founder and chair, Sustainable Jobs Corporation; Chair, SJF Investment Committee
http://www.sjfund.com/

Defieux, chair of the Sustainable Jobs Corporation and the SJF Investment Committee, has been a venture capitalist for more than 20 years, during which he has led investments in more than 25 environmental, energy and communications companies. The founding mission of SJF has always been to create quality employment for low wealth citizens and communities by financing and assisting companies that generate social, environmental and financial gains.

 

Nancy Floyd and Maurice Gunderson, co-founders, Nth Power
http://www.nthpower.com/

Floyd and Gunderson co-founded Nth Power nearly 15 years ago, when little more than $20 million a year was invested in energy tech by professional investors. Today, Nth Power manages more than $200 million and is one of the leading "pure play" cleantech venture category investors, with many of the leading energy and industrial companies counted among their LPs. Over their career, Floyd and Gunderson have worked tirelessly to bring the cleantech concept, particularly alternative energy generation, to the attention of the media and other stakeholders.

Gunderson, currently Senior Partner at CMEA Ventures, is a specialist in thermodynamics and energy technologies. Throughout his career, Gunderson has played a crucial role in the development of cryogenic equipment, energy systems, turbo-machinery and computer-based control systems for process plants and pipeline systems.

Floyd is the Managing Director of Nth Power and has led Nth Power’s investments in a number of cleantech companies including Silicon Energy (Nasdaq: ITRI) and Imperium Renewables. In addition Floyd sits on the boards of the Cleantech Network, Center for Resource Solutions and ACORE (American Council on Renewable Energy). Prior to founding Nth Power, Floyd built, managed and negotiated the successful sale of two high-growth energy and telecommunications companies.

 

H. Jeffrey Leonard, president and founding shareholder, Global Environment Fund
http://www.globalenvironmentfund.com

Dr. Leonard is the President and a founding shareholder of Global Environment Fund, a SEC-registered investment management firm with more than $800 million in assets under management. Leonard is a member of the Board of Directors of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association. Since 2002, Leonard been a member of the Board of Directors of National Cooperative Bank in Washington, D.C. and is a current Director and former Chairman of Board of Beacon House, a community development organization serving at-risk children and their families in northeast Washington, D.C. From 1992 through 1998, Leonard served as a member of U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel to the Secretary of Energy. He has previously served as an advisor or consultant to, among others, the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Resources Institute, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment and the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research.

 

Robert W. Shaw, president, Arete Corp
http://www.arete-microgen.com/

Dr. Shaw is the President and Founder of the Aretê Corporation, which has managed venture capital funds focused on the needs and interests of the electric and gas utility industries since 1985. Prior to forming Aretê, Shaw was Senior Vice President of Booz, Allen & Hamilton's Energy Division and a member of the firm's Board of Directors. Earlier in his career, Shaw conducted materials and electronics research at Bell Laboratories and the Cavendish Laboratory in the U.K.

Answers to common questions about the Cleantech Awards

When are these awards given?
We present these awards periodically through each year at our Cleantech Forum events around the world.

How do I, my company or my client apply to receive an award?
We occasionally solicit nominations, but there is no formal application process.

The senior staff of the Cleantech Group has visibility into the sector, and uses its own judgement, in consultation with its advisory boards in North America and Europe, in bestowing these awards.

The Cleantech Group has commercial relationships with many companies. Do your relationships influence the selection of these awards?
Categorically not. We would not compromise our credibility by allowing commercial factors to influence the selection of award recipients.