London, June 21, 2008 (IANS)

Wangari Maathai with Svati Bhogle of TIDE, India which received the Ashden 'Energy Champion' Award

An Indian technology and alternative energy group has been crowned 'Energy Champion' of the world by a prestigious British environmental organisation the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. Bangalore-based Technology Informatics Design Endeavour, or Tide, was awarded the title along with a prize of £40,000 by Nobel laureate and environmentalist Wangari Mathai at a ceremony in London. Tide was named for the way it has harnessed technology to help Indian businesses conserve energy.

Many of southern India's small businesses rely on wood as their main source of fuel, causing pollution, deforestation and uncomfortable and dangerous working conditions when boilers and stoves are badly designed. Building on the track record of stove design at the Indian Institute of Science, Tide commercialises their designs to provide efficient, bespoke woodstoves and kilns which save at least 30% fuel.

To date 110,000 workers enjoy better conditions thanks to the 10,000 products Tide has supplied, saving around 43,000 tonnes of wood each year. Tide is developing a range of stoves for large-scale cooking, and working with larger production centres in order to bring the stoves to more customers.

Svati Bhogle of Tide said the group was encouraged by the award to “venture into uncharted terrain, to first break new ground and then develop it into a beaten track”.

"There is a serious energy crisis in rural India, but access to energy and its efficient use, accompanied by well-conceived and well-implemented enabling mechanisms, has the potential to transform rural areas," Bhogle added.

The international winners were: Cooperativa Regional de Eletrificação Rural do Alto Uruguai Ltda (Brazil); Renewable Energy Development Project (China); Gaia Association (Ethiopia); Aryavart Gramin Bank (India); Kisangani Smith Group (Tanzania) and Fruits of the Nile (Uganda).

The Aryavart Gramin Bank in Uttar Pradesh used solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to back-up the unreliable grid power for some of its branches, and recognised the potential of PV for its many off-grid customers. The bank set up a bulk supply and installation agreement with TATA-BP for PV solar-home-systems, and provides loans to its customers with a good credit record to purchase the systems. To date 20,000 loans have been approved and 10,000 solar-home-systems installed.

To find out more about the awards, visit www.ashdenawards.org