The Global Energy Prize is awarded for the outstanding research and developments in the energy sphere. According to IREG Observatory, the Prize belongs to TOP-99 f the most prestigious and meaningful international awards. The annual Prize pool makes RUB 39 mln.
Starting from 2003, 50 researchers from 16 countries were nominated the laureates: from Australia, Austria, Great Britain, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Canada, China, Russia, the USA, Ukraine, France, Switzerland, Sweden and Japan.
Starting from 2020, the laureates are announced at a special ceremony taking place in different regions of Russia. Such cities as Kaluga, Kazan, Khanty-Mansiysk and Kemerovo were such venues in the past. This year, the laureates will be announced in Volgograd, where the delegates of the Global Energy Association met with Alla Kalinina, the Rector of Volgograd State University, as well as with researchers and students of the Volgograd Region universities on July 1.
The delegation of the Global Energy Association included: Sergey Brilev, the President of the Global Energy Association and the Emeritus Professor of VolSU; Rae Kwon Ching, the Global Energy Prize International Award Committee Chair, IPCC member, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Emeritus Professor of Incheon University (the Republic of Korea); William Byun, the Global Energy Prize International Award Committee member, CEO of New ASEAN Energy Inc. (Singapore); Liye Xiao, the Global Energy Prize International Award Committee member, Director of Applied Superconductivity Laboratory with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Director of Interdisciplinary Research Center with the Electrical Engineering Institute, CAS; and Dmitri Bessarabov, the Global Energy Prize International Award Committee member, Director of Hydrogen Strategy Expert and Consulting Center with the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of South Africa.
The main focus of the meeting was on sustainable development and low-carbon energy projects, which are implemented, among other places, in Volgograd Region. “Projects at the intersection of ecology, economics and energy sector are being implemented in Volgograd Region, which follow and even are ahead of the global trends. It includes not only commissioning new wind farms and solar power plants, but also about creating the capacities for producing the stainless steel, which so much needed in the energy sector. It also includes the project of building the new canal from the water reservoir of Volzhskaya HPP (the biggest in Europe) to the Volga-Akhtuba alluvial plain. This will allow for stabilizing the Volga hydrological regime, developing a new small-scale hydropower plant and doubling (maybe even tripling) the volumes of vegetables and fruits growing in the area. This initiative of Governor Bocharov and his other projects have turned Volgograd into an ideal venue for the meeting of the Global Energy Prize International Award of Committee and announcing the Global Energy Prize laureates”, Sergey Brilev, the President of the Global Energy Association emphasised.