The 2023
Ashden Awards
Powering a Fairer Future:
the shortlist
Powering a Fairer Future:
the shortlist
About 730 million people go without access to electricity, and 2.4 billion without the means to cook safely.
But a future where everyone enjoys access to clean, affordable energy is possible. A future where crops grow taller, where homes and hospitals are powered up, and where clean energy can help anyone earn a better living.
Our awards are supporting the pioneers bringing renewable energy where it is needed most – to farmers and refugees in the Global South, and to communities across Africa, the continent facing the greatest energy poverty challenge. We are also tackling the skills and jobs shortage that holds back energy access.
The UK faces its own clean energy challenges, so we are also accelerating solutions driving the country towards net zero. Every one of our categories is searching for inclusive projects and organisations that create a fairer future.
Meet the bright sparks raising incomes, tackling hunger, and supporting women and young people with renewable energy innovation, as well as UK energy innovators leading the way on lowering emissions and fuel bills .
Award prize: £25,000
Supported by: LinkedIn
ACRA supports marginalised women in rural Senegal to launch solar-powered businesses, with training and access to products and finance.
We Care Solar is giving women the technical training and skills to install life-saving solar energy, powering Sierra Leone’s off-grid rural health centres.
Kenya’s WISEe empowers women in the renewable energy sector, including engineers, technicians, educators, students and entrepreneurs. It provides training, hands-on skills, mentorship and networking opportunities.
Burasolutions Solar Academy in Nigeria boosts skills and pathways to work for women and marginalised people, with support for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Award prize: £25,000
Delivered in partnership with: Global Refugee-Led Network
Supported by: NextEnergy Foundation, The Linbury Trust, JAC Trust, The Alan & Babette Sainsbury Charitable Fund.
In Cameroon, Hope for a Better Future helps women affected by conflict grow their incomes as solar technicians – and even become owners of ‘solar shops’, selling products to their community.
Care for Social Welfare International has used clean energy to bring much-needed light and water to a camp for displaced people in Nigeria.
Save the Environment Ethiopia has supported homes and businesses with new solar mini-grids, clean cook stoves and more in five refugee camps. Benefits have reached displaced people and host communities.
USAFI Green manufactures and supplies affordable, low-carbon cookstoves in Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp – creating work and improving health for displaced people and host communities.
In India, Oorja Development Solutions are pioneering an inclusive pay-per-use model that brings solar-powered farming services to marginalised communities.
CInI helps women in India’s Central Tribal Belt use clean energy to raise their incomes – and become leaders in their communities.
Farmer Lifeline Technologies helps farmers in Kenya beat pests and disease – with an affordable solar-powered device that scans crops for signs of danger.
Mobility for Africa’s Hambas – custom-built electric tricycles – are providing transport for rural women, boosting their livelihoods, access to social services and saving their valuable time.
At its factory in Kenya, Aceleron repurposes waste batteries – turning them into energy storage technology for homes, offices and electric vehicles.
Beacon Power Services offers grid management software and analytics, helping utility companies expand their reach across Africa.
Through its Nigeria Sunshot initiative, Husk Power is building at least 500 clean energy minigrids by 2026 – supporting businesses, schools and hospitals, benefiting more than 2 million people, and displacing an average of 25,000 diesel generators.
In Uganda, Power For All’s Utilities 2.0 Twaake project unites centralized and decentralized renewable energy companies to achieve faster and cheaper electrification, boost rural livelihoods, and end energy poverty.
Award prize: £10,000
Supported by: Impax Asset Management
Advanced Infrastructure’s geospatial planning tool “LAEP+” is supporting local authorities in the UK, energy networks and practitioners to identify and plan viable pathways to decarbonise local areas.
HACT is originating carbon credits through their Retrofit Credits scheme to unlock funds to support UK homes in need of retrofitting.
tepeo’s Zero Emission Boiler (ZEB®) is a plug-n-play replacement for existing fossil fuel boilers, that works with a hot water tank to deliver low carbon and low cost home heating in the UK.
UrbanChain runs a safe, transparent and unique energy market for renewables, enabling UK consumers to place an order for electricity and for generators to meet that order.
This year’s awards are also boosting nature-based climate solutions. In the UK we’re supporting future farmers and people-powered climate adaptation projects, while our natural climate solutions award recognises the vital work of Indigenous Communities.
For Ashden, regeneration means challenging today’s broken systems and letting a new relationship between and planet flourish. Working from fields to forests, we’ve found an outstanding crop of pioneers.
Are you changing lives and taking climate action, advancing social justice while lowering emissions through your innovative project?
Register your interest in applying for an Ashden Award. You’ll be the first to know when we are open for the next 2024 awards cycle and whether you’ve been invited to submit a full application.
T: 020 7410 0330 E: info@ashden.org
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