Entry is free, and up to six winners will receive £20,000 each in prize money for programme development, with one overall winner receiving a gold award of £40,000. The Awards will be presented at a VIP ceremony in London in June 2011.

"For 2011 we are particularly interested in applications from Latin America and China and we are keen to hear from organisations who are working to reduce deforestation", explains Carla Jones from the Ashden Awards. "We look for schemes that are technically rigorous, have an element of innovation and - most importantly - make a genuine difference to local peoples’ lives, both socially and economically. Many are doing this by boosting local peoples’ income, providing employment or training, installing lighting for schoolwork and even improving women’s status in their community. Award-winning schemes must have been consistently successful for at least one year with plans for further expansion. Schemes must also be able to scale up and be highly replicable to ensure maximum impact in the battle against climate change".

Recent winners include micro hydro schemes bringing power to remote areas in Brazil and Peru; businesses selling solar home systems and lanterns from Nicaragua to Africa and India; and biogas programmes building domestic and institutional digesters in Vietnam, Kenya and India.

The 2010 Award winners were announced at our awards ceremony on 1 July 2010. Read about them here.