By Kari Williamson

The Prize will be presented by the President of Russia at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, in June 2012.

The Global Energy Prize annually rewards innovation and solutions in global energy research and its concurrent environmental challenges.

The award will be given for outstanding achievement in the field of energy, including:

• Discoveries, inventions and fundamental research providing new opportunities for energy industry development;
• Development projects, engineering improvements and application-oriented innovations which create new ways of using energy more efficiently;
• Discoveries, inventions and theoretical R&D projects opening up new energy sources as well as opportunities for using them;
• Discoveries, inventions and research which have resulted in finding breakthrough approaches to addressing energy transmission and energy saving challenges; and
• Discoveries, inventions and research which have materially contributed to the solution of environment protection and development problems as well as opened up new and feasible ways of using innovative energy conversion method.

The Global Energy Prize has been granted to 24 scientists from around the globe since 2002, including past Laureates from the US, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Russia, and Japan.