Winners of the 2011 Watt d'Or awards

The winners of the 2011 Watt d'Or awards have been chosen! This year's trophies were presented to the winners on the occasion of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy's New Year's event that was held on 6 January 2011 in Bern. The following projects were chosen to receive the various awards (all of which are of equal value):

“Society” category

Libellules - une nouvelle lumière
Saving energy should not be a luxury. For this reason, SIG (Geneva public utilities company) and the municipality of Vernier jointly launched a campaign that is the only one of its kind in Switzerland, the aim of which is to encourage residents in “Les Libellules” social housing estate to use energy more carefully and economically. Motto: saving energy means saving money!

“Energy technologies” category

Sustainable vegetable production using waste heat from a waste incineration plant
While heads of government from all over the world spend their time arguing over climate protection goals, two young vegetable producers and the innovative director of a waste incineration plant in the Zürcher Oberland region decided to take action. In a move that required considerable courage, they constructed a greenhouse that is heated entirely with waste heat from the waste incineration plant and now produces climate-neutral cucumbers, radishes and tomatoes. Three “entrepreneurs” in the strictest sense of the term!

“Renewable energies” category

River renaturation with a gravitation water vortex power plant
Switzerland's first gravitation water vortex power plant is located in Schöftland (canton of Aargau) and has been named “Dr Bertrand Piccard”. As its name implies, this facility is “smarter” than conventional hydropower plants since it supplies clean energy and protects nature and the environment.

“Energy-efficient mobility” category

Swiss fuel cells for cars
An affordable car that offers great performance, is quiet and efficient, and emits nothing but steam: the Paul Scherrer Institute and Swatch subsidiary Belenos Clean Power AG have taken a major step towards the realisation of this vision by actively promoting research on a fuel cell that can be successfully brought onto the market.

“Buildings” category

IWB (Industrielle Werke Basel) Powerbox for the “Stücki” complex
Take Switzerland's biggest absorption refrigerator, surround it with a carefully conceived energy system with countless pipelines, mix it all together with a highly qualified and well coordinated team, then incinerate a large quantity of sludge and waste. The result: the IWB Powerbox for cooling and heating the “Stücki” business park and shopping centre in Basel.

Special award

Solar Impulse
The jury decided to award a special prize again this year (the third since 2008), which went to the “Solar Impulse” solar-powered aircraft project. This award recognises the project's outstanding technological achievements as well as its powerful symbolic value: from 7 to 8 July 2010 the prototype, Solar Impulse HB-SIA, flew for 26 hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds. This meant that the team put together by initiators Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg succeeded in achieving the first ever manned night flight in a solar-powered aircraft.