06.04.17 – Professor Michael Grätzel has won the Global Energy Prize for 2017.

The Global Energy Prize has been awarded since 2003 by The Global Energy Association (Moscow), and with the support of three leading Russian energy companies: Gazprom, Surgutneftegas and the Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System. It is presented annually in St Petersburg by the President of the Russian Federation, and winners receive an amount of 39 million rubles (~695,000 Swiss francs).

So far, the award has been given to 34 scientists and researchers around the world who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in their respective fields. The particular focus of the Prize is research and technology in energy, and it highlights leading scientific work that pushes the boundaries of important research but also pursues the interests of humanity.

Professor Grätzel, director of EPFL’s Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, is being honored for “transcendent merits in development of low cost and efficient solar cells, known as ‘Grätzel cells’”, for which Grätzel is world-famous. The cells aim at creating cost-efficient, large-scale engineering solutions for power generation, as they have proven to be much cheaper and easier to manufacture compared to other photovoltaic cells. Grätzel’s lab has been consistently improving their stability and efficiency, while also carrying out research in energy- and electron-transfer reactions in mesoscopic systems in the context of solar electricity and fuels.

Official announcement: http://www.globalenergyprize.org/en/laureates/2017