SolarWorld Einstein Award 2010 to go to Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus

SolarWorld AG / Miscellaneous

19.08.2010 08:12

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SolarWorld AG this year will honor Nobel Peace Prize laureate and
micro-finance pioneer Muhammad Yunus by presenting the 2010 SolarWorld
Einstein Award to him in September. The professor of economics from
Bangladesh and founder of the Grameen Bank will receive the award in
recognition of his breakthrough concept of micro-loans for the poor, which
have helped millions of people worldwide to escape poverty. The micro-loans
have, among other things, made possible installations of more than 400,000
small solar power systems, securing energy supplies for people in rural
regions of Bangladesh who live far from the national utility grid.

'Professor Yunus stands for radically new thinking in economics and
banking. He has recognized the potential of the poorest of this world who
manage to make a decent living on the basis of a small starting credit, a
lot of creativity and the sun as the source of energy. This is more than
exemplary,' explains Dr. Ing. h. c. Frank Asbeck, chairman and CEO of
SolarWorld AG.

On the basis of micro-loans granted by banks held by the Grameen family
since 1983, Yunus developed the concept of 'social business,' which has
inspired similar activity worldwide. This type of business does not strive
to maximize profits and generate dividends but to solve social and
ecological problems. Social business companies make available technologies
for clean drinking water, affordable medication or inexpensive, clean
energy.

The nonprofit company Grameen Shakti (GS) is such a social business, which
since its founding in 1996 has dedicated itself to providing energy to
off-grid rural regions of Bangladesh. With help from micro-loans, program
recipients can obtain small off-grid solar power plants. This clean energy
enables regional residents to work after dark, learn more in school and
operate electric machines, radios and mobile phones. At the same time, it
reduces climate and health hazards emanating from kerosene lamps. Thousands
of women were trained in the installation and maintenance of these solar
plants, providing them a reliable income. Due to savings on kerosene costs,
solar plant owners can pay back the loans within two to three years. GS is
pursuing the objective of installing 1 million solar power systems by the
year 2015.

The SolarWorld Einstein Award 2010 will be presented in a ceremony on the
occasion of the 25th European Photovoltaic Conference in Valencia, Spain,
on Sept. 6, 2010. In the same ceremony, the SolarWorld Junior Einstein
Award 2010, bestowed upon young scientists in the field of solar
technology, will also be presented. For further information and media
registration, please go to www.einstein-award.de.

The Award Winner 
Prof. Muhammad Yunus was born in Chittagong, Bangladesh, in 1940. After
studying economics, he worked as an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee
State University in the United States, returning to Bangladesh in 1974.
There, he was appointed head of the Economics Department of Chittagong
University. The key experience that triggered his idea of the micro-loans
came in a visit to the village of Jobra, where he saw at close quarters how
difficult it was for poor people to get startup capital for even the
smallest enterprises. He worked intensively on the problem, eventually
developing the system of micro-loans, which, unlike conventional loans, are
granted to people who have no money or collateral. As a result, poor people
no longer must take out loans at exorbitant interest rates.

The SolarWorld Einstein Award
The SolarWorld Einstein Award has been awarded since 2005 to figures in
science, industry, politics and elsewhere in society who have acquired
outstanding merit in the field of photovoltaic technology. In recent years,
award winners have included Dr. Rupert Neudeck (founder of the so-called
Green Helmets), Prof. Antonio Luque-Lopez (Spanish photovoltaic pioneer),
Prof. Martin Green (developer of the most efficient mono-crystalline solar
cell), Prof. Adolf Goetzberger (founder of the Fraunhofer Institute for
Solar Energy Systems), Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer (former German environment
minister and former executive director of the United Nations Environment
Program) and Dr. Hermann Scheer (one of the spiritual fathers of the German
law on renewable energy sources).


About SolarWorld AG: The SolarWorld AG Group (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a
world leader in supplying branded, high quality crystalline solar power
technology. Its strength is the full integration of its solar production.
From the raw material of silicon via wafers, cells and modules all the way
to turn-key solar power plants including recycling the group combines all
the stages of the solar value chain. The central business activity is the
sales of quality modules to the specialist trade and of crystalline wafers
to the international solar cell industry. Corporate headquarters are in
Bonn. Production locations are in Germany, the USA and South Korea. The
largest production facilities are operated by the group in Freiberg/Germany
and Hillsboro/USA. Sustainability is the very basis of our corporate
strategy. Under the name Solar2World the group funds aid projects in
threshold and developing countries with off-grid solar power solutions that
are examples for sustainable and economic development. Worldwide SolarWorld
has more than 2,900 people on its payroll. SolarWorld AG has been quoted at
the stock exchange since 1999 and is today listed among others in the
technology indices TecDAX, ÖkoDAX, Dow Jones STOXX 600 as well as the
sustainability indices DAXglobal Alternative Energy and NAI.


Contact SolarWorld AG
Press: Tel.-No.: 0228/55920-400, E-Mail: press@solarworld.de 
Investor Relations: Tel.-No.: 0228/55920-470; Fax-No.: 0228/55920-9470, 
E-Mail: placement@solarworld.de 

Internet: www.solarworld.de





19.08.2010 Ad hoc announcement, Financial News and Press Release
distributed by DGAP.
Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de

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Language:     English
Company:      SolarWorld AG
              Martin-Luther-King-Straße 24
              53175 Bonn
              Deutschland
Phone:        +49 (0)228 - 559 20 470
Fax:          +49 (0)228 - 559 20 99
E-mail:       placement@solarworld.de
Internet:     www.solarworld.de
ISIN:         DE0005108401
WKN:          510840
Indices:      TecDAX
Listed:       Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard), Düsseldorf;
              Freiverkehr in Hamburg, München, Berlin, Stuttgart;
              Terminbörse EUREX
 
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