Biofuels produced from by-products of the coffee and banana industry, high-tech waterwheels designed to work in slow-moving rivers, the use of old tyres to produce energy and solar microfinance projects are among a few of the innovative ideas that have won funding from the 2009 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The IDEAS Contest was launched in March 2009 and is jointly sponsored by GVEP International, GTZ, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Korean government. Twenty six successful projects were chosen based on their innovation, financial sustainability, and the scope for replication which they demonstrated.

Of the twenty six, eleven winning ideas came from Colombia, Peru, and Chile, ten of which are sponsored by GVEP International (the main sponsor of the contest) and four of which will receive additional technical assistance from GTZ. They will receive a total of US$2 million to assist in the implementation and development of their proposals. In recognition of their winning ideas, several awards were presented to the project developers during the last week, 14th to 20th November.

Many of the winning projects are focused on delivering clean, affordable energy to rural populations in the region. Poligrow, based in Colombia will be running a project that creates green energy from plant oils and provides power to the isolated town of Mapiripan. It is anticipated that the realization of the projects' aims will result in the towns electricity supply increasing from 7 hours to 24 hours a day and will provide badly needed employment for local farmers.

Procellantas, also Colombian, will obtain fuels from recycling old tyres using microwave technology. The tyres, which otherwise simply block up landfill sites, will be 100% recycled to produce liquid and gas energy. Aprotec, Colombia, will adapt river turbines to use the slow-moving waters of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers providing power to isolated communities in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Listen to an interview with Diana De La Vega, GVEP International's Colombian Country Manager.

In Peru, the Innovation and Development Centre of the Catholic University will design, test, and market high efficiency waterwheels to provide power to poor communities in remote areas. Other Peruvian projects include The Centre for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency in the National Engineering University which will use renewable energy to encourage productive uses (medicinal plants, wheat, cheese, fruits and tourist infrastructure) in isolated villages in the Andes.

Winners working with solar power include the Sol Rural Project which will use microfinance to create commercial solar franchises in Argentina and Peru and the Technical University of Federico Santa Maria in Chile, which will design, construct and market a solar thermal desalination plant for rural communities without access to drinking water networks. Watch video below.

Other innovative ideas which received awards proposed producing biofuels from industrial waste. In Chile, the Metropolitan Technology University will create bioethanol from milk whey, a waste product of the cheese industry. This will not only help to reduce local pollution, it will also potentially increase the income of small and medium sized dairy farmers. And two Colombian projects, initiated by the Fundacion Entorno and the Centre for Management and Sustainable Development will use waste products from the country's coffee and banana industries to create environmentally friendly biofuels which will reduce pollution and stimulate the local economy.

200 people attended the press conference in Peru for the announcement of Peruvian winners, and the event attracted considerable attention from the national media. Peru’s Environment Minister was present at the ceremony and congratulated the winners on their awards.

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