The fishermen from the Indian village of Chidambaram live a hard life. They sleep most of the day, then spend the night out on the water.

For light during those dark hours, they have long depended on wobbly kerosene lamps that were easily blown out or, worse, toppled by the wind, risking deadly fires on their boats.

Project teams from nine developing countries were awarded for their innovative approaches to sustainable energy last night (21 June).

The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy, held in London, United Kingdom, awarded ventures from Bangladesh, China, India, Laos and Tanzania first prizes of US$60,000 each to further their schemes. Projects from Ghana, India, Nepal, Peru and the Philippines were awarded second place prizes of US$20,000.

A UN project in India has given thousands of people in rural areas access to reliable electricity by enabling them to take out small loans to purchase solar panels.

The project, launched by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2003 in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, facilitated over 18,000 loans for solar panels over three years.

KX Industries (Orange, Connecticut) has developed a point of use technology that filters water free of viruses, pesticides, and bacteria, but has a running cost so low that very poor people will be able to afford it. The new microbiological system -- consisting of a dispenser and disposable filters -- uses nanotechnology fibers and removes anything from water that is not dissolved.