Brussels, 13/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - This year's overall winner of the Energy Globe Award is Kenyan national, John Maina, who won public support and received his award at the European Parliament during the evening of 12 April. In total, 732 projects from 96 countries entered (see EUROPE 9404). John Maina pioneered ways to increase harvests of small farmers by 50% using solar power to combat wastage in fruit and vegetable harvests in Kenya due to bad drying conditions. His invention has allowed 920 Kenyan farmers to increase their harvests, and hence their incomes, in an environmentally friendly manner. The other projects receiving prizes were: - in the “fire” category, an Indian-Danish partnership project to establish solar panels on 16,000 houses in India; - in the “air” category, a Vietnamese project to establish small biogas plants for local communities reducing CO2 emissions; - and in the “youth” category, the University of Art in Linz, Austria, won a prize for students' invention of a new self-sufficient solar house in South Africa able to provide a constant indoor temperature level of 20° C independently of outdoor temperature thanks to an ingenious system of natural ventilation. (an)