Since 2005, this honor has been awarded to people who have rendered their services in promoting the global use of solar energy in a special way – to the benefit of planet Earth. In the past few years, international personalities from science, politics and society have been distinguished with the SolarWorld Einstein Award.

Previous Einstein Award prize winners: Dr. Hermann Scheer, Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Prof. Adolph Götzberger, Prof. Martin Green, Prof. Antonio Luque Lopez, Dr. Rupert Neudeck, Prof. Muhammed Yunus und Dr. Bertrand Piccard.

With his groundbreaking explanation of the photoelectric effect, Albert Einstein already laid the foundation for understanding photovoltaic solar energy. He received the Nobel Prize for physics for it in 1921.