LONDON -- Indian entrepreneur Svati Bhogle was named 2008 Energy Champion at the Ashden Awards, which aim to recognize the use of sustainable energy in local communities worldwide, in London on Thursday.

Bhogle's Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE) company developed energy-efficient woodstoves for use in southern India, and the 10,300 stoves it has sold have saved an estimated 43,000 tons a year of biomass.

She was awarded the £40,000 (€51,000, $79,000) prize by Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai at a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London Thursday evening.

TIDE beat out six other finalists from Brazil, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, China and India, each of which won £20,000, for the prize, dubbed the "green energy Oscars".

Ashden, a British charity, supports projects around the world that both help reduce poverty and energy use, and often have potential for expansion, which experts see as the key to producing a truly sustainable economy.