[1] This is confirmed by the IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence which includes the Prize in its "top-99" list of the most recognized global awards.

The first Global Energy Prize award ceremony took place in June 2003 at the Konstantinovsky Palace, Strelna (St Petersburg) and was attended by President Putin.

The award was presented to three scientists: Nick Holonyak (USA), a professor at the University of Illinois, "for his invention of the first semiconductor LEDs (light-emitting diodes) in the visible region of the light spectrum, and his role as founder of the new field of silicon electronics and micro-electronics for power applications"; Ian Douglas Smith (USA), chief manager and senior researcher in Titan Pulse Sciences Division company, "for fundamental research into the physics of high-power pulse-energy engineering, and the development of pulsed power in electron accelerator applications", and a Russian scientist Gennady Mesyats for the same.

[4] The 2021 list features scientists not only from North America, Western Europe and Asia, but also from Eastern Europe – Hungary and Latvia – from the Middle East and from Africa – Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Gambia, Egypt, Jordan, Madagascar, Nigeria, Togo and Zimbabwe – and from Latin America – Mexico and Uruguay.

In 2020, new members joined the board of trustees – the former president of Uruguay, Julio Maria Sanguinetti Coirolo, and the General Director, Association of Power Utilities of Africa (APUA), Abel Didier Tella.

The association, besides award, oversees energy-related conferences and informational projects, programmes for younger scientists with participation of honoured experts.

Since 2020, the ceremony has been held in different cities of Russia: the first location to be selected was the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga.

Among them people from Australia, the UK, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Canada, China, Russia, the US, Ukraine, France, Switzerland, Sweden and Japan.