AAAS honours Hans-Josef Fell for his lifetime work for renewable energy
President of Energy Watch Group and initiator and drafter of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act receives the Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award together with Charlie Gay and Li Junfeng
Berlin, 17 June 2026. Hans-Josef Fell, President of Energy Watch Group and co-author of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), was awarded the Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) last night. AAAS, publisher of the scientific journal Science, is honouring Fell together with Charlie Gay (USA) and Li Junfeng (China) for their contribution to the global breakthrough of renewable energy.
The award ceremony took place on Tuesday evening local time at Filoli Historic House & Garden in Woodside, California. Hans-Josef Fell joined the ceremony live from a Berlin studio.
With the Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award, AAAS recognises individuals whose work has substantially enabled the scientific and societal breakthrough of the year highlighted by Science. In 2025, Science identified the historic milestone that renewable energy had overtaken coal in global electricity generation for the first time.
“This award makes visible that the global breakthrough of renewable energy was only possible through the interaction of many forces: research, technology development and entrepreneurship, as represented by Charlie Gay; grassroots engagement and political framework-setting, which for me began in Hammelburg and found its strongest expression in the EEG; and political implementation and industrial scaling in China with Li Junfeng. This is exactly the kind of international cooperation we need today more than ever,” says Hans-Josef Fell.
Fell is internationally regarded as one of the key political pioneers of the energy transition. Already at the municipal level, he advocated for solar energy and citizen energy in Hammelburg. As a member of the German Bundestag, he later became co-author of the EEG 2000. With guaranteed feed-in tariffs, priority grid access and long-term investment security, the law created a political framework that decisively accelerated the expansion of solar and wind energy in Germany and served as a model for renewable energy legislation worldwide.
The joint recognition of Hans-Josef Fell, Charlie Gay and Li Junfeng underlines the international dimension of the energy transition: technological development, political market opening, civic engagement and industrial scaling together made the global breakthrough of renewable energy possible. AAAS is therefore recognising not only individual scientific contributions, but also the interplay between research, politics, business and civil society.
“This honour is also an important signal at a time when climate protection, science and international cooperation are once again coming under increasing pressure,” Fell adds. “The success story of renewable energy shows that public-interest-oriented policy and global cooperation can solve major challenges facing humanity.”
Background
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publishes, among others, the journal Science. The Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award was established in 2022 and annually honours up to three individuals whose work has substantially supported the Breakthrough of the Year named by Science.
Hans-Josef Fell is President of Energy Watch Group, co-author of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act and a former member of the German Bundestag. For decades, he has been advocating for 100 percent renewable energy, climate protection and a global energy transition.
Energy Watch Group is an independent non-profit think tank. We contribute to reducing CO2 emissions and cooling the Earth’s atmosphere at the global, national and municipal level. Together with our network, we develop suitable targets, effective solutions and pragmatic policy recommendations. We bring these into dialogue with decision-makers and the media.
