BASE Foundation has been awarded the 2026 Zayed Sustainability Prize in the Energy category, one of the world’s most prestigious sustainability awards, in recognition of its pioneering work on the Cooling-as-a-Service model. Selected from a pool of more than 7,000 applicants worldwide, BASE was recognised for the scalability, real-world impact and market-transforming potential of the CaaS approach.
The prize is a significant moment for the as-a-service community. At its core, CaaS replaces the need for upfront equipment purchase with a simple pay-per-use model: customers pay only for the cooling they consume, while the provider retains ownership of the systems and responsibility for their performance and maintenance. By removing the financial and operational barriers that have long kept high-efficiency cooling out of reach, the model has opened a viable pathway to climate-friendly cooling across healthcare, agriculture, education and small businesses, particularly in emerging markets.
The SET Alliance is BASE’s broadest platform for advancing this kind of servitisation approach across the energy sector. Launched in 2022, the Alliance brings together solution providers, financiers, policymakers and implementers around a shared conviction that shifting from selling equipment to delivering energy services is one of the most practical and scalable levers available for the energy transition. The Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant initiative, a sister initiative combining solar-powered cold rooms with the Coldtivate digital platform, has been central to demonstrating what CaaS can achieve in agricultural and food security contexts across Africa and Asia.
Together, these initiatives have already delivered tangible results: more than 160,000 people reached, over 130 GWh of electricity saved annually, approximately 81,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided each year, and around 2,500 green jobs supported.
The USD 1 million prize fund will be deployed over 2026 and 2027 to unlock the CaaS model in up to five new countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, with markets such as Kenya, Egypt, India, Vietnam and Indonesia already identified as high-potential candidates. Activities will span four areas: capacity building for local technicians, SMEs and energy service companies; deployment support for pilot projects across public, commercial, healthcare and agricultural applications; development of open-access tools including standardised contracts, pricing models and monitoring frameworks; and knowledge dissemination and policy dialogue to address market barriers and support replication at scale.
This recognition confirms what the SET Alliance community has been building toward: that service-based energy models work, that they scale, and that the sector is ready for the next chapter.
Read the full announcement on the BASE Foundation website.
