At 15, Noah Kwicklis has already invented a solar water desalinator and now is taking college calculus and computer modeling at the Masters Program, a Santa Fe charter school based at the community college.

He's the kind of innovator the nonprofit Climate Change Leadership Institute, headed by Robb Hirsch, supports through small monetary prizes. Kwicklis is the winner of this year's $500 CCLI Innovation Leadership Award.

CCLI is an all-volunteer group devoted to raising funds and designing action projects to help the environment. The organization hands out grants and hires paid student interns each year using the donated funds. No one, including the founder, Hirsch, a green-energy consultant, receives a salary.

The nonprofit's largest fundraising event is Sunday, when people can bike a 40-mile (50 if you bike to the market) or a 16-mile loop beginning at the Tesuque Village Market. Both events begin and end at the market. The $75 adult entry fee and $45 for students includes a biking jersey, accessories, lunch and drinks at the market.

This year, the fundraiser theme focuses on "pollution-free energy."

"Even solar and wind have pollution by-products," Hirsch said. "But they are renewable. We just need to get away from complacency in our current energy economy."

Kwicklis caught the eye of Hirsch and CCLI volunteers as a freshman when he designed the desalinator for a Santa Fe Secondary School project in the spring. "Your project brilliantly demonstrates an integrated solution to two of the most vital needs of our society — access to drinking water and clean energy deployment," said Hirsch in the award letter.

Kwicklis said he was surprised by the award. He plans on donating the money to Solar Cookers International, which provides inexpensive solar ovens to villages in developing nations. He also intends to work out a few bugs on his desalinator, which uses a mirror to focus light on a container, heating water to steam and then recondensing it into fresh water. "We figured it would be a good thing for places that have a lot of salinated water, but not much fresh, such as Haiti," Kwicklis said.

CCLI also awarded a $500 Education Leadership Award this year to Mark Ericson, longtime science teacher at Santa Fe Indian School. Ericson started the school's community-based science education program where students work with area pueblos on environmental projects their officials determine are beneficial. "This program represents a model for education and ecological advancement," wrote Hirsch in the award letter.

The CCLI Climate Courage Award went to John Fogarty of the New Energy Economy and Bruce Frederick of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center for their work on a petition to establish a statewide cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

Go to www.takeresponsibility.us for more information on CCLI and its work.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.

IF YOU GO

What: Climate Change Leadership Institute bike ride fundraiser

When: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday

Where: Tesuque Village Market

Information: Sponsored by CCLI, Tesuque Village Market and Sangre de Cristo Mountain Works. Registration fee is $75 for adults, $45 for students; includes a cycling jersey, other goodies and lunch provided by the market.