Jul. 17--Orlando-based Planar Energy Devices Inc. took one of the top honors this week at the World Technology Network's annual summit in New York City, the company said Friday.

Planar, which designs energy-efficient microbatteries, took first place in the energy category of the global organization's annual innovation honors.

The company competed with hundreds of entries in 10 categories ranging from medicine and the environment to communications, art and entertainment.

It joined more than dozen prominent names in the winner's circle such as YouTube, Intel, the Mayo Clinic, Procter & Gamble, Honda Motor Co. and Stanford University.

The awards were announced as part of the international group's annual summit on Thursday.

A judges' panel cited Planar's cutting-edge work as having "the greatest likely long-term significance" in the modern energy industry.

Company officials hope the award will boost its effort to land a $56 million energy grant from the government stimulus program.

Planar plans to use the money to establish a hybrid-vehicle battery factory in Gainesville that would create 250 direct jobs and more than 1,500 spinoff jobs. It is Florida's only entry in the energy technology stimulus program. Planar is competing with rival proposals from Big Auto states such as Michigan and Kentucky.

"Overall, there's a fundamental change afoot in energy," Planar CEO Scott Faris said in an energy keynote address at the World Technology Network event. He described a historic shift from a "hunter-gatherer" mentality of exploiting natural resources (oil and gas, for example) to mentality of harvesting energy from existing sources such as wind and solar.

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