Expert Speakers

Name

Company

Biography

Antonio Luque

Instituto de Energía Solar -
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

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Ignacio Luque-Heredia

SolFocus Europe and Inspira

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Juan Carlos Miñano

LPI

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Pablo Benítez

LPI

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Antonio Martí

Instituto de Energía Solar -
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

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Ricard Pardell

Sol3g

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Pedro Banda

ISFOC

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Pablo Valera

Amstrom

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Vicente Diaz Luque

Isofotón

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Ana Rosa Lagunas

CENER

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Francisca Rubio

ISFOC

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Gabino Almonacid

Universidad de Jaén

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Carlos Algora

Instituto de Energía Solar -
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

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Pedro Pérez

Universidad de Jaén

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Manuel Cabrerizo

West LB

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Lewis M. Fraas

JX Crystals

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Warren Nishikawa

SolFocus

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Hansjörg Lerchenmüller

Concentrix

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Andrew Tzeng

Arima Eco

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Earl Fuller

Emcore

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Russ Jones

Spectrolab

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Ralf Leutz

Concentrator Optics GmbH

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Antonio Luque
Instituto de Energía Solar
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Prof. Antonio Luque: Engineer in Telecommunication & Full Professor of Electronic Technology at the Polytechnic University of Madrid since 1970. He also leads the Institute of Solar Energy  which he founded in 1979. His research activity is mainly devoted to the photovoltaic conversion of solar energy. He has the Spanish National Prize for Technology, in 1989 and 2003, granted by the King of Spain, and the Alexander-Edmond Becquerel Prize in PV research, granted by the EC (1992) and the William Cherry Award to PV research granted by the IEEE (2006). He is a Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering in Spain (since 1995) and the Doctor Honoris Causa by two Spanish Universities (Carlos III and Jaen, both 2005) and Member of Honour of the Loffe Institute (since 2002). He invented the bifacial cell in 1976, which was produced by his company Isofotón, and is present today in more than 50 countries.

More recently in 1997, Prof. Luque proposed the new intermediate band solar cell, a concept that promises to combat the fundamental efficiency limitations of conventional solar cells and is currently working on developing this concept. He has published more then 250 scientific papers as well as some books and holds 20 patents.

Ignacio Luque-Heredia
SolFocus Europe and Inspira

Ignacio Luque-Heredia is presently CTO of SolFocus Europe and Director General of Inspira. In 1995 he founded Inspira, a leading CPV tracker company acquired by the Silicon Valley CPV startup SolFocus in 2007. He has 15 years experience in CPV tracking systems design, system integration and non imaging optics. Since its foundation, the Inspira CPV tracker designs have been hired by top CPV developers such as BP Solar, Isofotón, Concentrix, SolFocus, Renovalia, Boeing, Daido Steel, etc.

Ignacio has participated in 20 publicly funded R&D projects in the CPV field, 10 of them granted within the European Commission RTD Framework Programs, such as Euclides, Hisicon, Inflatcom, Switch, Strapcon, PV-Fibre, Ideoconte, Proteas, Fullspectrum, etc. He holds three patents and has authored more than 50 papers and two book chapters in the field of CPV. Furthermore, he is co-inventor of the autocalibrated tracking control, based in telescope pointing techniques, which has achieved the highest tracking accuracies in the industry, and he is one of the five Spanish delegates of the IEC TC82-WG7 for CPV standardization.

As well as being an accomplished solar entrepreneur, Ignacio is a Telecommunications Engineer and has a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Solar Photovoltaic Studies from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Juan Carlos Miñano
Instituto de Energía Solar
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Juan C. Miñano (Gerona, Spain) gained his PhD in 1985 from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Since 1982 he has been involved in Nonimaging Optics research activities, mainly with relation to photovoltaic solar energy and optoelectronics. He developed the Poisson Bracket nonimaging concentrator design method and, together with Prof. Benítez, the SMS design method, in its 2D and 3D versions. He has published more than 40 journal papers, given more than 100 Congress presentations, got several dozen patents and written several books.

His latest book is “NonImaging Optics, coauthored with Prof. Winston and Prof. Benítez. Since 1997 he has been Professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Since 2000 he has also been collaborating as a Senior Scientist in LPI.

Pablo Benítez
Instituto de Energía Solar
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Pablo Benítez got his degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and in Mathematics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, both in 1993. He gained his PhD in January 1998 from the Instituto de Energía Solar with Summa Cum Laude.
Since 1997 he has been working as a professor in UPM. His research is focussed on Nonimaging Optics design, manufacturing and applications like Concentration Photovoltaics and Solid State Lighting. Since 1999 he has also been working with the American company LPI. 

Antonio Martí
Instituto de Energía Solar
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Antonio Marti is a professor of the Instituto de Energía Solar at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. His research is focussed on the field of Solar Photovoltaic Energy, particularly on CPV components. He has published over 120 articles in magazines and international conferences. He received a Special Award for his doctoral thesis and the prize for the best researcher under the age of 35, from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

He is currently working on the development of the so-called “Intermediate band solar cell”.

Ricard Pardell
Sol3g

Ricard Pardell studied Telecommunications Engineering in La Salle Bonanova College in Barcelona, as well as Economics and Business Studies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

He has always been involved with managing new technology projects including automatic feed-in systems, information systems and CRM systems.

He is the director of Valldoreix Consulting, a CRM and information systems consultancy set up in 2001. In July 2004 he founded Sol3g, one of the first companies worldwide to commercialise HCPV systems.

Pedro Banda
ISFOC

Pedro Banda has a PhD in Electronic Engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia and in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Currently he is the Director General of the Institute of Concentrated Photovoltaic Systems (ISFOC) in Puertollano. His professional background is in the semiconductor industry where he had held various technology and development positions at Lucent Technologies and BP Solar (Spain); and positions in applied research and industrial liaison management in IMEC (Belgium). He has also participated in the launch of spin-off technology companies based on academic developments (Sensia).

His current interest is the development of the CPV industry and market, with its growing scientific and technological needs.

Pablo Valera
Amstrom

Biog coming soon...

Vicente Diaz Luque
ISOFOTON S.A. Spain

After years of research on III-V solar cells as well as gaining experience in private companies specializing in electronics, he joined ISOFOTÓN in 2001 where he is now the CPV Business Unit Manager.

Within the R&D department, he was responsible for the first advances in the field of CPV.

Since 2007, he has been leading Isofotón’s CPV activities, managing the R&D as well as production deployment and projects.

Ana Rosa Lagunas
CENER

Ana R. Lagunas Alonso has a PhD in Physics from the Complutense University of Madrid. She has developed her research activity mostly around thin-film materials characterization and processes.

She worked initially on Optical and Magneto-Optical properties of thin film Fe-Si based materials, evolving later towards materials for thin film PV cells and modules research in CIEMAT. In 1987 she worked for one year in the USA in Bell Laboratories and AT&T Microelectronics IC plants, working on microelectronic processes. She then developed her activities in the IC factory of AT&T Microelectrónica de España in Madrid, and Lucent Technologies and Agere Systems, with several responsibilities such as process engineer, senior technologist and distinguished member of technical staff.

Since 2002 she has been working for CENER (National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain), as Director of the Photovoltaic Energy Department.

Francisca Rubio
ISFOC

Francisca Rubio Berenguel graduated as an electronic engineer from Granada University in Spain.

She has worked for ten years in the fields of electronics and LEDs and was responsible for the Electronic Area in the R&D Department of Valeo Lighting in Martos, where she developed LED-based headlamps for the automotive industry, thus gaining knowledge of chips, heatsink, optics and housing technology, which are very similar to CPV systems.

Since September 2006, she has been the R&D director of ISFOC, where the most advanced CPV demonstration plants are being installed. She has participated in several Congresses and she is also involved in the development of new international CPV standards.

Gabino Almonacid
Universidad de Jaén

Gabino Almonacid Puche gained his PhD in telecommunications engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 1987 and is now a professor at the Universidad de Jaén.

After graduating, he continued his research at the Universidad de Jaén where in 1989, he built a pioneering solar photovoltaics research team. This research team enjoys international prestige due to their numerous contributions to technology & engineering of photovoltaic systems. Among his most important projects, he managed the UNIVER project; a photovoltaic system built on the campus of the Universidad de Jaén.

He has published several textbooks in the field of electronics and has written almost 100 scientific papers, published in many international magazines and conferences.

In 1995 he was appointed member of the council of the Instituto Andaluz de Energías Renovables (Andalusian Institute of Renewable Energy). In 2001 he won the San Alberto Magno award at the Escuela Politécnica Superior at the Universidad de Jaén.

Carlos Algora
Instituto de Energía Solar
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Carlos Algora del Valle gained his BSc in Physics in 1986 and his PhD in Physics in 1990, both from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

He joined the Instituto de Energía Solar, the Physics and Electronics Department of the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid, in 1985. He became Associate Professor in the same Department in 1991 and since 2008 has been Full Professor. Since 1996 he has been head of the group concentrating on “III-V Semiconductors”, devoted to the modelling, physics and technology of concentrator III-V solar cells, high power density monochromatic converters and thermo-photovoltaics.

He has contributed to several European and world efficiency records on concentrator III-V solar cells. He has served on several scientific committees (IEEE-PVSEC, EC-PVSEC, ICSC) and conference organization committees. He has been the main researcher for more than 35 R&D projects. He is a reviewer for scientific and technical journals such as IEEE Electron Device Letters, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Progress in Photovoltaics (Wiley), Infrared Physics and Technology and the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering. He has published more than 170 scientific papers in journals and scientific conferences. He holds five American and Spanish patents.

Pedro Pérez
Universidad de Jaén

Pedro Pérez Higueras gained his degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) in 1993. He gained his PhD in 2003 from the Universidad de Jaén.

He is professor at the Universidad de Jaén in the Electronics Engineering Department and is currently concentrating on research into photovoltaic systems. He belongs to the Solar Energy Research Group at the Universidad de Jaén and has published many articles in journals and international conferences about solar energy.

Among the projects he has been involved with one of the most important is the UNIVER project – a 200 kWp photovoltaic installation on the campus of the Universidad de Jaén in 1996. He also participated in a study on the optimal distribution of trackers for the ISFOC in 2007.

Manuel Cabrerizo
West LB

Biog coming soon...

Lewis M. Fraas
JX Crystals

Dr. Fraas has been active in the development of Solar Cells and Solar Electric Power Systems since 1975. He led the research team at Boeing that demonstrated the first GaAs/GaSb tandem concentrator solar cell in 1989 with a world record energy conversion efficiency of 35%. He has over 30 years of experience at Hughes Research Labs, Chevron Research Co, and the Boeing High Technology Center working with advanced semiconductor devices.

Dr. Fraas joined JX Crystals in 1993, where he has led the development of advanced solar cells and concentrated sunlight systems. At JX Crystals, he pioneered the development of various thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems based on the new GaSb infrared sensitive PV cell. In 1978 while at Hughes Research Labs, he published a pioneering paper proposing the InGaP/GaInAs/Ge triple junction solar cell predicting a cell terrestrial conversion efficiency of 40% at 300 suns concentration. This 40% efficiency has now been achieved and this cell is the predominant cell today for space satellites. It is now entering high volume production for terrestrial Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) systems.

Dr Fraas holds degrees from Caltech, Harvard, and USC. At Caltech, he studied Physics with Prof. Richard P. Feynman. Dr. Fraas has written over 150 technical papers, over 50 patents, and a book entitled Path to Affordable Solar Electric Power & The 35% Efficient Solar Cell (2005).

Warren Nishikawa
SolFocus

Mr. Nishikawa is SolFocus’ CPV product manager, responsible for the deployment of two CPV power plants totaling 0.5MW in Central Spain. With over 15 years experience in CPV product development, he led the systems design, plant layout, and installation for SolFocus’ CPV systems at ISFOC, the world’s recognized CPV technology demonstration site in Puertollano, Spain.

Mr. Nishikawa has worked in the area of multi-junction solar cell development at Spectrolab Inc., a leading III-V cell company, and CPV systems development at SolFocus Inc. Mr. Nishikawa has been a member of the IEC WG7 standards committee chartered to develop standards for CPV panel qualification, panel power ratings, and reporting of system energy production.

He has presented several papers on multi-junction cells, including thermal photovoltaics (TPV), CPV projects, and LCOE analysis.

Hansjörg Lerchenmüller
CEO & Co-Founder
Concentrix Solar GmbH

Hansjörg Lerchenmüller is the Chief Executive Officer of Concentrix Solar GmbH and one of its founders.

He graduated in Physics at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. Following his studies, he worked at the university’s Institute of Applied Physics as Scientific Officer. Before Hansjörg Lerchenmüller became CEO of the Fraunhofer spin-off Concentrix Solar, he worked for ten years at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, Germany. His duties at ISE included the coordination of the solar power plant business and the responsibility for technology management. He built up and managed the Marketing Network of Fraunhofer for six years. Since 2003, Hansjörg Lerchenmüller has advanced the market entry of Concentrix Solar’s FLATCON® technology.

The German business magazine “WirtschaftsWoche ”characterized him in 2007 as one of the fifty most interesting company founders in Germany.

Andrew Tzeng
Arima Eco

Dr. Tzeng gained his BSc in Physics from the Chung-Cheng Institute of Technology, Taiwan in 1974 and his MSc and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida, in 1986 and 1992 respectively.

Mr Tzen started his III-V HCPV research work in 2000 when he was at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research in Taiwan. There he developed the first two full scale HCPV systems in Taiwan. By the end of 2004 his team won an award from the government of Taiwan of US $9 Million to build a 1 MW HCPV demonstration system.

In 2007 he founded the Arima EcoEnergy Technologies Corporation with Mr. Stephen Lee. He continued to develop HCPV modules for easy production as the major development consideration. In 2007 Arima Eco won a 300 KW contract with ISFOC. Mr Tzeng has held or filed 14 CPV-related patents and has published more than 80 technical papers in journals and conferences.

Earl Fuller
Vice President & General Manager, Space & Terrestrial Solar components
Emcore

Joined the Company in November 2001 as Vice President of EMCORE Photovoltaics. Prior to coming to Emcore, Mr. Fuller spent nine years as President of Novus Technologies. In addition, from December 1999 through October 2001, Mr. Fuller served a President of PicoDyne, a semiconductor start-up that commercializing ultra-low power radiation hardened technology for the satellite systems market. He has held various General Management positions in the microelectronics and semiconductor materials industries. Mr. Fuller holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Russ Jones
Spectrolab

Russ Jones has recently joined Spectrolab as Director of Business Development for Terrestrial Photovoltaics.  Previously he was the program manager for the Solar Energy Business Initiative at Boeing Phantom Works in Seal Beach, California, as well as the Principal Investigator for the Boeing Solar America Initiative Program and an Associate Technical Fellow of the Boeing Company.  Russ has over 28 years of professional experience at the Boeing Company and previously at Hughes Aircraft Company, with 17 years of program and project management of technology development and production development programs. His prior assignments have included development of hydrogen propulsion technology (hydrogen fuel cells, combustion engines, and cryogenic storage tanks), satellite-based mobile Internet systems, high speed digital packet switching, and laser communications.

Russ has a strong background in electro-optical (EO) systems engineering, as a result of 16 years experience in the Hughes Electro-Optical Systems group (now Raytheon). He served as department manager for all electro-optical systems development from 1993–1996, and served as the technical director for development of the Thermal Weapon Sight infrared sensor for the US Army.

Russ has been interested in photovoltaic power throughout his career and conducted his graduate research on electrodeposited CdS/CdTe solar cells, characterizing defect states through stimulated photoemission. His many years of engineering experience in electro-optical imaging systems gave him a strong background in both optics and photovoltaics from which to explore design solutions for concentrating solar power.

Ralf Leutz
Concentrator Optics GmbH

Ralf Leutz is a founder of Concentrator Optics GmbH, a company focusing on the design of solar optics and the manufacturing of Fresnel lens parquets.

An engineer with MBA by trade, Ralf has been in solar for 15 years, six thereof in Tokyo researching his PhD, and another six in Marburg lecturing in physics. He coauthored a book on Nonimaging Fresnel Lenses (Springer 2001), and organizes a workshop on technical aspects of CPV every 18 months.

Ralf has been involved in dozens of optical designs for solar thermal energy conversion and concentrating photovoltaic power generation. As a solar professional, Ralf would like to play a part in helping to save the world.