Photovoltaics or Rural Electrification in Developing Countries

School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering. He is a board member of the WA branch of the Australian Solar Energy Council and Vice President (and former President) of the Conservation Council of Western Australia, and president of the Compassionate Friends of Western Australia.  His previous work and roles have included establishing and heading up the Research Institute for Sustainable Energy (RISE) at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, which was an accredited testing facility for renewable energy equipment and systems such as PV inverters and which incorporated the national small wind turbine testing centre. David also set up the Centre for Research into Sustainable Transport (CREST), a joint Murdoch University and Curtin University initiative, was the Executive Director of the Western Australian government's Sustainable Energy Development Office and the Assistant Director of the Office of Energy Planning and Conservation in Tasmania. His work in the energy field over three decades has included major projects on natural gas, electricity, renewable energy and energy efficiency. David has represented governments on several high level energy policy committees and advisory panels, has presented papers at a number of international energy conferences and has published a number of peer reviewed journal papers. In his academic career he has supervised numerous Master and Ph.D. research projects and several of these have focused on renewable energy opportunities, policies and programs in developing countries, including wind, biomass and on solar home system projects.

Hans Holtorf has been involved in solar energy from the side of application and lecturing since 1987. He started his career in 1987 at International Battery and Solar Power Consulting (IBC) as a sales engineer for off-grid PV systems. He participated in 1988/1989 in Postgraduate Programme Renewable Energy (PPRE) at University of Oldenburg (UOL) where he is employed since then. In the research team 'Physik Regenerativer Energiesysteme' (PRE) under Prof. Luther he was responsible for the operation of Energielabor (a research and demonstration building for the off-grid energy supply by renewable energy) and for the technical supervision of a research project on photovoltaic pumping systems. Subsequently Hans Holtorf was engaged in the research team of Prof. Parisi, 'Energie und Halbleiterforschung' (EHF). Within EHF he focused on projects for the energy meteorology research group (meteorological measurement station and a hydrogen project) and renewable energy education. He lectures in Postgraduate Programme Renewable Energy (PPRE) and for students of the Institute of Physics at UOL. In parallel to his obligations at University of Oldenburg he has served 'Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit' (now GIZ) as short term expert in Tunisia, Morocco and Senegal on Solar Home Systems. At present he is researching with Tania Urmee on success factors of SHS in Africa.