Scientific Committee

Ebong Abasifreke

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States of America

Abasifreke Ebong received a Ph.D in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia in 1995. His Ph.D dissertation dealt with low-cost and double-sided buried contact silicon solar cells. Having worked in close collaboration with several companies including; equipment, front silver screen-printed pastes, dielectric and silicon wafers to develop belt machine for contact co-firing, inline diffusion, and high quality front silver pastes, Dr Ebong brings more than 22 years’ experience to his current position. He has published over 100 papers in the field of Photovoltaics. His current research interest include: high throughput, low-cost and high efficiency silicon solar cells based on comprehension of screen-printed contacts formation to homogeneous emitters with high sheet resistances; Development of low-cost manufacturable high efficiency solar cells with alternative to screen-printed contacts; Electrochemistry and Device Physics. He is also interested in solid state lighting “sunlight to light”, an area where solar cell and LED can be merged.

Vivian Alberts

University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Vivian Alberts obtained a B.Sc Honnors (Cum Laude) in 1986, M.Sc (CumLaude)I in 1986 and a Ph.D degree in Physics in 1993 from the NelsonMandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), formerly known as the University ofPort Elizabeth.He was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Physics at the Universityof Johannesburg (formerly known as the Rand Afrikaans University) in 1993 and was promoted to associated professor in 1998 and to full professor in2000.
During his academic career, he authored and co-authorized more than100 international technical papers and acted as promoter for 20 MSc and PhDstudies.He has been actively involved in the research and development of thin filmphotovoltaic materials and devices for the past 20 years.
These research activities led to various patent applications related to the novel processing of CIGSSe material, which are currently protected in world-wide patents.
He received various awards for his contributions to Science and Technology,including the Gencor S2A3 bronze medal, Volkswagen Stiftung Grant,Fulbright Scholorship, Academy of Science of South Africa Young Scientist Award and was also nominated in 2007 for the World Clean Energy Award.Alberts spent more than three years as visiting scientist and guest professorin various international research facilities and universities in Germany and theUSA.
He is a founding shareholder and currently the CEO of PhotovoltaicTechnology Intellectual Property (Pty) Ltd, a wholly owned South Africancompany.

Ana R. Lagunas Alonso, Ph.D.

Director, Photovoltaic Solar Energy Department, CENER

Working experience in materials basic research, microelectronics industry manufacturing and since 2002 full dedication to photovoltaic technology development and testing.

Antonio Berni

Technical Director, ETA-Florence Renewable Energies, Italy

Izael Pereira Da Silva

Strathmore Business School, South Africa

Prof.  Izael Pereira Da Silva (PhD Power Systems - USP-Brazil) is a Certified Energy Manager. He is DVC Academic affairs at StrathmoreUniversity and Director of the Strathmore Energy Research Centre, SERC. He has been working with renewable energy in Africa since 1997. Prof Da Silva with other partners is currently responsible for the setting up of the first Climate Innovation Centre (CIC) ever, housed in Strathmore as an incubator to SMEs dealing with renewable energy, agribusiness and water management.

Ahmed Ennaoui

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Germany

Prof. Ahmed Ennaoui is Head of a goupat Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and president of scientific council of Moroccan Solar Energy Institute (IRESEN). 
His main expertisecovers non-vacuum processing and advanced thin film Solarcells. He hasservedfor 25 yearsas Prof. ofPhysicsat Uni. Mohamed V, Morocco.

Li Hailing

Chinese Academy of Science, P.R. ChinaProf.

Hailing Li, a member of renewable consulting group in Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Science, with abundant experiences on policy, economic and environment analysis of PV.

XU Honghua

Institute of Electrical Engineering(IEE), CAS, P.R. China

Mr. XU Honghua, M.Sc. (Electric Machines & Control), studied in Tianjin University (China) from 1981 to 1988.  More than 25 years renewable energy related experiences, experienced in renewable energy including wind power, solar power and hybrid power system as well as micro-grid RE system technology research and demonstration, RE system key component R&D such as wind power electrical control technologies and PV inverter technologies etc. Experienced in organizing, management and implementation of research and cooperation project in the field of renewable energy for national and international agencies.
He is the Member of International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme Implementing Agreement (IEA PVPS) Executive Committee, the vice Chairman of China Renewable Energy Society. He used to be the Member of National Energy Expert Consultative Committee, the Deputy director ofnstitute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences( IEE, CAS). Now, he is the president of Beijing Corona Science and Technology Co.,Ltd. Also he is the researcher and Director of Renewable Energy generating system Division，IEE,CAS .

Dirk Knoesen

University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Dirk Knoesen is a materials scientist/physicist with interests in thin films, nanoscience, PV devices and products,published 69 papers, supervised 35 M&D theses, is retired Emeritus Professor at UWC, at present the Director of Nanoscience Platform.

Philippe Malbranche

CEA-INES, France

Philippe Malbranche got an engineering degree at the École Centrale de Paris. He started working in 1980 in the South Pacific on rural electrification projects with renewable energies, during 8 years. He joined afterwards successively the French Department of Energy as advisor on renewable energy policy, Photowatt, the French PV cell and module manufacturer, and CEA-GENEC, a research laboratory with 25 people focused on PV systems and storage systems, which he managed until 2004. Then, he participated to the setting up of INES, the French Solar Energy Research Institute, which hosts 380 researchers involved in all the value chain of solar energy, and where his position is Research Programme Manager. His main fields of expertise are: PV materials, PV cells and modules, PV systems, storage technologies and systems, solar thermal systems, zero-energy buildings, and smart grids.

Pierre Verlinden

Pierre Verlinden is Vice-President and Chief Scientist at Trina Solar. He has been working in the field of PV for 35 years. Before joining Trina, Dr. Verlinden was Director of R&D at SunPower, Principal Scientist at Solar Systems and CTO of Amrock.

Stanley van den Heever

Stanley van den Heever has a B Eng (Electronic), MSc Eng and PhD.
His research focus was on semiconducting ZnO nanowires and the utilisation of the materials unique properties to generate electricity.

In 2013 Van den Heever started working at PTIP as a Project Engineer.

Sicheng Wang

Energy Research Institute, NDRC

Sicheng Wang is the senior scientist at Energy Research Institute (ERI), NDRC.  He is the Member of  Standing Committee of China Renewable Energy Society  and Vice Director of China Renewable Energy Industry Association (CREIA).
Sicheng Wang was graduated from Xiamen University in 1981 and received his Master Degree of science. He has been working in PV field for more than 32 years since 1982;  As chief director, hundrads of PV products and systems have been developed. Wang Sicheng has sponsored development of 5 National GB standards. He has attended preparation of National Golden-Sun Demo project and PV FIT. As chief director, worked on several international cooperation projects, like: GEF/World Bank REDP projects, UNDP wind-PV hybrid village power projects, REEEP project for rural electrification, ADB PV Demo Project in Nepal, World Bank Beijing Solar School project, etc..  Wang Sicheng is experienced in both grid-connected and off-grid PV technologies.

Ingrid Weiss

WIP-Renewable Energies, Germany

Ingrid Weiss is Head of Unit Policies and Stratiegies at WIP and has been working in the field of Renewable Energies since 1989. She has been specialized in the field smart grid solutions in the building sector and also in the grid network field. She is coordinating the PV Parity project and was one of the initiator of this idea. Ingrid Weiss graduated in Applied Physics (Dipl. Ing.) at the Applied University for Engineering in Munich and is working as scientific engineer since 1993. She has worked as project manager and as such co-ordinator of several refereed international projects, many of them co-funded by the European Commission. Main sector of activity is photovoltaics and integrating other renewables into the building and the grid network. She is also topic organizer of the EU PV SEC since more than ten years.