Page 107 - ISES SWC50

Frederick Morse
Country: United States
Year Started Research: 1970
Title of Research: Management of Solar Energy R&D
University: US National Science Foundation and US Department of
Energy
Still Active in Research: Yes

Frederick Morse first became involved in renewable energy issues in the late 1960s when he served as Executive
Director of the White House Assessment of Solar Energy as a National Energy Resource. He then went to the
National Science Foundation to help put together the solar energy R&D program that was recommended in that
report. In 1976 he joined the US Department of Energy where he played a significant role in defining and managing
the Solar Heating and Cooling, Photovoltaics and Concentrating Solar- thermal Power (CSP) programs. Frederick has
served on the Boards of the American Solar Energy Society and the International Solar Energy Society collectively
for decades. In the late 1970s he helped form the U.S. Passive Solar Industry Council and the U. S. Solar Energy
Industries Association where he was a Board member for many years and chaired the Utility-Scale Solar Power
Division. Frederick was active in the International Energy Agency where he helped to form, and Chair, the Solar
Heating and Cooling Program and helped form the Photovoltaic Power Systems and Demand-Side Management
Programs. He left the Department of Energy in 1989 and formed a renewable energy consulting company. In
2007 he because the Senior Advisor, US Operations for Abengoa Solar, Inc. where led the company’s business
development activities in the US. He played a key role in the development and financing of the Solana and Mojave
CSP plants, each 280 MW with a combined investment of about $4 Billion. Frederick is still active and working
hard to re-open the CSP market in the US. He is a graduate of Renssealaer Polytechnic Institute, received an M.S. in
Nuclear Engineering from MIT and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Urs Walter Muntwyler
Country: Switzerland
Year Started Research: 1975
Title of Research: Application with thin film solar cells/ PV applications
University: Gewerbeschule Solothurn/ Ingenieurbüro Muntwyler/ PV
LAB BUAS
Still Active in Research: Yes

Urs Walter Muntwyler’s interest in PV started in 1975 with a search of applications for thin film solar cells - there
were not many. In 1982 he got his engineering diplom with a work on “Maximum Power Tracker for PV”. From 1982
he worked in the telecom company Hasler AG in a Pilot- and Demonstration program with PV and wind energy
for telecommunication- and remote electrical power supplies (Hospitals in Rwanda 1984/86 and 87). In 1985 Urs
Walter was the organizer of the first solar car race in the world, the “Tour de Sol 85” crossing Switzerland with solar
energy, a successful PR Tour for solar energy. He organised this race up to 1992. The Tour de Sol races produced
several spin-offs as: solar gasoline stations in 1986; grid connected solar cars in 1987; decentralized grid connected
PV installations from 1986 on; the “first feed in tariff for PV” in Switzerland in Burgdorf in 1989; solarcars for
everyday use 1986; light weight electric cars as the concept of the Smart car (now Mercedes Benz);Solar and
PV companies as Solectria (US), Brusa AG (CH), Holinger Solar AG (CH), TWIKE AG (CH) etc. He held yearly
conferences on the technique of solarcars and PV (with an annual conference book) were held in conjunction with
a public exhibition called “Solarsalon” up to 1998. They presented solarcars, solar technologies, solar boats and
in the last year in 1998, “solar planes” as the “Icarus” and other solar planes. His first bock on PV was “Praxis mit
Solarzellen” in the Franzis Verlag (Germany), it had 6 editions. In 1992 he prepared the course for “Planning of PV
installations” for the governmental Swiss “program for the acceleration of renewable energies PACER”. Since 2010
Urs Walter is Professor for PV system technologies and leader of the PV LAB of the Berner Fachhochschule. Their
research activities are in the fields of “long term behaviour of PV installations”, PV inverter measurement, PV2X
and PV oriented buildings (PVOB) - www.pvtest.ch. From 1998 to 2018 he was chair of the technical collaboration
program of the International Energy Agency IEA on “Hybrid and electric vehicles” (www.ieahev.org).

ISES SWC50 - The Century of Solar-Stories and Visions | 89