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Bruce Anderson
Country: United States
Year joined industry: 1972
Company first worked for: T.E.A. Inc (Total Environmental Action, Inc.)
Technology area: Solar Architecture/Buildings
Still active in the industry: Yes
Bruce Anderson began his solar industry career in 1973 with his MS thesis at MIT called “Solar Energy and Shelter
Design”. He founded T.E.A. Inc. (Total Environmental Action), which became one of the largest and best-known
solar design, research, and education firms in the world. It designed more than a dozen distinguished breakthrough
solar buildings and consulted on 100s more. Its dozens of education classes and countless publications trained
thousands of people. T.E.A.’s Foundation weatherized low-income dwellings. He co-founded SolarVision Inc., which
published “Solar Age” magazine from 1976 to 1986 and which was the official magazine of the American Solar
Energy Society (ASES); followed by the newsletter “Solar Industry Bulletin”; the newspaper “Renewable Energy
News”; the quarterly “Solar Products Specifications Guide”; and numerous solar catalogs and books. He self-
published “The Solar Home Book”, which became an international best seller and created Brick House Publishing,
which published numerous energy books. In 1981 it published his “Passive Solar Energy”, which was the first book
on passive solar. His 1977 “Solar Energy: Fundamentals in Building Design” published by McGraw-Hill became a
best-selling college textbook. His books have been translated into several languages. The American Solar Energy
Society honored him with its first “Outstanding Solar Contribution Award” in 1985. MIT Press published “Solar
Building Architecture”, which he edited and which is volume 9 in the Series “Solar Heat Technologies: Fundamentals
and Applications,” edited by Charles A. Bankston. He was the founding Vice-Chair of the New England Solar Energy
Association in 1975, was a director of ASES, and was a founding Chair of the New England Clean Energy Council in
2006. Recently, Bruce co-invented a 1000oC solar heat platform and, as CEO of 247Solar Inc., is commercializing
247Solar Plants™, the platform’s first product. The Plants produce power and high-quality heat 24/7.
Gad Assaf
Country: Israel
Year joined industry: in the 1970’s
Company first worked for: Weizmann Institute of Science
Technology area: Solar Thermal
Still active in the industry: Yes
Gad Assaf is a physicist initially interested in atmospheric phenomena. In early 1970’ still at the Weizmann
Institute he got interested in solar Ponds and was able to describe the flow in a mass of water stratified
by a density gradient where a current at a certain density would mix with the surrounding water. This was
important because it made possible to extract the hot brine at one end of the pond and return it at the other
end without the need for a large heat exchanger at the bottom of the pond and related temperature drop.
In 1975 he joined Ormat and was instrumental in the 5 MW Solar Pond Power Plant Project. US Patent
4,337,0711 (1987) Solar Power Station. Later he established the theory of the solar tower proposed originally
by Carlson in 1975. US Patent 4,801,811 (1989) Generation of Electricity in an Arid Environment Using Ducts.
Finally he proposed a power system using the vapor pressure difference between brines at different concentrations
US Patent 4,617,800 (1987). After leaving Ormat, Assaf joined AGAM Systems Ltd where he developed other
energy conversion devices.
102 | ISES SWC50 - The Century of Solar-Stories and Visions