Page 123 - ISES SWC50

Gilbert Cohen
Country: United States
Year joined industry: 1977
Company first worked for: The Scientific Research Foundation
Technology area: Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)
Still active in the industry: Yes

Mr. Cohen has been making strides in the Solar Energy field for more than four decades. His career in Solar Energy
began as a Staff Engineer at the Scientific Research Foundation headed by a true pioneer, his mentor Dr. Harry
Z. Tabor in 1977. At this position he was involved in various research and development (R&D) activities including
Solar ponds, Solar water heaters, molten salt storage, selective surfaces, and novel parabolic solar collectors design.
In 1986 Mr. Cohen joined the CSP industry and was involved of the development of the Solar Electric Generating
Systems (SEGS) installed in California. From 1991 to 1999, he held the position of Technical Services Manager with
the SEGS maintenance and operation company (KJC Operating Company). In 2000, Mr. Cohen contributed at the
creation of Solargenix Energy (formally Duke Solar); an entity dedicated to the development, design and construction
of Solar Power plants. As its Vice President of engineering, he played an instrumental role in the development of
Nevada Solar One recognized at the time as the largest solar plant built since 1991. Between 2005 and 2008, as
Senior VP of Acciona Solar Power, Mr. Cohen was the chief technology officer responsible for the engineering,
operations, research, development and dissemination of solar thermal energy technologies. In 2008, he established
his own engineering firm (Eliasol Energy) and was responsible for the design and deployment of several large
solar projects in Spain, United States, Israel, India … In 2002, Mr. Cohen’s contributions as a Solar Energy industry
leader were acknowledged with the prestigious Hoyt Clarke Hottel Award. This award bestowed by the American
Solar Energy Society, honors individuals who made significant contributions to the field of solar energy. Mr. Cohen
authored several Solar Energy papers and technical reports; he also owns several patents in Solar Energy.

Luis Crespo

Country: Spain
Year joined industry: 1977
Company first worked for: Construcciones Aeronaúticas S.A. (Now part
of EADS- European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company)
Technology area: Solar Thermal
Still active in the industry: Yes

Luis Crespo began working in CASA/EADS and founded – aged 25 – the Solar Department, starting to develop
components and applications for concentrated solar systems. He designed the first European heliostat, which still
receives the visitors at the PSA (Plataforma Solar de Almería). He was the system responsible in the international
consortium that built the CRS IEA plant in Almería, which was connected to the grid in 1981. Then he moved to the
laboratory of the Spanish utilities (ASINEL) as head of the New Energy Technology department. He was manager of
the first 1 MW wind turbine in Spain and technical director of the Spanish-German GAST project, aiming to design
a 20 MW high temperature air cooled CSP plant and its core components. In 1985 he was appointed director of the
Spanish Renewable Energy Institute (IER) launching a large number of R&D projects in PV, CSP, Wind and Biomass
within European and Spanish programs. He negotiated the PSA IEA projects transfer to the IER, converting the
PSA in the largest CSP lab at world level. The interest in commercial deployment of renewables declined around
1990 and he then switched to innovation management and financial fields always having renewables in focus.
The dawn of CSP technology happened in 2007 and he was called to come back to his roots directing the Spanish
(Protermosolar) and European (ESTELA) CSP industry associations. He is still president of Protermosolar. He
contributed to build 50 CSP plants (2,3 GW) – the largest fleet at world level – which are performing as expected
after 10 years of operation. More recently he succeeded to include 5 new GW of CSP plants in the Spanish Climate
and Energy plan – submitted to the EU Commission – as an essential piece for the Energy Transition. This was a
great achievement after a long professional career.

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