Page 136 - ISES SWC50

Wolfgang Schiel
Country: Germany
Year joined industry: 1979
Company first worked for: Schlaich Bergermann und Partner (www.
sbp.de)
Technology area: Solar Thermal
Still active in the industry: No

Wolfgang Schiel’s working career involved Design and detailing of solar thermal power plants: Dish/Stirling
systems (3…50 kW), parabolic trough collectors, heliostats. He was involved in the development of opto- electronic
measuring systems for qualification of concentrating solar collectors. He was involved with the Solar Updraft Tower
(SUT) Manzanares, Spain pilot plant which produced 50 kW with a collector surface of 45,000 m², tower heightof
194 m. It operated from 1982 – 1989 and he undertook supervision and scientific evaluation. He undertook the
conceptual design, design and optical analyses of photovoltaic concentrator for CPV system 1, Pune, India. He was
the technical lead in the development of parabolic trough collectors for large scale commercial plants (EuroTrough,
HelioTrough, UltimateTrough) used in commercial plants in Spain, Egypt, India, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and China
(>10 plants, > 500 MW). His team twice winner of the IEA SolarPACES technology innovation award (2013 & 2010)
and in 2016 he was winner of IEA SolarPACES ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. Schiel has undertaken projects in
Germany, USA, Spain, Saudi Arabia, India, Italy, France, Egypt, Chile, Australia. He has published numerous scientific
papers and technical magazine articles and contributed to the following books: Concentrating solar power (CSP)
technology: Developments and applications of Dish Stirling Systems, 2012, Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, UK,
Philadelphia, USA; Lovegrove and Stein: Parabolic Dish Systems; Springer Encyclopedia of Physical Science and
Technology: Solar Chimneys, 2002.

William Shurcliff (1909-2006)
Country: United States
Year joined industry: 1978
Company first worked for: William Shurcliff (himself)
Technology area: Solar Architecture/Buildings
Still active in the industry: No

William Asahel Shurcliff was an American physicist. He received his BA cum laude in 1930, a PhD in Physics in
1934, and a degree in Business Administration in 1935, all from Harvard University. In the 1930s he worked at the
Spectrophotometric Laboratory at the Calco Chemical Division of the American Cyanamid Company.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he became an advocate for passive solar building design and superinsulation.
He self-published a long series of books that compiled every passive solar building he could learn about,
significantly raising public and industry awareness. He wrote and published the following three books.
1978: Solar Heated Buildings of North America: 120 Outstanding Examples, Brick House Publishing.
1979: New Inventions in Low Cost Solar Heating: 100 Daring Schemes Tried and Untried, Brick House Publishing.
1981: Super Insulated Houses and Double Envelope Houses: A Survey of Principles and Practice, Brick House
Publishing.

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