Page 139 - ISES SWC50

Sam Vanderhoof
Country: United States
Year joined industry: 1976
Company first worked for: Independent Power Company
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: Yes

A pioneer in the solar industry, Sam Vanderhoof has served as a corporate executive at Petra Solar, SMA America,
Schott Solar, Trace Engineering/Xantrex and Kyocera Solar. Sam’s career includes developing cutting edge
technology and market strategy, specializing in power inverters, on and off-grid PV, and micro-grid projects, both
domestic and internationally. Sam is currently CEO of Recycle PV Solar, a US company engaged in the collection,
re-use and recycling of solar PV modules. www.recyclepvsolar.com

Andreas Wagner
Country: Germany
Year joined industry: 1979
Company first worked for: Wagner & Co Solartechnik GmbH in
D-35091 Cölbe (near Frankfurt)
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: No

As a group of students Andreas Wagner and friends started a company in 1979 for renewable energy systems.
It was a collective group of 9 persons with equal shares developing cost effective DIY solar systems. Andreas’
specific role as an engineer of heat and energy was to develop these systems and to be one of the CEOs. Even
that it was only a DIY system, they reached a very high energy output with their solar hot water system in German
competition tests. Later on, they changed the distribution system and built up a network of solar installers, who
mounted their systems in Germany and neighbour countries. They still continued to develop high efficient and
reliable solar systems including drain back or thermosiphon systems with thermostatic overheating protection or big
ST plants. As CEO Andreas was also a board member of the German solar industry association (BSW), responsible
for standards and certification. From the early nineteen-eighties he was involved in different working groups for
solar standardisation, including the European founder group for the Solar Keymark (the European solar certification
system). The PV-part of the Wagner & Co business grew rapidly. At the height of the company’s development in
2011 there were approx. 280 employees with a turnover of 300 mio €/a. About 90 of the staff were owners of
the company, as the company was only owned by the employees. After the market depression for PV-systems
the company went bankrupt. In 2014 Andreas developed a solar electric hot water system for small and medium
demand in the new company “AWASOL GmbH”. It is called “SELACAL Solar System” and is a combination of PV-
modules with an electric hot water tank, which minimizes the installation costs and improves the thermal reliability.
Today Andreas is still active in energy politics, especially to promote the CO2 tax, because as long as gas and oil
stays cheap, we will not make the change.

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