Page 140 - ISES SWC50

Luke Williams
Country: Australia
Year joined industry: 1973
Company first worked for: SunTrap/Hot Water systems Pty Ltd
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: Yes

Luke Williams started working in the industry at the age of 16, in 1973 for his father’s solar hot water and space
heating business. He founded LJW Solar Pty Limited, in the early eighties, designing and installing photovoltaic and
wind energy systems for a wide range of public and business clients. He has since become one of Australia’s leading
experts in the field of photovoltaic installation, lecturing to electricians, project developers and TAFE students across
the country and offering training courses for all those who want to enter the industry. His systems powered rural
properties without access to the electricity grid and his work can be seen throughout country Australia, in hotels,
farms, National Parks, ordinary houses and holiday houses. Having installed the second ever grid interactive solar
system in NSW, he has begun to install an increasing number of these systems, for private and commercial clients,
who want to reduce their ecological footprints. For the past 30 years he has been running his country property
exclusively on solar energy, from the big family home, to the workshop where he pre-built Photovoltaic systems
for his clients. Ranging from off Grid power supplies of all sizes, grid systems, hybrid systems, pumping systems,
systems for water recycled on gardens and orchards and solar water distillation unit. Then installed these on site.
Luke truly walks the climate change path and can prove to anyone through past experience that you can operate
anything, from a bank of computers to MIG welding and heavy-duty manufacturing equipment, normal everyday
properties, entirely on solar power. As a Solar man of the first hour, he is accredited as a renewable energy system
designer and installer with the Clean Energy Council, the National Accreditation Scheme for industry practitioners,
and was one of the founding members of its forerunner, the Solar Energy Industry Association in 1993.

Neville Williams

Country: United States
Year joined industry: 1979
Company first worked for: 1979 at DOE
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: No

Neville Williams, a former journalist, first became interested in solar energy at the U.S. DOE during the Carter
Administration. Ten years later, still interested in the possible future of solar PV, he founded the Solar Electric
Light Fund in Washington, DC, which during the first seven years launched solar rural electrification projects in 11
countries. Then, he founded the Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO), a commercial enterprise, and co-founded
SELCO-India with Dr. Harish Hande. Both organizations continue to operate today, but have grown much larger. In
2005, Williams founded a U.S. domestic PV solar, sales, and installation company, Standard Solar, in Maryland. He
retired at age 65 once investors provided funds to expand the company. As a consultant, he and a partner then built
solar farms to supply rural electric co-ops in New Mexico. Standard Solar has become a leading U.S. solar-power
project developer, now owned by Energir, Montreal.

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