Page 141 - ISES SWC50

Philip Wolfe
Country: United Kingdom
Year joined industry: Mid 1970’s
Company first worked for: Lucas Industries
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: Yes

Philip Wolfe obtained his engineering degree from Cambridge University. He joined Lucas Industries and was
requested to investigate the solar power market which resulted in the formation of Lucas Energy focussing on
solar in the mid 1970’s. He led Lucas Energy until he negotiated their joint venture with BP in 1979, becoming the
first Chief Executive of what became BP Solar. He left BP Solar in 1981 and with a few others acquired Solapak
from Solarex which morphed into the Intersolar Group He was Chairman and Chief Executive while it expanded its
business from industrial systems engineering into product marketing and thin film solar cell manufacturing. From
1993 to 2002, when its assets were sold, the Group was the sole UK manufacturer of photovoltaic cells. In 2003 he
established WolfeWare a consultancy business that is still operating today. In 1985 he was one of the founders of
EPIA serving as its third president. He was also one of the founders of UK PV Association. He was Director General
of the Renewable Energy Association from 2003 to 2009, overseeing the successful campaign for Feed-in Tariffs
and the Renewable Heat Obligation. He is an expert on utility scale PV systems (solar parks) and pioneered their
introduction in the UK and also community power systems. He wrote the first book on utility-scale solar power,
which was published by Routledge in 2012 and has many other publications on the application of renewable
energy technologies. In 2018 he released the book: The Solar Generation published by Wiley-IEEE about the early
years of terrestrial photovoltaics. [He has lectured at universities, presented at conferences worldwide and featured
on television and radio.] He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2016 for services to
renewable energy and the energy sector.

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