Page 187 - ISES SWC50

Richard Collins (1955- 2020)
Country: Australia
Year joined industry: 1980
Company first worked for: Lucas Energy Systems (UK)
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: No

In 1980 Richard joined Lucas Energy Systems (UK) which was acquired by BP a few months after he joined, and
the company changed to BP Solar Systems. Here he was involved in all technical aspects of BP Solar systems
including design, production, system engineering, sourcing and the introduction of Quality Assurance. In 1985
he was seconded by BP Solar Spain where he was based in Madrid and was Assistant Project Manager in the
establishment of a fully operational solar cell and solar module production line. In 1986 he was seconded to BP
Solar Australia and travelled back to Sydney where his role was to establish the Professional Sales Department.
He established the supply of specialist industrial batteries for solar power applications and worked closely with
Telecom Australia. This was the period when Telecom Australia was one of the world leaders in using solar to
power their microwave repeater stations. He started BP Solar’s first company owned retail outlet in Dubbo, NSW
and then moved to Darwin to operate the retails business there. He returned to head office in early 90’s and he was
first Manager of Industrial Sales and then Regional Business Manager for BP Solar for grid connected photovoltaic
systems in the utilities and buildings markets. It was in this role that he successfully led the bid for the Sydney
Olympics and oversaw the installation of the systems at the village and throughout the Olympic precent. In 2001 he
left BP Solar and formed Punchline Energy – an energy efficiency and renewable consultancy business. In 2016 he
joined GSES as as Technical Business Manager.

Douglas Danley

Country: United States
Year joined industry: 1981
Company first worked for: US Peace Corps (1979-83), Integrated
Power Corp (1986)
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: Yes

Doug Danley designed and installed his first PV water pumping system as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana in
1982 and subsequently received a mechanical engineering degree from MIT. He joined Integrated Power Corporation
in Maryland and was a leader in the design of PV and hybrid power systems for the commercial and village power
industries, including the Coconut Island Australia microgrid in 1986/87. He founded Orion Energy Corporation
in 1983 which developed multiple generations of control and power electronics for advanced PV systems. He
managed the design and installation of the 300 kWh/day Padre Cocha microgrid in Peru in the early 2000s. He
worked with Mark Mrohs in the mid ‘90s to do three years of solar training in India. In 2004 Doug joined GridPoint
and managed the development of the “Connect” which was one of the first integrated PV+storage systems for
residential use. From 2010 until 2019 he worked with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association as a
technical expert in renewable energy. He was the Principal Investigator of the four year NRECA/DOE “Solar Utility
Network Deployment Acceleration” project which helped reduce barriers for US electric co-ops to deploy large scale
PV systems. He has also worked with EarthSpark International and NRECA-International on various international
solar microgrid projects. Since 2017 Doug has been working on the SUNSPOT(tm) solar electric cooking system,
which won the prestigious Elsevier / ISES “Renewable Transformation Challenge” in 2019.

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