Page 191 - ISES SWC50

Deepak Gadhia
Country: India
Year joined industry: 1985
Company first worked for: Gadhia Solar Energy Systems Pty. Ltd.
Technology area: Solar Thermal
Still active in the industry: Yes

Deepak Gadhia returned to India from Germany after completing his Process & Environmental Engineering and
PG in Energy Conservation and Energy Management from TU Berlin and MIT of USA. Realising that 50 % of the
world’s population cooks on open fire and that indoor pollution due to smoke in the kitchen caused the death of 3.2
Million Women and Children he decided to offer a Solar Cooking Solution. The Solar Box Cookers that were offered
in India were not gaining acceptance so he analysed the reasons and found that they were too slow and could not
fry and make chapati (Indian bread). Thus he introduced Parabolic Solar Cooker that was developed by Dr Dieter
Seifert, a colleague of his. He indigenised the Cooker by adapting it to Indian material and manufacturing and usage.
He found that people who needed it (rural Poor) could not afford it and people who could afford it did not need/
want it as it required them to go out in the Sun, so he introduced Fix Focus Flexible Solar Concentrator developed
by Wolfgang Scheffler in India. He sold them to Community Cooking organisations especially for mid-day meal
program of Indian Government. To meet the request/ demand of Communities for Institutional Cooking to cook
1000’s of meals per day with Solar, he developed Worlds first Solar Steam Cooking system with support of HTT
GmbH a German company he worked with before his return. GATE/GTZ funded the first Project for NGO Brahma
Kumari’s. The Company went on to become one of the world’s largest Company to offer Solar Steam Cooking
Systems with Scheffler Concentrators. He started offering Solar Thermal Systems for Process heating and Cooling.
India’s first and largest Solar Thermal air-conditioning System of 100 TR (350KWt) was developed and supplied by
them to provide cooling for 160 bed cancer hospital.

Stephen Garrett
Country: Australia
Year joined industry: 1982
Company first worked for: Ultra Solar Pty Ltd
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: Yes

Stephen Garrett has 38 years’ experience in the Renewable Energy Industry and is currently the General Manager
of Pyramid Power Group and the Managing Director of Solinta Pty Ltd. Stephen has founded and directed several
successful businesses in the Renewable Energy industry with extensive Australian and International technical and
project-management experience. Stephen has installed and supervised over a 5000 Grid Connect and Standalone
Power Systems. Stephen’s international working experience includes countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana,
Sri Lanka, China, Mongolia, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR,
Philippines, and the Solomon Islands. Stephen collaborated in the development of a “Train the Trainers Course” for
Solar Home System technicians in Sri Lanka supported by the World Bank. The training included a Sales course
for Solar Entrepreneurs and a Training course for the installation on SHS Monitoring equipment in Sri Lanka for
data collection. Funding for the project came via the Australian Greenhouse Office. Other international projects
include designing a solar module assembly plant for Chinese Investors and the development of the Strategy for RE
Training Development in China, funded by the Australian Government (June 2005-June 2006). The development of
a Renewable Energy Training and Accreditation Needs and Capabilities Study of the 21 different APEC countries
and a Renewable Energy training accreditation program for the ASEAN region the project partner was the ASEAN
Centre for Energy in Jakarta. The project funded by AusAid. Stephen to conducted workshops in Lao PDR, Cambodia,
Myanmar and Vietnam. (2004-2006) Stephen also participated in the preparation of the Teachers’ Solar Lighting
SHLK Product Catalogue-Papua New Guinea- Funded by World Bank (April 2005-July 2005). Stephen was also a
supporting team member in the document preparation for the Pacific renewable Energy Training Initiative (PRETI)
– Funded by UN ESCAP.

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