Page 290 - ISES SWC50
P. 290
Torben Esbensen
Torben Esbensen (Denmark) is Director at Esbensen Consulting
Engineers A/S since 1979, a company working internationally in the
field of solar energy and energy design of buildings. Ebsensen was
Member of the ISES Board from 1990-96, representing the four
Scandinavian countries and again from 1998 representing the small
sections of ISES. Esbensen was Vice-Presidset 1999-2001, secretary
2002-2005, and treasurer from 2007-2017. He was Organizing
Chairman of the ISES Solar World Congress 2007 and EuroSun 2000;
and International Chairman of the ISES Solar World Congress 2003.
He started his career in solar in 1973 as an employee at the Technical
University of Denmark. In 1979 he left the university to implement
Figure 80: Torben Esbensen, research results into the practical building designs.
President 2006 – 2007
Monica Oliphant
Monica Oliphant (Australia) played a very active role in ANZSES and
AUSES. She joined the ISES Board in 1997 and is still a member. She
first became interested in renewable energy, and in particular solar
energy, when she worked at Flinders University on solar thermal
energy research from 1977 to 1981.
As a Senior Research Scientist with the Electricity Trust of South
Australia (ETSA) from 1981 to 2000, she undertook ground-breaking
research into the role of renewable energy, energy efficiency and
consumer behaviour in demand management for power networks.
She was a pioneer in building-integrated photovoltaics in Australia,
through ETSA managed research, development and demonstration
Figure 81: Monica Oliphant, projects. Oliphant began her scientific career with a Master’s Degree
President 2008 – 2009 in Physics from the University of London and worked as an Energy
Research Scientist for the Electricity Trust of South Australia for almost
20 years. Since 2000 Monica has been an independent consultant
specialising in residential energy efficiency and renewable energy. She
is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of South Australia.
Currently, she is working to develop community-owned solar and
energy efficiency projects together with local governments.
10.3 PV 2000-2009
The new decade started with the feed-in tariff (FIT)through the “EEC” renewable energy law being introduced
in Germany, one of the programs that increased the use of PV particularly in Germany. For 2004 to 2007 and
in 2009 more than 50% of the PV installed each year globally was installed in Germany (highest being 66% in
2006). Spain was over 50% in 2008 because they introduced a FIT. Over the decade more countries introduced
feed-in tariffs and various other incentive programs were introduced. China introduced the Renewable Energy
Law in 2005 that saw the number of Chinese manufactures increase which was the start of the future Chinese
domination of the market. The price of solar modules fell dramatically in the later part of the decade. By about
2003 more 3-5MW systems were installed and these kept on growing as the decade progressed. During this
decade the PV manufacturing base moved from being focussed in Japan, USA and Europe to China and some
other Asian countries. MW replaces kW when quoting PV installation capacity.
For the two decades of this century, the historic highlights include some of the early solar farms and
breakthroughs in cell efficiencies etc. However, the focus is on providing the data that displays the growth
272 | ISES SWC50 - The Century of Solar-Stories and Visions