Australian Representative Experts

In the Solar Heating and Cooling Program, Australian Experts collaborate with 26 other countries and organisations in the study and dissemination of various aspects of solar heating and cooling through different projects.

The SHC Program is headed by an Executive Committee with one representative from each country or organisation, while the management of the individual projects (Tasks) is the responsibility of project managers (Operating Agents) who are selected by the Executive Committee.

Executive Committee

Ken Guthrie

Ken is the Australian Representative on the Executive Committee (ExCo) of the International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Program.  The ExCo meets bi-annually with the Operating Agents for each IEA SHC Task. As Australian ExCo, Ken-ordinates all of Australia’s participation in the IEA SHC program. Ken also works on Task 64; Solar Heat for Industrial Processes.

Ken has 40 years experience in Solar and energy efficiency in the Victorian Public sector and in Consulting. He was Chair of the IEA SHC program from 2014 to 2018 and Chair of the ISO committee on solar energy until 2017.  He chairs the Australian and New Zealand solar heating standards committee CS028 and is currently Managing Director at Sustainable Energy Transformation Pty Ltd.  Linkedin

Australian Contributors

Veronica Garcia-Hansen

Linkedin

Dr. Garcia-Hansen is an international recognized researcher with almost 20 years of experience in the area of climate responsive buildings, specifically lighting research. She works at the intersection of building science, ergonomics, environmental psychology and health. Dr. Garcia-Hansen research focuses is on the interplay between building performance, people’s comfort (visual and thermal) and well-being. She has over 55 publications in the area including top journal articles and peer review conferences papers.

She is the Australia representative for the CIE (Commission International of Illumination) Division 3: Interior Environment and Lighting Design representative for Australia, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar heating and Cooling (SHC) Technical collaboration program IEA SHC Task 70: Low Carbon, High Comfort Integrated Lighting. Veronica has previously worked on “IEA task 61 Integrated Solutions for Daylight and electric Lighting”, Subtask D, Lab and field study performance tracking.

Mikel Duke

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Mikel Duke is a Professor of Membrane Science at the Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities at Victoria University. Prof. Duke has worked for 19 years in materials and applications research of membrane technology for sustainable foods processing, resource recovery and water/energy saving applications at the University of Queensland, Johnson Matthey Technology Centre (UK), Arizona State University (USA) and Fudan University (China). 

In 2007, Prof Duke received a Linkage International Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, and then in 2010 he received an Endeavour Executive Award and the Victoria University Vice Chancellors Peak Award for Excellence in Research and Research Training. In 2016 he received the Anthony Fane Award for his outstanding contributions in membrane science and technology from the Membrane Society of Australasia. Prof Duke has published 179 articles registered by Scopus, attracting 5,341 citations and h-index of 40. He is also a former panel member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts and currently co-editor of the international journal Desalination.

Prof Duke, is subtask C leader for Task 62; Solar Energy in Industrial Water Management.

Rebecca Yang

Rebecca is the leader of Solar Energy Application Lab (SEAL) at RMIT University. She is a building and construction scholar working in the subfield of distributed renewable energy. She is particularly known for her research on solar building envelope applications and solar mapping. Rebecca actively represents Australia as an Expert in the International Energy Agency (IEA) collaborative programs: She is the Australian lead in the Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (PVPS) Task 15 Enabling Framework for the Development of Building Integrated PV (BIPV) and the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC) Task 66 Solar Energy Buildings. She is also a member of the National Mirror Committee for International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) TC 82 Solar photovoltaic energy systems by Standards Australia, represents Australia to the development of an international standard on BIPV.  Linkedin

Alistair Sproul

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Dr Alistair Sproul is an Associate Professor within the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW. He has worked in the area of photovoltaic and energy efficiency research and R&D since 1985 in a range of positions with various companies (BP Solar, Pacific Solar) and research institutions (UNSW, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Freiburg, Germany). His current research interests are in the area of PV/energy systems for low energy buildings and highly efficient water/air systems.

Associate Professor Sproul is a Program Leader (Integrated Building Systems) with the “Low Carbon Living” Cooperative Research Centre and currently contributes to IEA Task 60: Application of PVT Collectors and New Solutions with PVT Systems.

Mark Snow

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Mark Snow has over 15 years expertise in Building integrated PV (BIPV) applications and building energy solutions and is co-author of the international publication “Designing with Solar Power”. He has worked on numerous International Energy Agency (IEA) task activities on solar energy and buildings as an Australian expert and is currently participating in Task 63 (Solar Neighbourhood Planning) and supports input to Task 15 (Enabling Framework for the Development of Building-Integrated PV).

Mark currently operates out of Canberra as a research consultant following over 10 years as a Research Fellow at the School of PV and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE) at UNSW.

Robert Taylor

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Prof. Robert A Taylor’s main research interest is in the development of ‘next generation’ solar and thermal energy systems. Drawing on the fields of heat transfer and nanotechnology, he is researching new/novel components, fluids, materials, and systems to increase the utilisation of solar energy in society. As such, his main goal is to provide a more efficient and more economic coupling between solar energy and useful thermal and/or electrical energy.

Dean Clift

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Dean Clift has over 10 years industry experience in solar water heating, with the past 5 years focusing on technical developments in PV water heating. Dean represents the Australian Clean Energy Council on the Australian and New Zealand solar heating standards committee CS028 and is a sub-task C leader for IEA SHC Task 69.Dean is undertaking a PhD at RMIT under the lead supervision of Prof. Gary Rosengarten, optimizing interdependent water heater designs and controls in renewable rich electrical networks to assist the voltage and frequency stability of electrical distribution networks.

Lu Aye

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Lu Aye is a Professor of Energy Engineering at the University of Melbourne. Prof. Aye has established aninternationally recognised research cluster, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Group in 2008 at the university. He has been the leader of the group since then. He has over 40 years of engineering experience in university teaching, research, development, demonstration and commercialisation of low-carbon technologies, including solar PV and solar thermal systems. His research areas include heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration systems, solar energy engineering, waste to resources, complex systems modelling, and life cycle environmental impact assessment. He has authored and co-authored over 300 peer reviewed scientific publications.

Lu is active in IEA SHC Task 65, Solar Cooling for the Sunbelt Regions, and co-leads Activity C2 (Database for technical and economic assessment)