Charles Gay

Dr Charles Gay will be speaking on "Advancing Today's PV Market through Crystalline Silicon Manufacturing Innovation". He is also the co-Founder of Greenstar, a company that delivers solar power to villages in the developing world. He is a PV industry veteran with over 35 years of experience in the solar industry. His expertise includes solar cell manufacturing and international business.

Dr Gay began his industrial career in 1975 designing solar power system components for communication satellites at Spectrolab, Inc. a subsidiary of Boeing. He joined ARCO Solar in 1978 where he established the research and development program, and was project leader for the commercialization of single crystal silicon wafer technology from laboratory to mass production. He served in various leadership positions ranging from Director of Research to President of the company.

In 1990 he became President and Chief Operating Officer of Siemens Solar Industries where he was responsible for increasing company sales into 110 countries and expanding the development of thin film solar technology to three continents. From 1994 to 1997, Dr Gay served as Director of the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL is the world's leading laboratory for energy efficiency and renewable energy research and technology. His responsibilities included management of an annual budget of more than US$235 million and 1,000 employees.

In 1998, he served as President and CEO of ASE Americas, the third-largest solar cell manufacturer in the US. He was responsible for commercializing silicon ribbon as a starting material in the manufacture of photovoltaic solar panels.

From 2001 to 2005, Dr Gay served as Chairman of the SunPower Advisory Board. He joined Applied Materials in 2006 as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Solar Business Group. He was named President, Applied Solar and Chairman of the Applied Solar Council in 2009. As President, he is responsible for positioning Applied Materials and its solar efforts with important stakeholders in the energy industry, technical community and particularly governments around the world. As Chairman of the Applied Solar Council, he leads a cross-company forum to assure cohesiveness on solar-related initiatives and strategy related to technology and market development.

Dr Gay has a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Riverside. He is holder of numerous patents for solar cell and module construction and winner of the Gold Medal for Achievement from the World Renewable Energy Congress.