Janet Wolff & Alvin Eshe

Courses: Solar Technology Program

Janet and Alvin live in Sacramento and have the first house to get solar electricity from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). In 1995 SMUD installed a four kilowatt photovoltaic system on their house in Sacramento. Since then, SMUD has installed more than 420 mini-solar power plants on customer's homes. Janet and Alvin have had their system for 3 1/2 years, and it has produced more energy than they have consumed in the five years they have lived in the house. This is due to their passive solar, energy efficient construction and their energy conscious lifestyle. "Even in the hottest months, our backup system rarely kicks on," Janet says.

Kurt Johnson

Courses: PV Design & Installation, 1999; RE for the Developing World, 1999; Advanced Photovoltaics, 1999; Natural House Building, 1999; Wind Power, 1999; Solar Home Design, 1999; Micro-Hydro Power, 1999; Successful Solar Businesses, 1999

After a full summer with SEI, Kurt started his own renewable energy business in western North Carolina called The Solar Guys. Kurt provided a full line of quality products and services for residential and commercial applications from energy independence, back up power or just an additional power source. Some of their services range from engineering and design to education.

After leaving The Solar Guys in 2001 to work for AstroPower in CA, Kurt started and developed their new home construction program. He also helped develop their roof integrated product.  In 2004 he moved over to PowerLight Corporation in Berkeley and once again helped develop a roof integrated product and start up their new home construction program

Aaron Wellendorf

Courses: PV Design & Installation, 1997; Advanced Photovoltaics, 1997; Micro-Hydro Power, 1997; Wind Power, 1997; Solar Home Design, 1997; Solar Cooking, 1997

Aaron is currently working for Light Energy Systems in Concord, California. He has worked on many large grid-tied systems, the latest one being 2.3 kW. Aaron loves his job. In his latest letter to SEI, he says, "I am consistently applying the knowledge and experience that I gained from your classes. The training you provided is invaluable in my daily work. Thank you for helping me open the door to a solar career."

Debby Tewa

Courses: PV Design & Installation, 1990; Advanced Photovoltaics, 1997

Debby is now the program director of the Hopi Solar Electric Enterprise (Native Sun), a project of the Hopi Foundation. Native Sun helps make solar electricity accessible to people on the Hopi Reservation and the neighboring Navajo Reservation. Debby and her colleagues at Native Sun have installed over 320 PV systems. they also provide education. Besides educating the users and owners of the systems she installs, Debby travels around to schools and summer camps teaching Hopi children and teenagers about solar energy. Debby has also traveled to Ecuador to help install photovoltaic systems in an indigenous community in the Andes. Debby says that her most satisfying work is helping people become more self-sufficient, which in turn makes their lives better.

Ezequiel Lopez Apodaca

Courses: PV Design & Installation, 1995; Solar Cooking, 1995

Ezequiel came from Sonora, Mexico to attend SEI's workshops. He worked for the Save the Children Foundation in Sonora for years, promoting renewables in the rural communities. He now works for the City Hall in Yecora, Sonora, promoting the use of solar energy in the county. So far has has helped install 592 PV home systems and four PV systems for public plazas in 18 rural towns.

Freda Field

Courses: Solar Cooking, 1996

Freda has been working in Haiti teaching people how to make solar cookers. She mostly works with younger people. One of her most memorable experiences was teaching girls in an orphanage about solar cooking. The girls were amazed at how well the ovens worked after eating the cookies they baked in their solar ovens.

Freda also works with a group called Servants in Faith and Technology. She raises money to bring people from Haiti to Alabama where the group teaches them skills to take back home and teach others. they learn things such as how to have a successful small business, community organizing, agribusiness and how to purify water. Freda has reached many people through her solar cooking training. Yet she says, "my efforts are small, but I think you have to start small."

Louie Saletan

Courses: PV Design & Installation, 1994; Solar Home Design, 1994; Advanced Photovoltaics, 1994; Solar Cooking, 1994; Wind Power, 1994; Strawbale Construction, 1994; Micro-Hydro Power, 1994

Louie, along with SEI associate Ken Williams, conducted a straw-bale workshop in the former Soviet Union. The workshop participants built the first ever straw-bale structure in Belarus. The structure took seven days to build with a geographically diverse crew of 14 participants from Crimea, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Karkalpakstan. Louie also worked with a Russian organization in Minsk to publish a Russian translation of Build it with Bales by Matts Myhrman and Steve McDonald.

Donna Fischer

Courses: PV Design & Installation, 1991; Solar Cooking, 1993; Advanced Photovoltaics, 1991; Solar Home Design, 1993; Micro-Hydro Power, 1991; Wind Power, 1997

Donna has her own PV dealership in New Mexico called Amazon Power. Since she began her business in 1993 she became a licensed electrician in Colorado and New Mexico, and has installed over 100 PV systems, and two wind turbines. For Donna, the most important part of her work has been her personal growth. Moving from no technical knowledge of electricity to learning the skills and being able to apply them to help people has been very satisfying. She can see that bringing electricity to isolated people makes a big difference in their lives.

Karen Wolfer

Courses: Solar Home Design, 1993; Advanced Passive Design, 1993; Solar Water Pumping, 1993; PV Design & Installation, 1994; Advanced Photovoltaics, 1994

Karen Wolfer built her own energy efficient home and powers it with solar energy. Thanks to the classes at SEI, she has built a thriving business over the past nine years. "Daystar Solar Energy" serves the Guffey, CO area in southern Park County and also covers Teller and Fremont counties. She has worked on hundreds of PV systems of all sizes and has recently expanded her business to include the art of wind generator installations. She is a guest speaker at various workshops and is also involved in teaching renewable energy.

Oliver Strube

Courses: Micro-Hydro Power, 1995; PV for Parks, 1997; Advanced Photovoltaics, 1997; Wind Power, 1997; Solar Cooking, 1997

Oliver is a computer wizard who designed SEI's web-page. He also helped build the Straw-bale Waldorf school outside of Carbondale, Colorado. The 5000 square foot school is the largest straw-bale building in the United States. After the SEI workshops, Oliver moved to Hancock, New Hampshire and started his own renewable energy educational website that can be seen at www.solaraccess.com.

Marlene Brown

Courses: Solar Technology Program

Marlene has worked on different international projects with the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF). She was the project manager for SELF's Vietnam Project. She spent four months in Vietnam training technicians and users, and installing PV systems for rural electrification with the Vietnam Women's Union. She also spent two weeks doing a rural electrification project in the Solomon Islands. Marlene finds her international work so satisfying because "you can actually see it changing people's lives." Currently Marlene works for Sandia National Laboratory in the PV research lab. Although very different from actually being in the field and installing systems, she thoroughly enjoys her research. She is on the cutting edge of new technology for the PV industry.

Ben Root

Courses: PV Design & Installation, 1995; Advanced Photovoltaics, 1995; Wind Power, 1995; Micro-Hydro, 1995

Ben came to SEI with a background in computer graphics. A month after attending the SEI workshops, he began working with Home Power Magazine as their main graphics guy. He does the article layouts, wiring and other technical diagrams, and ad layouts. Ben says he loves his job at Home Power because "I get to do graphic design where the content is something I care about."

Cari Spring

Courses: Women's PV Design & Installation, Tucson, 1999

Cari took the women's PV workshop in Tucson in 1999. In January she co-founded the non-profit organization Emerald Resource Solutions. Emerald Resource Solutions is focused on helping to implement more solar through education and installs. You can find out more about them from their web page, www.emeraldrs.org. Continuing her work with Women for Sustainable Technology (WST), Cari will be speaking at their conference in Tucson, AZ on October 7, 2000. Cari has also installed many PV systems and is currently finishing the wiring on her own house for which she is the designer, builder, and project manager for the house construction and electricity. The electric system is off grid solar/wind hybrid with both 12vdc and 110vac circuits.

Jaya Pichumani

Courses: Women's PV Design & Installation, 1998

Jaya took the first women's PV Design and Installation workshop in Tucson in 1998. She has since begun working as an Engineering Manager for the Advanced Energy department of Conservation Services Group (CSG), formerly Planergy. At CSG Jaya participated in one of the largest solar schools programs called "Watts On Schools" which involved installing 19PV systems on K-12 schools throughout Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. In addition to integrating the grid-tied 4 kW systems into the school's electrical distribution system, she also assisted in developing an educational program for students to learn more about solar energy and their PV system.

Miguel Silva

Courses: various

SEI grad Miguel Silva is an Engineer in Electronic Technology who has been working in the solar business since 1993. He is an installer and consultant. He was trained at Photocomm and at SEI's REEP Program in 1994. He has work experience with the Pan-American Health Organization, as a consultant to the UNICEF Expanded Program of Immunization for the Cold Chain. He has worked in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras. Miguel has also worked in the Venezuelan Amazona, the home region of the Yanomamis Indians.

He has been an authorized Kyocera Solar Dealer in Venezuela since June 1993. He's now working as a Consultant for the Venezuela Ministry of Energy and Mines. He is doing feasibility studies in order to promote the electrification of rural communities with renewable technologies. These pictures show one of his jobs sites. It was installed in 1995, to power a Scientific Station, on a isolated island called Dos Mosquises. The systems were designed to power the guest house, director house, kitchen, laboratory, conference room, workshop, public bathrooms and a turtle growing center!

Now, Miguel is searching for a job opportunity here in the US. The acceptance of renewable energy technologies in Venezuela has been very slow, despite the overwhelming use of conventional energy sources, particularly subsidized bottled gas, fuels and electricity.

For further information please contact Miguel at adnmsilva@cantv.net.