Philip Rowland Wolfe

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

is one of the pioneers of the British renewable energy sector. He first became involved in the 1970s, leading various photovoltaics companies until the turn of the century. As Director-General of the

Renewable Energy Association The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology, previously known as Renewable Energy Association (REA), is a renewable energy and clean technology trade association in the UK encompassing all of renewables industry in the United K ...

he led the campaign for

Feed-in Tariffs A feed-in tariff (FIT, FiT, standard offer contract,Couture, T., Cory, K., Kreycik, C., Williams, E., (2010)Policymaker's Guide to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy advanced renewable tariff, ...

and the

Renewable Heat Incentive The Renewable Heat Incentive (the RHI) is a payment system in England, Scotland and Wales, for the generation of heat from renewable energy sources. Introduced on 28 November 2011, the RHI replaces the Low Carbon Building Programme, which closed in ...

. He has written many publications and is responsible for a number of innovations and initiatives. He was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2016 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2016 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to renewable energy and the energy sector.

Sustainable energy policy

The campaign for the introduction of the

and

Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom A feed-in tariff is when payments are given by energy suppliers if a property or organisation generates their own electricity using technology such as solar panels or wind turbines and feeds any surplus back to the grid. In the United Kingdom, t ...

was led by

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...

and the

, when Philip Wolfe was Director General, between 2003 and 2009. He edited the first blueprint for these measures to assist early government drafting. He first proposed the

Energy hierarchy The Energy Hierarchy is a classification of energy options, prioritised to assist progress towards a more sustainable energy system. It is a similar approach to the waste hierarchy for minimising resource depletion, and adopts a parallel sequenc ...

, and initiated the consumer assurance REAL Code (since renamed Renewable Energy Consumer Code) for microgeneration.

Renewable energy industry

As general manager of Lucas Industries' solar power subsidiary in the early 1970s, Philip Wolfe negotiated the joint venture with BP to create what became

BP Solar BP Solar was a manufacturer and installer of photovoltaic solar cells headquartered in Madrid, Spain, with production facilities in Frederick, MD, India and the People's Republic of China. It was a subsidiary of BP. History In 1981, BP acquire ...

and was its first Chief Executive. He was a founding director of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA, since renamed Solar Power Europe) and its third President from 1987 to 1989. He was a founding director of the

and its Director General from 2002 to 2009. He is an expert on solar parks and has pioneered their introduction in the UK. Following the publication of his book on the subject, he founded the information resource on utility-scale solar power, Wiki-Solar. A series of articles in 2019 explained the differences between individual power plants, solar parks and clusters, and identified the largest in the world at the time.

Community Energy

His background in utility-scale solar power led to Wolfe's involvement in the community sector when he was appointed as chairman of

Westmill Solar Co-operative Westmill Solar Co-operative is the industrial and provident society that owns the Westmill Solar Park in Oxfordshire, England, believed to be the largest community-owned photovoltaic power station in the world. Project The project was originally ...

and led the public offering and acquisition of the world's largest community-owned solar power station. He was subsequently involved in the creation of Community Energy England, to represent the community energy sector in the United Kingdom, and was its first elected chairman in 2014. He was a member of the British government's Shared Ownership Taskforce, and appointed its vice-chair in 2015.

Innovation

Amongst Philip Wolfe's innovations were the UK's first: grid-connected solar power station at Marchwood, building-integrated renewables at Energy World in Milton Keynes (opened by then Prime Minister,

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

), and solar roofing slate.

Publications

Books

The Solar Generation ''The Solar Generation: Childhood and Adolescence of Terrestrial Photovoltaics'' is a 2018 book by Philip R Wolfe published by John Wiley & Sons and the IEEE. It describes the early years of the solar power sector, covering in particular the years ...

Wiley-IEEE
ref> Solar Photovoltaic Projects in the mainstream energy market
Routledge
Sustainable Energy Options for business

Policy papers

Energy hierarchy Priorities for low carbon transition
The Policy Network
Preliminary blueprint: Feed-in Tariffs and Renewable Heat Incentive
Renewable Energy Association

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Philip Renewable energy policy Renewable energy certification Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Members of the Order of the British Empire Renewable energy commercialization 1950 births Living people