Video: Technology toolbox yields custom solutions and success for solar company

Louay Eldada is Chief Science Officer and Vice President of Global R&D at SunEdison (Belmont, CA), a worldwide solar energy services provider and a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials. He received his PhD in electrical engineering from Columbia University in 1994, after receiving MS and BS degrees from Columbia in EE.

SunEdison installations aim to deliver long-term financial benefits to homeowners, businesses, power companies, and public sector institutions.The company has developed more than 500 MW of solar energy capacity at more than 550 sites worldwide. Its largest installation is a 70 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV) power plant near Rovigo, in northeast Italy. The plant was completed and interconnected in a nine-month time period, and commissioned in early 2011.

Eldada is a member of SPIE and has served as a chair for more than 20 conferences, including annual conferences on thin film solar technology, nanoengineering, and optoelectronic integrated circuits. He has presented more than 70 papers at SPIE symposia, and participated in panel discussions on photovoltaics.

He was interviewed for SPIE Newsroom at SPIE Optics + Photonics in August 2011.