Great Falls, Virginia, USA, — 247Solar today announced the addition of veteran solar researcher and engineer Manuel Blanco as Senior Applications Engineer. In his new role, Manuel will contribute immediately to the construction of 247Solar’s first commercial deployment in Rajasthan, India. He will also have a significant role developing new, larger versions of 247Solar’s modular 247Solar Plant, with the goal of increasing the capacity of a single module to 2MW and higher.
An expert in Solar Energy, Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Optics, and Modelling of Energy Systems, Blanco brings to 247Solar more than four decades of experience leading solar research and engineering teams all over the world.
Most recently, Blanco served as Senior Scientist at the Institute of Solar Research of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Senior Technical Advisor of Blue Solar Technologies. Previous positions in industry and academia include Vice-Chair of EU-SOLARIS ERIC – the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) in charge of coordinating and providing access to the main Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) research infrastructures of Europe; Former full professor and holder of the European Research Area (ERA) Chair in Solar Thermal Technologies for the Eastern Mediterranean at CYI; and former Chair and Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of SolarPACES, the Technology Collaboration Program of the International Energy Agency responsible for promoting the development and deployment of solar thermal power technologies and the solar-assisted manufacture of fuels and chemicals.
Earlier, Blanco served as Science Leader of the Solar Energy Systems Research Group of CSIRO (Australia’s National Research Agency); Director of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative (ASTRI) – a research program to increase the cost competitiveness of CST technologies, involving the participation of CSIRO, six Australian universities and three US Institutions (NREL, Sandia National Labs and Arizona State University); General Coordinator of Preparatory Phase of the EU-SOLARIS ERIC, an EC project whose goal was to carry out the preparatory activities needed to create EU-SOLARICS ERIC; Director of the Solar Thermal Energy Department of CENER -the National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain; Chair and Full Professor of the Engineering Department of the University of Texas at Brownsville; Director of the Plataforma Solar de Almería of CIEMAT – the largest European solar research infrastructure; and Principal Investigator of the EC SOLGAS and SIREC solar tower technology R&D projects, which paved the way towards PS10, the first commercial solar tower power plant.
Blanco holds Doctor of Engineering-Industrial Engineering and MS – Industrial Engineering degrees from the University of Seville, and PhD – Applied Physics and MS – Energy Engineering degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
He is the author of numerous scientific publications and has participated in a senior capacity in many national and international expert groups and committees.
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