Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki is currently professor in Department of Energy Science and Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), India. He is an expert crystalline Si technology, Si-nanostructures (including quantum dots), thin film Si solar cells, PV concentrator systems and carbon nanotubes. He received his Ph.D. degree from the specialist silicon laboratory, IMEC (Inter-university Micro-electronics Center, Ketholik University, Leuven, Belgium).

He won an EMRS (European Material Research Society) young scientist award in 2003 and IIT Bombay Young Investigator Award in 2009. He has also been awarded at several international conferences for research papers. He has authored several books in the area of renewable energy, one of them is on solar PV which is titled as Solar Photovoltaics: Fundamentals, Technologies and Applications (ISBN: 978-81-203-3760-2). One other book in renewable energy area is titled as Renewable Energy Technologies: a practical guide for beginners (ISBN:978-81-203-3434-2). This book is also translated in Hindi. The Hindi book recently got the first prize from Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India. Recently published book is titled as Solar Photovoltaic: A manual for technicians, trainers and engineers, is being translated in 5 regional languages. He has filed 9 Indian patents, 2 US patents and holds three US patents (patent no. 6649485, patent no. 964732, patent no. 7022585) and filled 4 Indian patent applications. He has published over 50 research papers in international journals and conferences on solar photovoltaic.

He has worked on several sponsored projects by government as well as companies. The projects are focused on crystalline Si solar cells both wafer based as well as thin film nano materials based. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sponsored a project titled as National Center for Photovoltaic Research and Education (NCPRE) of worth 47.5 Cr, where he is one of the Principle Investigators. Currently he is working on projects sponsored by Applied Materials, MCIT, MNRE.

He has given short term courses on solar PV technologies for companies like Applied Materials, Mahagenco, TataBP Solar and BEL. Dr. Solanki acted as principal consultant for TUV Sud for 125 MW PV power plant of Mahagenco, which is currently Indias largest PV power plant. He has also provided consultancy on solar PV to several organizations. Dr. Solanki is member of green committee of IIT Bombay and initiated to a project to install 1 MW of solar PV plant at IIT Bombay.

He is in the five member national committee on Special Incentive Package Scheme (SIPS) of DIT, Govt. of India for technical evaluation of solar PV projects. Dr. Solanki is member of Review Committee of Technology and Products for Solar Energy Utilization through Networking (TAPSUN), a project of CSIR labs where more than 150 scientists are involved.

In order to ensure that solar light is reaching to each and every student a project names 1 Million Solar Urja Lamp (SOUL) has been initiated where Dr. Solanki is PI of project (www.millionsoul.iitb.ac.in). The project intends to provide solar lamps to 1 Million students through localization of solar energy.

Dr. Solanki has recently incubated a solar company names kWatt Solutions Pvt at IIT Bombay incubation center, Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The company focuses on economizing renewable to make it affordable.

At social front as well Dr. Solanki has taken several initiatives. He is founder member and Chairman of Education Park (Is An Effort for Providing High Quality, Affordable Education & Training in Rural India. For more detail click on www.edupark.org). The Education Park is based on sustainable principles, its infrastructure is design as per solar passive architecture and the premises completely run on solar PV e only. He also founded New Energy Foundation (www.nenf.org) which is focusing on promoting renewable energy in rural India. During his doctoral study he has founded ROSE (Rose an Organization for Supporting Education). The ROSE is registered in Belgium and working for the cause of education in rural India.