Richard Blieden Ph.D
At LUMA, Dr. Blieden is the Senior Business Development Advisor.
Dr. Blieden, formerly the director of government and international sales at United Solar Ovonic, has been a pioneer in the development of alternative energy technologies for over 30 years. He organized and directed the first USA National Program for Terrestrial Applications of Photovoltaic Technology at the National Science Foundation, and he directed the Office of Solar Electric Applications at the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration. Dr. Blieden is an authority on solar electric applications worldwide and has been recognized for his leadership in the field. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Solar Energy Industries Association (USA) as Vice Chairman of the Photovoltaic Division.
He also has extensive experience in developing, managing and directing sales, marketing and manufacturing operations in industry. For example, at United Solar and at ECD, he was responsible for establishing sales of United Solar Photovoltaic (PV) products and systems worldwide. He has promoted and managed innovative applications of PV, such as the world’s first 500kW triple junction solar system for pumping petroleum in Kern County, California.
Prior to working at United Solar, Dr. Blieden was Vice President of ARCO Solar, Inc. and was responsible for strategic planning for solar electric technologies at the Atlantic Richfield Company where he identified Energy Conversion Device’s amorphous silicon technology as the most promising direction for commercial success.
Dr. Blieden’s earlier academic career was focused on energy research and development in elementary particles and nuclear reactions at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark and the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. He received a Ph.D. in physics from Florida State University, a M.S. in physics from University of Washington- Seattle and a B.S. in physics from MIT. Dr. Blieden has been a recipient of several awards for his work. Awards and recognitions since 2000 include:
- Millennium Award in 2000 for the Solar Lights for Africa project
- IHEC 2005 (International Hydrogen Energy Conference) Award for Invited Speaker (Istanbul Turkey) in 2005
- Described in “Apollo’s Fire – Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy” by Jay Inslee, U.S. Congressman, and Bracken Hendricks (2008), pp 67-69
Dr. Blieden is a member of the board of Michigan Green, a non profit group organized to promote renewable energy. |
