The 1st Southern African Solar Energy Conference (SASEC 2012) will be held from the 21st to the 23rd of May 2012 at the Protea Hotel in the Technopark, Stellenbosch. This conference will focus on both Solar Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal Energy technology systems and applications. The conference will provide the opportunity for researchers, engineers, technologists and individuals to share and discuss recent developments in the field. The Conference will focus on research and development projects and results completed by universities and other institutions over the last five years. Engineers, researchers and scientists are encouraged to share their research results and knowledge at the conference.

The conference will start on the Monday morning with a plenary session and after lunch it will split into the two tracks of PV and Thermal. Tuesday will follow a similar programme with a Conference Dinner the evening on a nearby wine farm. The conference will end lunchtime on the Wednesday. Special arrangements have been made to accommodate postgraduate students sharing accommodation in the hotel.

Sixty technical abstracts have been accepted for the conference to date and the authors are now in the process of writing the full papers. In addition two prominent keynote speakers have been confirmed to deliver addresses at the conference:

Dr Christoph Richter
(Executive Secretary SolarPACES)
Project Manager Solar Research, Plataforma Solar de Almeria
Institute of Solar Research
DLR – German Aerospace Centre
Germany

Prof Jürgen Werner
Director of the Institute for Photovoltaics
Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
Stuttgart University
Germany