Speakers

Robert Freling is executive director of the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a Washington-based nonprofit organization that delivers solar solutions to rural villages. It has pioneered the use of solar power for a wide range of applications, including household lighting, water pumping, school electrification, drip irrigation, and wireless Internet access. SELF has completed projects in 18 countries, making it a leading nongovernmental provider of cost-effective renewable energy alternatives for the developing world. Freling first collaborated with SELF as a Chinese translator and interpreter, coordinating a solar electrification project in China’s rural Gansu Province and was subsequently appointed director of the fund’s international programs. In that role, he facilitated negotiations between the US Department of Energy and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture to expand the Gansu project.