Robert Foster is an international renewable energy expert with over 35 years experience in 45 countries. He has supported dozens of international RE development programs for DOE, USAID, World Bank, ADB, UNDP, NASA, NREL, NSF, USTDA, DFID, USDA, Sandia Labs, Winrock International, Relief International, Sheladia, SESI, GiZ, ADB, DFID, as well as several national governments.
Robert provides expert technical analysis including site assessments, loads assessments, feasibility studies, market studies, system sizing and design, project implementation. He has managed many multi-million dollar clean energy development projects. He conducts technical education and capacity building.
Robert is an innovator and helped pioneer the solar home system (SHS) concept in the Dominican Republic in the mid-1980’s while he was a Peace Corps volunteer working with Enersol. He conducted research on PV-wind-diesel mini-grids in the 1990’s in Latin America for Sandia and NREL. He helped pioneer direct drive solar chilling with industry and piloted the world’s first PV ice-maker in Mexico, and later with direct drive solar chillers in Mexico, Guatemala, Kenya and Uganda for smallholder farmers with USAID, USDA, and IFAD. He co-founded SolAqua in 1999, and has 8 patents on solar water purification technologies.
Robert was the lead technical solar advisor for the World Bank rural electrification programs in Nicaragua (PERZA) and Honduras (PIR) during the 2000’s developing technical standards, system monitoring, and conducting capacity building activities for technician certification for World Bank. He later worked in Afghanistan from 2008-12 as the Chief Engineer for the USAID Afghanistan Clean Energy Program, where he was responsible for the implementation of over 1,500 PV and hydropower systems for a wide variety of applications including mini-grids. He was the commissioning engineer for the 1 MW PV-diesel mini-grid for the town of Bamiyan with Sustainable Energy Services International (SESI) for the Government of New Zealand in 2013-14. This system includes both on and off-grid inverters, charge controllers, battery bank with automated watering, and a widespread electric grid serving 25,000 residents. He established the Kabul University Renewable Energy Laboratory in 2010, developing a RE energy curriculum that includes micro-grids and performance testing that is still in use.
Robert retired in 2014 after 25 years of meritorious service from the NMSU College of Engineering, where he supported the DOE National Photovoltaics Program through the Southwest Region Solar Experiment Station, one of the original three DOE national PV research stations established in 1981. He led DOE international activities with a focus on Latin America. Robert was the Technical Manager for the DOE/USAID Mexico Renewable Energy Program managed by Sandia National Labs (SNL) from 1992-2005, where he conducted capacity building for Mexican engineers and communities, wrote technical specifications, and led implementation of over 5,000 solar and wind projects including mini-grids. He also led Sandia solar activities in Central America. He was the DOE Solar America Initiative Tiger Team Lead for Texas from 2006-08.
He was a Senior Program Officer for the Winrock International Clean Energy Group from 2014-19 supporting programs in Colombia, Georgia, Guinea, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. He was technical advisor to Winrock for SUNREF (Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance) in Nigeria (2019-23). He advised Relief International on solarizing its' refugee camps in the Middle East. He served as Team Leader for the Uganda Productive Use of Energy (PUE) USDA project with Green Powered Technologies (2022).
Robert is an ASES Fellow and the immediate past Chair of ASES. He is also the former Chair of the Texas Solar Energy Society and past President of the El Paso Solar Energy Association. He has conducted hundreds of RE trainings and technology courses in over three dozen countries for >10,000 engineers, technicians, and financiers. He is an assistant professor teaching solar and wind energy at NMSU College of Engineering.
Robert is the Team Leader with Sheladia Associates for implementing the Solar Photovoltaic Pumping for Agricultural Irrigation Project under the Asian Development Bank Power System Efficiency Improvement Project with the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (2019-24). He is also currently supporting USTDA PV mini-grid implementation in Nigeria with SESI, as well as a 330 MW utility scale solar project in Mexico with Partnership International for USTDA.
Robert holds a B. S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a MBA from NMSU. He has co-authored 4 books, published over 150 papers/articles, and written over 100 RE technical reports on renewable energy technologies and projects. He is working on a Solar Water Pumping book currently for CRC Press.
Robert is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and also speaks basic Dari/Farsi (Persian).