Background

Professor Kosuke Kurokawa was born in Tokyo, 1942 and is currently Professor of Power Electronics, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Technology, TUAT since 1996. He received his Bachelor's Degree in 1965 and his Doctoral Degree of Engineering in 1993 both from Waseda University.

As a researcher at the Electrotechnical Laboratory

He joined the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL) ( AIST (Agency of Industrial Science and Technology at present), Ministry of International Trade and Industry (METI Ministry of economy, Trade and industry at present)and has been engaged in research on energy systems technology, mainly at ETL. His first work concerned high voltage DC transmission, in which he developed the prototype of the opto-electronically-triggered, high voltage thyristor valve for the Hokkaido-Honshu Submarine DC Intertie. Through this work, he was assigned as a Research Fellow at Polytechnic of Central London, UK for one year from December 1971. He also has 1 or 2 years working experiences in the Sunshine Project Promotion Headquarters, MITI and the New Energy Development Organization (NEDO) respectively. Since 1974 he has been doing research on solar energy as a part of the Sunshine Project.

One of his important work

One of his important works was a world first R&D proposal regarding the grid-connected concept of residential photovoltaic systems in 1977, using the idea in which a number of PV systems can co-operate with each other in their operation through a distribution grid. At that time, no one justified its necessity in other countries. Since that time, he has played an important role in the activated system technology field as a Senior Researcher and an opinion leader in the field. This concept has now become the main goal for Japanese PV R&D, and is so in many other countries.

As a professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

In TUAT he has been continuing his research efforts, including a PV system evaluation program, building integrated modules, power-electronics and storage, national and international standardization (JIS/IEC), areal evolution to urban communities and world desert regions aiming at mid-21st century.

As a leader in the Solar Energy Society

He was the General Vice-Chairperson of the 2nd World Conference and Exhibition on Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conversion, Vienna, 1998 and is to be the General Chairperson of the 3rd World Conference, 2003, and organized "World PV epoch in OSAKA".. He is the Operating Agent of IEA PVPS Task VIII "Very Large Scale PV Systems", a Board member of the Japan Solar Energy Society and Chairman for a number of technical committees.