2002-2003 MAP/Ming Visiting Professor

Dr. Joel Swisher has more than 20 years experience in clean energy technology. He is an internationally recognized expert in the analysis, design and evaluation of building-energy systems, utility energy efficiency, distributed generation and emission reduction programs, and the development and finance of carbon offset projects. 

Most recently, Dr. Swisher has been working in private consulting practice, serving the electric utility industry, multilateral financial institutions and private corporations. He has helped develop carbon-offset projects using renewable energy and energy efficiency technology, and he has written baseline studies and monitoring plans for offset buyers such as the World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund. Dr. Swisher has evaluated electric power markets for Brazilian utilities, numerous energy-efficiency programs for utilities in North America, greenhouse-gas trading programs for European governments, and carbon emission reduction options for several multilateral banks. One technical specialty is using area-specific utility cost analysis to identify cost-effective opportunities for distributed power generation and targeted load management. This work also involves analyzing institutional and financial barriers to implementing energy efficiency projects, as well as designing incentive programs to overcome these barriers. These methods have been applied to energy-efficiency technologies, co-generation, solar photovoltaics and fuel cells in markets as diverse as California, Ontario, South Africa, Brazil and the Philippines.

Dr. Swisher is a Registered Professional Engineer and earned three degrees from Stanford: a BS '78 in Civil Engineering, MS '80 in Mechanical Engineering, and PhD '91 in Energy and Environmental Engineering.  His PhD dissertation introduced several key concepts in the technical analysis of carbon offsets, based on fieldwork in Central America evaluating energy, conservation and reforestation options. He is author of over 100 professional publications, including several energy-efficiency handbooks, which he prepared for the Electric Power Research Institute. Also, Dr. Swisher is co-author of a bilingual (English and Portuguese) textbook on energy efficiency program design and evaluation and integrated energy resource planning.

Stanford Courses Taught
In 2003 Dr. Swisher offered a lecture series on Sustainable Energy and Greenhouse Gas Management.  The series addressed both technical options for clean energy and GHG mitigation, as well as implementation mechanisms including policy options, carbon trading and business strategies. He also offered a course on greenhouse-gas mitigation strategies, continuing the earlier lecture series and adding a project-oriented element.