astronomy

Tom Dinwoodie

Tom Dinwoodie is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tom Dinwoodie rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas Linn Dinwoodie (born November 15, 1954) is a cleantech entrepreneur, inventor, and founder of SunPower Corporation Systems (formerly PowerLight Corporation). He holds a long-standing interest in accelerating the transition to clean energy and other climate-sustaining practices.

Key takeaways

Tom Dinwoodie belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tom Dinwoodie to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tom Dinwoodie from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thomas Linn Dinwoodie (born November 15, 1954) is a cleantech entrepreneur, inventor, and founder of SunPower Corporation Systems (formerly PowerLight Corporation). He holds a long-standing interest in accelerating the transition to clean energy and other climate-sustaining practices. Dinwoodie is also an architect.

Early Life From 1978 to 1983, Dinwoodie was a research assistant at the MIT Energy Laboratory, where he authored numerous papers on the economics and policy of distributed solar and wind generation, as well as flywheel energy storage. In 1981, Dinwoodie was awarded a contract from the U.S. DOE for development of an ultra-low-cost, polymer solar thermal collector. He was the founder, president, and CEO of TDEnergy, a wind power developer in the U.S. Northeast, from 1982 to 1988. TDEnergy constructed one of the earliest New England wind power facilities in Canaan, NH. Dinwoodie then founded PowerLight Corporation in 1994, and served as its CEO and chairman of the board from 1995 to 2007. PowerLight was a global manufacturer, supplier, and systems integrator of solar products and services for the residential, commercial, and utility sectors. In 2004, PowerLight was inducted into the INC 500 Hall of Fame . PowerLight merged with SunPower Corporation in 2007, where Dinwoodie served as CEO and later CTO for the subsidiary, SunPower Corporation, Systems. SunPower produces high-efficiency solar cells and modules. Dinwoodie holds over 30 patents on PV-related products.

Education Dinwoodie holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University, an MS from the department of mechanical engineering from MIT, and an MArch in architecture from the University of California at Berkeley.

Career Dinwoodie is executive producer of Time to Choose, a film by Charles Ferguson that seeks to raise awareness of the causes of, and solutions to, climate change. The film released in June, 2016. Dinwoodie is or has been an advisor to, board member, seed investor or founder of a range of clean-tech startups, spanning wind and solar technologies, electric transportation, off-grid micropower, financial services, and clean utilities. These companies include AllPower Labs, Ethical Electric, Etrion Corporation, Fenix Int’l, Keystone Tower Systems, Mosaic, MyDomino, NEW GmbH, Nextpower, PowerLight, SCOOT, Sistine Solar, Sungevity, SunPower Systems, Solar Grid Storage, and TDEnergy. Dinwoodie serves as lead independent trustee of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit think-and-do tank focused on solutions for the transition to a clean energy economy. He also serves on the Sierra Club's Climate Cabinet and Scientific Advisory Panel, the MIT Mechanical Engineering Visiting Committee, and the advisory board to The Solutions Project, and is an advisor to the MIT Energy Club.

References

External links Timetochoose.com

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tom Dinwoodie

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tom Dinwoodie claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tom Dinwoodie before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tom Dinwoodie ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tom Dinwoodie

In research: Tom Dinwoodie appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tom Dinwoodie in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tom Dinwoodie is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1954 births, 21st-century American businesspeople, American chief executives, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tom Dinwoodie outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tom Dinwoodie in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tom Dinwoodie means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tom Dinwoodie out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tom Dinwoodie in simple terms?

Why does Tom Dinwoodie matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tom Dinwoodie?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tom Dinwoodie.