Craig McGregor

Prof Craig McGregor is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stellenbosch University, where he holds the inaugural Acwa Chair in Concentrating Solar Power and leads the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Before joining academia in 2019, he spent over 20 years in industrial R&D at Sasol, leading teams that took chemical processes from the laboratory bench to full-scale commercial plants. He led two technologies to commercial construction, both entirely new to the chemical industry.

His research now focuses on how South Africa and other countries can build electricity systems that work reliably with high levels of renewable energy. This includes thermal energy storage, concentrating solar power, and technologies that store surplus electricity as heat and convert it back to power when needed.

Prof McGregor's unusual combination of two decades in industry and a second career in academic research gives him a practical perspective on energy research. He knows what it takes to move a technology from a promising idea to something that actually gets built.