Jeremy Leggett
46, British environmentalist
Can you save the world from global warming and make money in the process? Jeremy Leggett thinks so, and that's the aim behind his company, Solar Century. Backed by Swiss industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny, Solar Century develops, designs and markets solar power systems. "We expect that in the future the roofs and sides of buildings will be made of photo-voltaic material that turns them into power stations," says Leggett. A university scientist and consultant for the oil industry through the 1980s, Leggett grew so concerned at the accumulating evidence of global warming that he jumped the fossil fuel ship in 1990 to help direct Greenpeace's climate campaign. Recognized as one of the key players in putting the climate issue on the world agenda, Leggett believes solar power will be to the 21st century what the microchip was to the 20th. He convinced many a British skeptic by roofing his terraced west London home with solar tiles; despite consistently gray skies, the solar cells produced more electricity than he could use and he exported the surplus to the national grid.
— By Helen Gibson/London
PHOTO: SARAH TURTON FOR TIME
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