Paul A. Lynn

Paul A. Lynn obtained his BSc (Eng) and PhD degrees from Imperial College London. After several years in the electrical/electronics industry he lectured at Imperial College and the University of Bristol. In the 1980’s he became fascinated by renewable energy and in 1993 was asked by publishers John Wiley & Sons to start a new international journal “Progress in Photovoltaics”, which he edited for 15 years. In 2003 Paul designed and built a 6.2 metre solar-powered catamaran “Solar Flair I” in which he and his wife Ulrike made the first-ever solar voyage along the entire River Thames from Gloucestershire to London. His books include Electricity from Sunlight (2010) coauthored with Vasilis Fthenakis, Onshore and Offshore Wind Energy: an Introduction (2011), and Electricity from Wave and Tide: an Introduction (2013). Recently Paul has written two books on historic Scottish lighthouses built by the Stevenson family of engineers in the 19th century. Both are published by Whittles Publishing. The first, The Lighthouse on Skerryvore, tells the remarkable story of the iconic Skerryvore lighthouse set on a rock 12 miles off the Hebridean island of Tiree, and the brilliant engineer Alan Stevenson who designed and built it against stupendous odds. The second, Scottish Lighthouse Pioneers, investigates what it was like to be a lighthouse engineer in the 19th century, and uses the chain of 11 Stevenson lighthouses off the coasts of Orkney and Shetland to illustrate the extraordinary courage needed to operate in some of Europe’s most dangerous waters. The experiences of two of Scotland’s most famous authors, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, who accompanied the Stevenson engineers on annual inspections of the Scottish lights, add fascinating glimpses into social and economic conditions at the time.