Martin Bellamy – författare

What motivates companies to invest giant sums of money? What connects two billion people without dependable electricity with driverless vehicles, virtual reality tech, and the ‘Internet of Things’?Absolutely enormous commercial potential. Energy services in the developing world represent a $100 billion commercial market. So where are the proportionate investments?Though driven by ethical convictions, Selling Daylight is explicitly commercial. It is a dynamic business strategy for how to make money supplying dependable and versatile energy services to energy-poor countries and the wider world.At the heart of this is the justification that the user should be positioned at the centre of their energy services if we are to make a positive impact on global energy poverty. Stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems have been marginalized as an ‘alternative’ to grid electricity, when in fact their benefits represent a stronger proposition than the grid itself in many parts of the world. The focus must be on quality and value, not just selling hardware at the lowest cost.There are more applications of stand–alone PV than there are apps for smartphones. We now have a unique opportunity to do for energy services what mobile phones have done for communications. Everything that is described in this ground-breaking book can be implemented now, within existing energy-related expenditure, using widely accessible technology and easily acquired skills.Martin Bellamy specialises in developing world energy solutions. He provides product assessment, market insight and strategic business services to stand-alone energy organisations and the international investment sector. Martin is chartered as a physicist, engineer and scientist.

In 1944, Glasgow received one of the greatest gifts ever made to any city in the world: a collection of over 6,000 artworks of many types spanning centuries and civilisations. The benefactors were Glasgow-born shipping magnate Sir William Burrell and Constance, Lady Burrell.Burrell’s business success him to amass an extraordinary collection, which he housed in the family home at Hutton Castle in the Scottish borders. When he decided to leave the collection to the nation, he considered donating it to London-based galleries before deciding on Glasgow Corporation, together with the residue of his estate to provide a suitable building. It was many years before the right location was found, and The Burrell Collection finally opened in 1983.This new biography is based on recent research, full access to the Burrell archive and in-depth knowledge of the collection. Sir William was a complicated and private man who shunned publicity, adored his wife, but had a tumultuous relationship with his daughter. In politics Conservative, he campaigned for better housing conditions as long as this didn’t cause further expense to the taxpayer. The authors take a candid and considered view of who William Burrell the man was, what sparked his passion for collecting, and what his gift continues to mean to the city.