Bruce Khouri, age 49, co-founded Solar Integrated Technologies in 2001 and made a personal fortune of $5 million by cashing in shares in the company. Khouri saw a market for solar panels long before most other entrepreneurs saw it as a viable revenue source, in the 1990s. He realized the value of sun-baked rooftop real estate, and says that 50 years from now, he expects that every sunny rooftop will be covered in solar panels.

Of his path to fortune, Khouri told Reuters, “It hasn’t been easy but we transformed an old-world roofing material into a renewable energy technology. It’s a miracle Solar Integrated is still here but a pioneer charging across the prairie is bound to get hit by a few arrows.”

Tomorrow: #20- David Scaysbrook, Novera Energy