Solarplaza Summit | Asset Management North America

Ms. Bybee has worked in the solar industry since 2003, first promoting renewable energy policy in Austin, TX while at Public Citizen, and then at Meridian Energy Systems, before finding her home at Namasté Solar. Ms. Bybee joined Namasté Solar in January 2006 as an early member of the team and held numerous roles over her 11 years, from technical sales & design to business development. While there, she worked to obtain a federal charter for a unique financial institution that funds clean energy products and services: Clean Energy Credit Union (www.cleanenergycu.org). This was only the 17th federal charter issued since 2010, and the first in the state of Colorado for over 30 years. She continues to serve as a volunteer on the Supervisory Committee of the credit union. Additionally, in 2016, she helped earn an award from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative to found the Amicus O&M Cooperative (www.AmicusOM.com). The O&M Cooperative brings together a network of providers across the country to provide coordinated services for geographically distributed portfolios. She now serves as its CEO, and is committed to the mission “to ensure that solar PV fulfills its promise as a responsible and reliable energy source, for generations to come.” She obtained a BA in English and French from the University of Texas at Austin, and through solar, has found her “inner engineer.”

Benoit Allehaut is a Managing Director and co-leads energy transition investments in the KKR Infrastructure team. Prior to joining KKR in early 2021 he worked 8 years at Capital Dynamics where he helped build one of the largest solar and energy storage platforms in North America. He has over 20 years of renewable energy experience, spanning across Europe and North America with roles in equity and tax equity financing, project development and equipment sales. His career for large and small companies alike such as General Electric, First Solar, Compact Power, EDF EN and Enron helped him see the industry mature from fringe to mainstream. He holds an undergraduate degree from ESCE in France and an MBA from Cambridge University in the UK. He has two daughters in College, two electric bikes and lives in New York City.

Leigh is a 12 year veteran of the solar industry focusing on the technical operation and asset management of solar power portfolios. He currently directs the operations and asset management division of 8minutenergy Renewables LLC. He was previously director of products at meteocontrol and overseeing their line of monitoring metering systems, O&M service plans, quality test processes, and performance analysis for developing and existing PV assets. He currently volunteers for the education committee for Solar Power international, as well as a working group member for several international quality and performance standards committees with DOE and IEC.

Sarath Srinivasan is the Head of Risk Transfer Products at kWh Analytics. With over 15 years of experience, Sarath has spent the last 8 years in energy finance focused on renewable energy with extensive experience across asset acquisitions, capital markets and project finance, closing over $500 million in transactions. Prior to joining kWh Analytics, Sarath managed the solar business unit at Gardner Capital, where he was instrumental in driving strategy, building the team and in raising development capital, tax equity and debt. Before joining Gardner Capital, Sarath worked on the project finance team at SunEdison focused on C&I solar project finance and on the Power and Utilities investment banking team at Barclays.Sarath received a B. Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management. He is from Chennai, India.

Etienne Lecompte is a recognized leader and entrepreneur in renewable energy, software development, and regulatory compliance. After founding and building Local Content Assurance Bureau (LCAB) into one of the most respected renewable energy compliance consultancy firms in Ontario, Canada, he started PowerHub. PowerHub is redefining asset management for the renewable energy industry. His vision is that managing portfolios of assets should be easy. Etienne has worked on over 8 GW of wind and solar projects in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and is continuing to actively participate in the growth of the renewable energy sector.

Nick is responsible for managing all aspects of the company’s operating portfolio, as well as technology decisions for new projects. Nick has more than 20 years of diverse renewable energy, semiconductor, and military experience that inform his current work, including executive positions at SolarCity, Phoenix Solar, and Applied Materials.Nick’s renewable energy industry expertise spans module and cell manufacturing, photovoltaic project design and operation, auxiliary grid services, as well as the prediction and demonstration of the energy harvest of novel PV technologies. He has also worked on manufacturing amorphous silicon modules, and on process machine control of cell splitting and cascading cell bonding processes with heterojunction crystalline cells. Silicon Ranch owns—and Nick now operates—projects that he himself designed nearly a decade ago, including the first transmission interconnected PV plant in the Southeast. Nick holds patents in both PV module manufacturing and design.While at Applied Materials, he advanced the use of statistical process control to enhance the reliability of production equipment. He has led the commissioning of process equipment at Intel semiconductor factories in both the U.S. and Europe, and entire solar cell factories in India, Germany, Spain, and China.Nick served his country on active duty as an Infantry Captain in the United States Army, with tours in Kuwait and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University.Nick is a regular speaker at industry events and has authored several articles. His current passions are the use of predictive analytics to improve performance of solar power plants and the integration of solar farms with regenerative agriculture practices—mostly with sheep and cattle.

Tara Narayanan leads BloombergNEF's U.S. Solar coverage, and writes research based on market trends, prices, and company strategy in the space. Her work includes market sizing and capacity forecasts, collocated solar and storage, tax equity and cost competitiveness, and acquisitions and ownership trends. She has a background in engineering and economics. BloombergNEF (BNEF) is a strategic research provider covering global commodity markets and the disruptive technologies driving the transition to a low-carbon economy. Our expert coverage assesses pathways for the power, transport, industry, buildings and agriculture sectors to adapt to the energy transition. We help commodity trading, corporate strategy, finance and policy professionals navigate change and generate opportunities.

Michael Eyman leverages over 25 years of leadership, operations, and business experience in his role as Managing Director, Origis Services. Under his leadership, Origis Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Origis, manages a growing portfolio of utility scale and distributed generation solar and storage assets across the United States. Prior to joining Origis, Mr. Eyman served as the Vice President of Business Development for MaxGen Energy Services, where he drove significant growth across the distributed generation and utility markets. He also held positions as Director DG O&M and Director of Business Development and Senior Manager for Supply Chain Strategy over 5 years with SunPower. Before taking solar industry leadership roles, Mr. Eyman had a 21-year career in the United States Navy as a Naval Aviator. He served in multiple theaters over 13 deployments and retired at the rank of Commander. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas, a Master of Science in Military Strategy and Foreign Affairs, from Air University, and a Bachelor of Science in Oceanography from Texas A&M University.