Solarplaza Summit | Agri-PV

As program lead Advanced Solar Parks at TNO (former ECN) and chair of the Dutch National Consortium Solar on Land, I help to shape the future of solar parks in the Netherlands. If you take a look at the current solar parks, you notice that there is much improvement possible in terms of landscape integration, biodiversity and soil quality and the combination with agriculture and horticulture. The challenge is to find new designs and technology that make solar parks acceptable to our societal needs as well as to make them profitable. Also grid integration plays an important role. It is very rewarding to integrate the solar cell technology in our society that I helped to develop in lab in the last 20 years.

Heiko is the founding partner and CEO of Next2Sun AG, a company founded in order to introduce a new type of photovoltaic (PV) system concept: the vertical placement of special solar modules, which can utilize solar radiation from both sides. The bifacial modules face east and west. This means that electricity is generated primarily in the morning and evening. The areas between the Agri-PV module rows can be used for agricultural purposes as usual. The resulting flower strips continue to offer space, especially for the endangered world of insects and many bird species. Before this position, Heiko was the managing director of several biogas, wind power and PV operating companies, and the founding partner of Ökostrom Saar GmbH (project developer). Heiko studied microsystems technology in Freiburg.

Richard’s research bridges different sectors and disciplines to tackle complex global challenges such as food and energy insecurity. The overarching question guiding much of his research is: how can we achieve even greater socio-economic and environmental benefits from renewable energy initiatives, in addition to low-carbon electricity? Currently he is researching agrivoltaics in East Africa - hybrid energy-agriculture systems that deliver a triple-win for the food-energy-water nexus while also creating livelihood benefits for agricultural communities. His research background spans biology, clean technology, environmental science, and renewable energy.

David is the founder and president of Green Lighthouse Development, an actor in innovation, with two specific offerings that share a forward-looking vision for the future: innovation consulting and the development of network parity solutions. Before, he was director of development at Urbasolar and Engie.

Marleen Gysen has over 10 years of extensive experience in innovation in agriculture and advising farmers. She works as an innovation consultant at Boerenbond, the largest farmers’ organisation in Belgium. Her main interest lies in the integration of renewable energy at the farm: matching energy demand and energy production. She tries to trigger farmers to think outside the box and to look for inspiration from other regions and other sectors. She supports them when setting up their innovative ideas and helps them with practical issues. Marleen was a member of the European EIP-AGRI Focus Group on on-farm renewable energy production. She was involved, among others, in the H2020 project PLAID on on-farm demonstration and the H2020 project LIAISON that aimed to help unlock the potential of “working in partnership for innovation” in agriculture. Nowadays, Marleen is involved in the H2020 project HyPErFarm on agrivoltaics.

After finishing his International Civil Engineering studies, Franz worked in the business development department of a large supplier in the construction industry. In the beginning of 2018 he joined the Zimmermann PV Steel Group and was initially responsible for ground-mounted structures. Since the end of 2018 Franz has been the Technical Project Manager for Floating PV projects of Zimmermann PV-Floating. Since 2020, Franz has also been deeply involved in the development and distribution of our innovative Agri PV systems.

Dr. Nabih Cherradi is Desert Technologies’ Chief Technology Officer. Has spent over 34 years building on a long track record of equipment's/production lines as well as business development in the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries. Prior to joining Desert Technologies, Nabih is also the CEO of EmpowerSun, a Swiss based photovoltaic energy consultancy, which he founded in 2009. In the meantime, he also co-founded ISWT a French solar developer company. From 2007-2009, as a Vice President/CTO, he accompanied Yingli Green Energy in its fast expansion with responsibility for the technology and manufacturing. He also participated in its IPO in New York (NYSE). As operations & process director at Applied Materials from 1997 to 2007 Nabih was responsible for installing turn-key semiconductor and photovoltaic production lines throughout the world, installing multiple GWs of production capacity across a ten year period. As a scientist, he focused on advance materials for different applications working with different industries (Semiconductor, Photovoltaic and Hard tools). He holds a PhD on materials sciences from the University Henri Poincaré, Nancy as well as an MBA, from the Business School of Nancy, (France).

Camille is a conception engineer for TSE, a French IPP aiming to develop adaptative solutions for the solar market in order to give the right product to each specific needs. TSE is a pioneer in AgriPV with the canopy solution, an agrivoltaic plant internally developed for the large-scale fields that allows a synergy between agriculture and electrical production. With a project pipe of more than 2GW of projects in France to achieve in the next 4 years and with a significative part for AgriPV, TSE is an important actor within the French development sector. Camille is especially working on the development of new ways of doing Agrivoltaic power plants with dedicated solutions for each agriculture specifications. Before joining TSE, Camille worked as a research engineer for the CEA-INES, the French institute for Solar Energy on the field of the n-type silicon PV modules and cells and has spent some time in the microelectronics sector working on the industrialization of LED screens.