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.

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.

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).

Emilio obtained his Law degree magna cum laude at the University of Milan (1993). From 1994 to 2000 he worked in the Law firm of Professor Guido Greco specialized in energy and construction law. He has been working for more than 12 years with associations promoting renewable sources. He is director and coordinator of the regulatory group of Italia Solare Association. In this role he has periodical meetings with GSE S.p.A., with the political and administrative bodies of the Ministry for Economic Development, the Authority for Energy (ARERA), and the Commissions for the Productive Activities of the Parliament. Emilio considers profound knowledge concerning the potential consequences of Agrivoltaic legislation.

A graduate of Hec Paris, father of 4 children, Olivier Degos has held various financial and general management positions in the energy sector within large multinational groups (Elf Aquitaine, Engie for 20 years). After managing Engie's services subsidiary in the South West of France, he joined the Aquitaine Regional Council in 2010 as Deputy Director-General in charge of energy, environment, agriculture, forestry and tourism, before joining the Caisse des Dépots et Consignations as Deputy Director of the ecological and energy transition department. For the last 4 years, he has been the general manager of the "Chambre D'Agriculture Nouvelle-Aquitaine" and is passionate about agriculture/renewable energy issues, in particular agrivoltaics and methanization

Gianluca joined NextEnergy Capital in early 2008 and he is currently responsible of the international development platform of the NextEnergy Group (Starlight). Previously he headed NextPower II, a private equity fund which was successfully exited at the end of 2021 after having invested €232 million in operating solar PV assets in Italy. Gianluca has almost 15 years of experience in the renewable energy sector, spread across different areas, from the development to the financing, construction and then technical, administrative, financial, accounting and fiscal management of solar PV assets in various jurisdictions. Previously, he worked in the investment banking industry for 6 years, across different financial institutions (Calyon, Mediobanca, Dresdner Kleinwort and lastly Morgan Stanley) and countries (Italy and UK), gaining an extensive expertise in the energy and infrastructure sector, having worked on several landmark M&A and capital market transactions closed both in Italy and abroad.

After finishing his master degree in business economics at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Harold started his career as commercial banker in 1996. Harold has worked at several Dutch banks, and has fulfilled rolls in relationship management, structuring management buy outs, risk management and general management. After a post-doc study Corporate Social Responsibility at Erasmus Universiteit, he joined the Triodos Renewables Energy team. Harold’s main focusses are solarprojects and heat- and coldstorage projects in the Dutch market. As Triodos is a frontrunner in renewable energy since their origination in the 1980s, Harold is very interested in financing new technologies. His main goal is to contribute to fighting the climate change.

Since 2020, Dr. Matthew Berwind has been a scientist at the Fraunhofer ISE leading public and private projects in the Agrivoltaics and Solar Power Plants groups as the subject manager for photovoltaic simulations. His thematic focal points at the Fraunhofer ISE are the maximization of dual-yield in tracked agrivoltaic systems, leading two public projects in this direction, as well as the digitalization of and data analytics for integrated PV power plants.

Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer and Chief Energy Sales and Services Officer in Amarenco, Bernardo Mota Veiga has 12 years of experience in the solar sector with a strong experience in executive level functions in 4 different master players acting as IPP, Development, EPC & O&M providers and Components distribution. Trained as a Physics Engineer, Bernardo complemented his education with a Master in Business and Engineering na Catolica Porto Business School and a post-graduation in Bioethics.

Jiří Bím was born in Mladá Boleslav. He finished FEE CTU with Bc. in 2017 in Electrotechnics, energetics and management study program. In 2020 he finished his Masters degree in the study program Management of energetics. Since 2021 he is PhD. student and researcher at CTU and studying topic Economics aspect of RES. He has focused on agrivoltaics and is also active in establishing legislation for agrivoltaics. From 2022 he is the Head of agrivoltaics section in Czech Solar association.

Since 2015 Simon has together with European Energy been promoting the green energy transition across Europe through the realization of solar PV, wind, hybrid, and energy storage projects. In his current position he strives to together with local partners implement European Energy’s latest agri-PV technologies in the Dutch market, developed in close collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark. Simon holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Economics from Maastricht University and Copenhagen Business School, respectively.

Xavier Daval is president of the Solar Commission of the French Renewable Energies industry association (SOLER-SER) and Board Member of SER. Xavier is the founder and CEO of kiloWattsol. Ever since its creation in 2007 as a spin-off of an associated research laboratory of the French national research network CNRS, he led the company to become the most experienced French Solar expert and a respected European Technical Advisor in the field of photovoltaic projects with a track record exceeding 5GWp world-wide. Xavier is an Electronic engineer and former Director EMEA of a world-leading manufacturer of tools for the electronics industry. Besides, Daval is an associated teacher with ENTPE Engineering school and Lyon I University and a guest lecturer for Entrepreneurship at EM-Lyon, one of Europe’s top 10 business schools.

Peter is the Operations Director of BNZ. He contributes to the team effort with more than 8 years of experience in the Solar PV and Wind renewable energies, in different phases of the projects’ life, and with a leaning towards asset management. Prior to joining BNZ, Peter held various management and senior management positions in the asset management division of Vector Renewables (ex. Vector Cuatro) both in France and Spain and was focused on foreign markets. He also headed the technical asset management team of Alten RE, a Madrid-based IPP with international presence. Over the span of his career, he has managed more than 1.5GW of renewable energy assets.

Combing knowledge with a Master's degree in European Public Policy with vast experience in renewables, Elena is working hard for a greener future. CEO and co-founder at Evklips Energy, part of Evklips Group. The installed capacity of over1 GWp places EVklips Energy among the leaders in PV construction in Europe. EVklips has executed Agri-PV in the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria. In Bulgaria, EVklips is developing a 20 MWp Agri-PV project and working together with a local structure producer as it will be a pilot project for the country. Working with the farmer/investor and the manufacturers gives a clear idea of the local needs and requirements, as well as valuable experience in terms of potential for Agri projects across Europe.

Michela Demofonti is the coordinator of the task force Agri-PV in Italia Solare. She started her career in the contract department at GSE – Gestore dei Servizi Energetic. During that time, she learned about the RES’s Italian public support and the electricity market.After an experience in the retail energy market at a start-up company, she joined EF Solare Italia in 2016. Currently, in EF Solare she manages external communication activities, to increase the brand identity, and public affairs. In addition, she monitors the normative evolutions that could impact the business and she takes part in the activities in the associations. Finally, she manages the ESG plan and the ESG annual report of EF Solare.

Bas is specialist scientist at TNO Energy Transition in the Solar Energy group. His research takes place in the programmes for Advanced Solar Parks on Land and Water. He has a strong background in back-contact and bifacial module technology and applies that to the energy generation and the relation with the energy market and grid congestion. As the energy transition is not a process on itself, but has strong interactions with the environment, the communities, etc. the focus has shifted to the interaction between PV systems, ecology and the agricultural sector. Keywords are ground (and water surface) irradiance, microclimate and sharing photons between photosynthesis and photovoltaics.

At Vattenfall, Eric is focussing on multidisciplinary solar parks. He holds a MSc. in Energy Science and a MSc. in Business Economics. Both within Vattenfall and in numerous associations, he is a strong supporter of Agrivoltaics. Within Holland Solar, he is the chairman of the working group Ecology, and he is also an active member within the Solar Power Europe Working Group Agrisolar. Moreover, he is a part of projects such as Symbizon and EcoCertified.

In charge of the development and communication of the FFPA, I was naturally drawn to the renewable energy sector because of my ecological values. Working with and for farmers is a great addition of meaning in my day-to-day job. I’m a firm believer that agropv is a positive answer to the ecological, energetic, and agricultural challenges we are currently facing.

Ramses Struijker Boudier is a Project Manager at Solarplaza, focussing on projects in France, Agrivoltaics and Africa. In the past, he worked for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam, focussing on promoting sustainable development alongside the food-water-energy nexus. He holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and International Relations from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a master's degree in Climate Change and Environmental Sciences from King's College London.