Solarplaza Summit | Asset Management Europe

Mr. Stefan Müller is the co-founder, shareholder of Enerparc AG, and since end of 2008, a board member he was responsible for the international and operational business. Following his diploma thesis in 1992 in solar energy, he gained international experience in different roles and various countries. Enerparc is an international specialist in the whole value chain of large-scale photovoltaic power plants. The service ranges from the technical design (EPCm) to the turn-key delivery (EPC) and finally to the operation (O&M) of power plants. In the last years the Enerparc Group has seen an exponential growth.

With over fifteen years of experience in the PV sector, my career began in 2007 as a solar module manufacturing Process Engineer spanning into the field of solar installation permitting, design, construction management, commissioning and subsequent supervision and control of solar assets. In 2012 I diversified my experience in the area of PV consulting supporting the development and management of net metering solar installations. The experience gained through 2014 allowed me to make the transition to the discipline of Asset Management covering the Technical and Commercial Asset Management scope of the discipline managing assets for a total of 200 MWp. Since joining Sonnedix, back in 2017, I have evolved into the role of Head of Asset Management for Spain being responsible for the overall performance and optimization of a 240 M€ revenue solar asset portfolio. I hold an Industrial Mechanical Engineer degree by Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.

Chiara Mingoli is currently in charge of developing Creating Shared Value initiatives for PPA Partners, and global sustainability alliances involving the key players in the energy value chain, following the Sustainability Ecosystem Unit strategy which is addressed to the extended value chain of Renewable Energy involving PPA Partners and Suppliers/Contractors. Moreover since March 2022 she is also Head of Communications of the Global Alliance for Sustainable Energy, leading a group of curious and passionate people from the member companies. Being part of the Enel Group since 2008, before joining Enel Green Power, she was responsible of developing global innovation partnerships with institutions, international platforms and relevant firms, after having managed sustainability reporting and relations with ESG Investors and stakeholder engagement, together with sustainability communication strategy. Graduated in Political Sciences at Roma Tre University in Rome where she was Lecturer of Sociology of Communications, she previously worked for Polaris Investment SA. ethical fund in Luxembourg, in KPMG for Sustainability Audit, and started her professional experience in National Grid Business Development between Italy and UK.

Hervé has over 23 years of experience in technical customer services with 13 years in the solar business, joining former French PV manufacturer TENESOL in 2008 as After-sales global Manager. He created the O&M department in 2010 to develop this activity for TENESOL in France. When joining SUNPOWER in 2012, Hervé took the lead of the O&M contracts in France, Germany and Australia. In 2020, he participated in the creation of NovaSource after the spin-off of the O&M department of SUNPOWER and became Managing Director of the French and the German entities. Within NovaSource, his role is now more focused on Business Development.Hervé holds an MBA from ISC Paris school and is graduated in electrical engineering from the Fachhochschule Konstanz in Germany.

Luca Matrone is a seasoned manager with more than 23 years of corporate finance experience in the global energy space. Since 2017 he is the Head of Energy in the Global Corporate department of Intesa Sanpaolo, responsible for the coverage of approximately 400 companies operating worldwide. Luca was formerly the Head of Energy in the M&A team of Banca IMI, the investment banking arm of Intesa Sanpaolo group, that he joined in 2000. He serves as Vice-Chair in the Environment and Energy committee of the Business at OECD. Luca graduated in Business Administration from Bocconi University in 1998.

Sam Wilkinson is a Research Manager for the Solar and Energy Storage Research group at IHS Markit (now part of S&P Global). During his time working within the group, Sam has been responsible for researching the PV inverter market and the PV module and poly-silicon supply chain working closely with leading global suppliers to develop detailed analysis on these markets. Sam has also been responsible for establishing primary research reports focusing on solar demand and policy, complementing IHS extensive research of the complete PV supply chain. Building on his experience in the solar research team, Sam established and now leads IHS Technology’s coverage of energy storage, covering a wide range of topics within this fast developing sector. Sam’s analysis and commentary is regularly published by leading PV and energy industry media and also the global press. He has also presented at many leading industry events and conferences. Before beginning his career at IHS Markit (now part of S&P Global), Sam worked as a Structural Engineer for one of Europe’s leading engineering firms. He graduated from The University of Nottingham with a degree in Engineering.

Joe Miletic joined Amberside Energy in July 2022, a renewables development and management company, providing investor support and asset/portfolio management on solar projects in the UK. He previously worked for Foresight Group as senior portfolio manager (portfolio lead for solar, ~1GWp) and head of JLEN solar. Prior to that, Joe held senior asset management roles for UK and international solar projects at John Laing, Armstrong Energy and Sonnedix. He holds a master’s degree in engineering from ENSIP and an advanced master’s degree in renewable energy from Mines Paristech.

With more than 12 years of experience as an analyst of the solar power industry, Ms. Berg authors reports on PV markets and trends, mainly in the downstream segment, and she regularly speaks at industry events. Prior to joining what is now S&P Global, she was an R&D strategy consultant in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energies. Ms. Berg holds a Master of Science in environmental engineering from Uppsala University, Sweden. She speaks English, French, Spanish and Swedish and is based in Barcelona, Spain.

Björn is Managing Director of GP Joule Projects, the European project development unit of the GP Joule Group. Before joining GP Joule, he held variuos managerial positions at internatonal project developer juwi. In previous years, Björn gained utility experience in strategy, M&A and finance roles at Mainova AG. E.ON AG and E.ON Ruhrgas AG. He holds a master’s degree in business administration with study visits in Germany, Switzerland, Australia and the US. GP Joule is an integrated supplier of renewable energy production from the sun, wind and biomass, with years of experience at the supply level for H2, mobility, heat and industry. juwi is a pioneer in the area of renewable energies and today a 100% affiliate of MVV Energie AG.

Adam Loucks is the Vice President, Repowering/Revamping at Sonnedix.  Adam joined Sonnedix in 2015 and has focused on the Engineering and Construction of PV and PV + Storage projects prior to leading the Repowering Program.  Adam has over 12 years of experience in the global PV and PV + Storage sector, working on projects across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. During these years, he has been involved in all stages of the project lifecycle, from origination to construction and operation, working with lenders, sponsors, and EPC’s directly.  Prior to Sonnedix, Adam has developed his career in various technical roles in which he originated, designed, and constructed PV and microgrid projects throughout the Caribbean and LATAM regions.

Entrepreneur and Executive with a wide knowledge of electricity market dynamics and passionate about sustainability. Pioneer of Renewable energy sector that she joined nearly fifteen years ago holding C-level roles in two different top European companies. She runs Hazel New Energy, active in investments and advisory services in the Energy Transition sector, and she can rely on her previous wide experience as COO in the European Energy & Infrastructure sector having managed two of the biggest European renewable energy portfolios. In particular she has been in charge of EF Solare Italia’s (F2i group) portfolio, that she drove from the start-up phase to nearly 1GW over 300 sites and 4B€ of solar assets under management, and of Green Arrow Capital’s portfolio, where she led the operational transition to 400MW and 1.6B€ of renewable energy – wind, solar, hydro and mini-hydro, biogas and biomethane - assets under management throughout Europe. She previously held roles in Engie, Kearney and took part in a start up in the solar sector. Strongly focused and skilled in Operations, M&A processes, Portfolio Growth and Improvement, Post-Merger Integration and Technological Innovation.

Inés Monroy (International Business Development & Brand Manager) joined SENS - STEAG Solar Energy Solutions in 2020, a leading global service provider in the field of solar PV that develops, builds, operates and carries out maintenance of large scale plants and rooftop installations as well as offering services in the field of energy efficiency. Since 2005 she has developed her career in the solar PV sector in different companies of the value chain that operate in the manufacturing, distribution, transfer of technology (cells and modules), as well as the development, EPC and O&M of PV projects, including grid-tied, distributed energy generation, off-grid systems, and micro-grids, where she has held positions in business development, project development and project management in various different markets in Europe, Latinamerica and Asia-Pacific.

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.

Ms. Koerner joined ENERPARC AG in 2019 as an O&M engineer for large scale solar PV power plants and is managing a portfolio of more than 180 MW. Her passion for renewable energy started early and during her studies she gained profound understanding, especially of the international PV market. Her bachelor thesis about a general approach how to enter the sub-Saharan small scale PV market – market barrier and entries – was award as an outstanding scientific paper. During her semester abroad in Malaysia she conducted a case study about the Malaysian solar PV market which was later published in Energy Policy Journal in 2022. She graduated in 2018 (M.Eng) while writing her final thesis with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems about the assessment of selected business models for solar PV, battery storage and EV charging options for commercial businesses in Germany. As an O&M engineer at ENERPARC AG, she is responsible for technical operation of the solar power plants. This includes the optimization of operation, the defection of faults and analysis, the instruction of electrician on site to ensure maximum feed in from the technical perspective. ENERPARC is an international specialist in the whole value chain of large-scale photovoltaic power plants. The service ranges from the technical design (EPCm) to the turn-key delivery (EPC) and finally to the operation (O&M) of power plants. In the last years the ENERPARC Group has seen an exponential growth.

David Delaire is Managing Director, at recently established Associé Valeur, an advisory company that assist and support companies for M&A transactions, capital raise, and portfolio management for renewable energies and clean technology assets. Over the past year, he has been involved in transactions with a total worth just under a Billion Euros. He is currently advising a Renewable Energies SaaS company, investors, asset owners and project developers. David is a senior investment leader with extensive experience in PE funds raise/management, ESG, digitalization and asset management in renewable energies. He has established a Private Equity fund, using instruments such as private placement, IPO, Rights Issuance and Zero interest coupon bonds. David is also very experienced in creating and implementing Environmental and Social Management Systems (ESMS) and ESG platforms. He has extensive experience in the lifecycle of infrastructure assets, and for the past 16 years, he has focused on renewable energies. David also has several years of managing asset portfolios for private equity, infrastructure funds and independent power producers (IPP). He has managed several renewable energy assets in various parts of the world, including Europe, the Caribbean and Asia. David holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tuskegee University, United States, and a Master of Business Administration with a focus in Management from Webster University, United States.

Cinzia Battaglia is an Investment Analyst and ESG Specialist at re:cap global investors ag, based in Switzerland. re:cap is an independent, internationally oriented investment advisor and asset manager for renewable energies. Until this date, the company manages four funds on behalf of its clients. Cinzia is currently responsible for developing and leading sustainability initiatives on firm and on fund level. This role includes leading the implementation of ESG related projects, processing inquiries from investors regarding their investments, and being the first point of contact for the Asset Management team regarding all sustainability-related matters. Furthermore, she is responsible for the compliance of the funds managed by re:cap with EU regulations in the field of ESG. She is also especially interested in how to align investor requests with a sustainable and durable asset management approach. Cinzia has joined the investment team of re:cap in 2018, where she first was a full-time analyst, responsible for renewable energy project evaluations and due diligence support in project acquisition processes. She has, during this time, especially worked on solar PV transactions in the OECD area. Cinzia still holds this position on a part-time basis next to her role as an ESG Specialist. Prior to joining re:cap, she has held several positions in the financial sector in project management and in M&A.

As one of Sitemark's founders, Stanislas is passionate about the solar industry. In 2020, he transitioned to Customer innovation manager to bridge the gap between customer insights and the product team. Today, Stanislas is driving the Business development side of Sitemark while helping companies change how they interact and manage their assets.

With a strong international background, Pierre-Marie has been managing projects and operations within corporates and start-ups in Europe, Africa and Asia. Pierre-Marie joined S4E in 2021 to lead the international expansion of the company’s Saas solution.

Having entered the world of renewable energies in 2008, Alexandre joined the IPP Apex Energies in 2014 to develop the company's engineering services. Focusing on innovation and digitalization, Alexandre now heads several departments, including the development of ground power plants, innovation and operation.

He develops the company business strategy, manages business development, and pursues strategic cooperation’s with international technology vendors and targeted customers. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Georgopoulos co-founded and was responsible for operations at Ellemedia, a Lucent product development partner for residential networks, gigabit switching and VDSL chipset design, where he led product design and business development with international PTTs. From 1997 to 1998, he was a group manager with the NTUA Telecom Lab, managing research projects with several EU telecommunications companies, including a Bell Laboratories project on native IP/ATM architectures. From 1993 to 1996, he was a research associate in the NTUA Telecom Lab, working on integrated telecommunications networks with leading EU telecommunications companies. He holds a diploma in Electrical & Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Integrated Broadband Networks, both from NTUA, Greece.

Tomaso Charlemont graduated from the Technical Naval Institute (Genoa, Italy). He is an executive with over three decades of experience in Business Development and Supply Chain. After more than 20 years in the fields of data communication, he embraced a second career in renewables in 2008. Over the past 13 years Tomaso developed and consolidated his experience in this latter field of activity joining PV inverter OEMs Satcon and Chint Power Systems, WTG manufacturer and EPC Vergnet and British renewables developer RES. More recently, he joined BayWa r.e. where he coordinates the development of the Solar PV Revamping and Repowering business across the EMEA Region.

Gorka joined AlsoEnergy as Head of Sales & Marketing in January 2020, focusing on bringing value to renewable energy generating assets monitoring and control, both for the utility and C&I segments. Gorka entered the renewables space in 2010, when he joined NEM Solutions as a Chief Revenue Officer, with a focus on Predictive Analytics for Wind Turbines. In 2017, he moved to Philadelphia as CEO of the US branch.Gorka’s focus throughout his professional career has been on making sure that resources are optimized to their fullest potential and that customer’s and supplier’s interests are aligned. Value generation is the goal, and collaboration and blue oceans are the key to achieving results.Prior to entering the renewable energy space, Gorka led Business Development efforts in Europe, Middle East, SE Asia, South Pacific and the Americas in several different industries. Because of his work, Gorka lived in Scotland, France, England, USA & Spain and is fluent in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Basque.Gorka holds a MBA and Business Degree from the University of Deusto, Spain.

Dr. Robin Hirschl studied physics in Vienna, Austria, and Lyon, France, and holds a PhD in Computational Materials Science from Vienna University. He started his career at Booz Allen Hamilton (today Strategy&), joining the European Utilities Team, where he lead energy projects throughout Europe as Senior Project Manager. Since 2007 he has held management positions at Kioto Photovoltaics and KPV Solar, before co-founding ENcome Energy Performance in 2012. As managing director of ENcome Robin built the company up to what is today one of the largest independent technical service providers for PV worldwide. In early 2019 he ceased his operational involvement with ENcome and later started to support the Danish investment company Obton as Technical Director.

Alexander Platz works as Underwriter in the Green Tech Solutions team at Munich RE. His main focus is on insurance of photovoltaics, particularly in the Chinese market. Alexander studied mathematics at TU Munich and Tsinghua University in Beijing and works for Munich RE since 2018.

Marco has eighteen years of international experience in the management of assets, and operation and maintenance throughout various industries, including seven years in the solar industry. He has been paving his career path towards full asset management services since beginning his career with ABB, integrating its full-service team for industrial assets.Following this, Marco worked at Transdev-Veolia, focused on business and asset management for Light Rail networks in Europe. In 2010 he became founder and global Head of Martifer Solar´s O&M and Service Business, driving the strategic direction while leading a team of more than 100 employees, where he became Executive Committee Member as the representative of O&M and, accumulated with the responsibility of leading the EPC global business in 2015, until leaving the company in 2017. Martifer Solar operated in more than 20 countries as a global reputed Developer, EPC turnkey provider and one of the most relevant O&M Global Service providers for Solar assets.In 2018 he co-founded and integrated as General Manger the company MTX Solar - a provider of innovative solutions and services for the players of the solar industry, with own competences for the whole chain of value of Solar, present in two continents.Marco received his MSC in Electrical Engineering and completed an Executive MBA in Management from University of Porto Business School/IE Madrid. He speaks Portuguese, English, and Spanish, with a working proficiency in the French language.

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Anette Danielsson is a Senior Analyst in the Market Growth & Development team at Wärtsilä Energy concentrating on commercial analyses and strategy. Anette’s main focus is on energy storage across Europe, working with market development and project support. She is also responsible for energy storage strategy formulation in Europe . Anette holds a double Master’s degree in Politics and Economics from the University College London and the University of Helsinki, with a special focus on energy politics in Europe and Russia.

Isabelle Bélanger is Country Manager Germany at ZE Energy since July 2021. She has 12 years experience in Renewables, having worked prior to ZE Energy at E.ON Climate & Renewables, Encavis and Goodyields in various management positions and for different European markets. Originally from Canada, she worked there at Deloitte and also in technical positions in manufacturing. She holds a Bachelor degree (Polytechnique Montréal) and a Master’s degree (UBC, Vancouver) both in Mechanical Engineering. ZE Energy is an Independent Producer of Renewable Energy. We develop, build and operate hybrid photovoltaic power plants with energy storage. 

Christian is group head of strategic Asset Management for the Aquila Capital Investmentgesellschaft mbH, with 20 years of experience in the renewable energy sector, including positions for PwC, HCOB, and two international project developers. He has built up and lead teams in the development and asset management area of PV, Wind and Hydro, interested in developing and finding ways for efficiently managing large renewable energy portfolios.

Dr. Stijn Stevens is the Chief Technology Officer at meteocontrol. From the office space in Berlin, he leads the technology development covered by the departments Research & Development, Product Management, Technology & Operations and IT. He looks back on long-term experience within the renewable energy sector ranging from power plant and micro grid control to data analytics and cloud monitoring solutions. His valuable know-how contributes to meteocontrol's continued success.

Jörg Althaus is a business professional with >20 years of high-level experience in the solar industry. He is highly focused on quality, reliability and technical risk mitigation for photovoltaic assets. Before joining CEA Mr. Althaus held various positions at TÜV Rheinland, a leading Testing, Inspection, Certification body in the solar industry. His roles included profit & loss responsibility for the PV and energy storage teams in Germany and the India, Middle East, Africa region as well as business development and key account responsibilities. Between 2019 and 2021 he was responsible for the strategy development and achievement for TÜV Rheinland’s global PV Power Plant business. As a technical expert, he was project leader on various standards within the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Technical Committee 82 focusing on PV module test standards. He also was a technical auditor for the CB scheme within IECEE auditing multiple PV laboratories around the world. Mr.Althaus is an active member in the SolarPower Europe industry association and contributed in various work streams.

Karsten has over 12 years experience in the solar business, joining former world market leader Q.Cells in 2007 and working in different positions from HR to business development to leading the Q.Cells O&M department with more than 330 MWp of solar assets. Since joining saferay group in 2012 Karsten is responsible for the Operations & Maintenance business for saferay's own asset base in Germany, Japan and Chile, totaling approx. 300 MWp installed capacity and a team of more than 20 engineers, technicians and facility managers. Karsten is also Managing Director at blueray services GmbH, a joint venture by saferay and bluesun energy services GmbH, founded in 2019. Blueray is offering custom tailored maintenance and service solutions for utility scale solar central inverters, especially Schneider Electric central inverters GT and XC series. Karsten holds a degree in business administration from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

Vera Gröner is leading the asset management team of Pacifico Energy Partners GmbH (“Pacifico”) since 2022 and is in particular responsible for the country markets Germany, the Netherlands and Poland as well as for wind power plants. She joined Pacifico in February 2020 after working as a Project Manager for Encavis for more than 3 years. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Management of Renewable Energies from University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan-Triesdorf and a Master's degree in Environmental Planning and Engineering Ecology from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Vera is responsible for building and shaping Pacifico's growing asset management team and processes and has herself five years of experience in managing PV and wind assets in various European markets. Pacifico is a renewable energy company for wind and solar energy as well as battery and hydrogen technologies. Founded in 2016, by now Pacifico has built a strong development pipeline of more than 1.5 GW and provides asset management for more than 40 plants with a total capacity of over 150 MW.

I got the sun in my heart and the current in my veins over the last 12 years. I started as part of R&D department in a Spanish inverter manufacturer company; growing among the years jumping internally to Aftersales and Service Department. I enrolled at Sungrow in February 2020 becoming an essential part of Service Sales Department. One of the business for this area is Revamping and Sungrow has several successful case of study across Europe due tot he fact that some of inverters has specially designed fort hat purpose.

Vítor is currently the Technical director utility Europe of LONGi Solar since 2020. He has spent 14 years at TÜV Rheinland and brings extensive PV know-how in different areas including auditing and inspecting factories and installations in Europe, Asia, and South America, supervising construction and evaluating performance, as well as undertaking safety inspections and performance enhancement of PV plants worldwide.

Maximilian Langer started working at Encavis back in 2017. Before joining the Energy Portfolio Management in 2021, he was working for two years in the company’s Investment Team, thus being involved in acquisition processes of PV- and Wind-Assets as well as the management of project development partnerships. He spent an additional two years in the Encavis Asset Management Team, focusing on the development and the implementation of its digitisation strategy. In the Portfolio Management, Max is responsible for selling the produced electricity of Encavis power plants in European short term markets. At the same time he and his Team are managing the price exposure of the company in the liquid market horizon.

Andrea Viaro is Head of Sales EMEA at Stäubli Electrical Connectors AG. He holds a master's degree in materials engineering and already has more than 10 years of industry experience with other tier-1 module manufacturers and technical consultancies. Andrea contributes to the company's strategy and, together with his team, strengthens the global leadership position of Stäubli's growing eBOS portfolio. As the world's most installed PV connector, the Original MC4 continues to set new benchmarks in the industry thanks to Stäubli’s pursuit of excellence and innovation.

Carlos Álvarez, Ph.D. in electrical engineering, joins Huawei in 2019 as director of the grid solution. His work focuses on the study of network codes and the integration of renewable energy into the electrical grid. It also participates in the standardization committees of the IEC, within the TC82, TC8 and TC120.

Steven Xuereb is a renewable energy professional who has eighteen years of experience both in the wind and solar industries. Currently he is a member of the executive management team, leading the sales and project delivery departments at PI Berlin, focusing on delivering independent engineering services for large scale solar plants. Before joining PI Berlin, Steven spent eight years procuring and developing solar and wind projects in North America, Chile and South Africa for Airtricity and Mainstream Renewable Power. His experience in the industry includes greenfield development, acquisitions, contracts management, research and development, certification and service operations. He is a mechanical engineer with a Master’s degree in renewable energy from the Universities of Oldenburg and Kassel.

Julien Deckx is Product Manager for Digital Solutions at 3E. His main focus is on advanced solar analytics and on flexibility optimization. He built up his expertise in software product management in the medical imaging analysis business for 10 years, before following his passion for renewables by joining 3E in 2020. Julien holds a MSc in Engineering at the University of Leuven.

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Will Hitchcock is the founder and CEO of Above, a global solar software and data analytics company. Above works with over 3000 solar plants, empowering the solar industry to design, build and manage better, more efficient solar plants. Will is driving the digitalisation agenda within the utility-scale solar industry. Helping our customers use technology to increase plant performance, manage risk and reduce cost. He is the Solar Energy UK Chairman of the Utility-Scale Operations and Management Working Group. The group focuses on establishing and advancing O&M standards and best practices across the ground-mount and large-scale rooftop PV industries. Will has extensive knowledge of the solar industry, previously working at a leading EPC, where he led the construction of 150MW of ground-mounted solar.

Johannes Linder is Head of System Design & Innovation at BELECTRIC GmbH. He joined BELECTRIC as International Project Manager in 2013, delivering utility scale PV projects in Europe, Australia and India. Prior to that, he worked for several start-up companies and developers in the PV industry. He was a certified PV expert by TÜV Rheinland.

Nikhil Vadhavkar is the co-founder and CEO of venture-backed Raptor Maps, the leading provider of lifecycle management software for the solar industry, with over 45 GW and counting analyzed.  Raptor Maps enables solar companies to increase performance and reduce costs, as well as standardize and compare solar PV assets across a portfolio. He is an MIT engineer, Y combinator alum and Gates Foundation leader.  Nikhil is passionate about building software that empowers decision makers with accurate, high value system analytics and reports.  In his free time, Nikhil enjoys alpine skiing, hiking and capturing data with customers at their PV plants.  After all, he is an aerial imaging expert.

Eugene is a global director with Ardexa, a leader in industrial digital control platforms. He has held senior executive roles with Konica Minolta, Kearney and Mars. Over the past 15 years, he has founded and led software and technology businesses, working primarily in Europe, Asia and North America. With understanding of global industrial processes and modern IT methods, he has experience in merging IT and OT processes within and across companies. Ardexa supports renewable companies to digitise their businesses. It provides a digital control platform for companies that need to connect data between large asset portfolios and the cloud. With a long heritage in data communications and cybersecurity, Ardexa guides clients to build resilient, scalable and efficient digital and plant control processes. Eugene has engineering and business graduate qualifications. He lives in Vienna and Sydney.

Pascal Wehrli has been active in the power generation business for close to 18 years and in Solar for almost as much. As an early employee of Envision Digital’s Center of Excellence in Silicon Valley, California, he kickstarted Envision Digital’s Advanced Performance Analytics Suite for solar plants. Currently director of the European center of renewables expertise in Paris, he promotes and oversees the deployment of analytics software for solar, wind and storage assets. Pascal has extensive expertise and experiences in the renewable industry in PV system design, performance analysis, EPC, manufacturing and commissioning. He has been involved in various capacities in over 15GW of utility-scale projects globally. Pascal holds a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).

Jan Knievel is Head of Origination at Sunnic Lighthouse, the trading company for Enerparc AG. After some years in business and energy consulting, he gained experience in trading of renewable Energy at juwi and Centrica Energy Trading. Sunnic lighthouse successfully concluded many PPAs in Germany and Spain.

CEO of BFP Service, the wholly BFP’s owned subsidiary providing O&M services for renewable energy plants in Italy and abroad. Annarita graduated from the Politecnico of Bari with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2005. With more than 15 years of experience in the renewable energy sector, mainly for wind and solar O&M service providers, Annarita has developed strong expertise in negotiation with customers and suppliers, with the aim to consolidate and reach company’s budget and targets. She manages BFP Service and all its activities, i.e. operation and maintenance and installation of medium and large-scale PV plants, revamping of renewable power plants and asset management services.

Niklaas Heckmann is the Market Manager for Central Europe at Fluence. He is responsible for sales efforts and business growth in Central Europe. Niklaas has been working in the energy sector his whole career, spending more than six years in the field of battery-based energy storage. Starting his career as a Sales Engineer, Niklaas stepped up to the senior managerial role when he joined Fluence in 2020. Niklaas holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Power Engineering and Renewable Energy from Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Germany. This, in combination with his in-depth experience as a mechatronics engineer, provides him with the basis to link the theoretical with the practical aspects.

Lars is a part of Fluence’s Growth Team in the EMEA region. He is responsible for policy and regulatory efforts on the EU level and throughout the EMEA region and supports the market and business development in Central Europe. Lars also leads the policy and market development for the TSO segment in the EMEA region, working with grid operators, regulators, and policy makers to establish energy storage as grid assets to improve utilisation and increase the operational reliability of power grids. Before joining Fluence, Lars worked for 8 years at Aggreko and Younicos (acquisition in 2017) on storage policy and market development globally, with a specific focus on storage-renewable hybrid assets. During this time, he participated in setting a 1GW storage target within Aggreko’s company strategy. Before joining the clean energy sector, Lars worked at the political communication think tank ProDialog, and as a communication specialist for the European Parliament. Lars holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Public Administration and a Master of Arts Degree in European Studies from the University of Twente. He further holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in European Studies and a Master of Science Degree in European Studies from the Westfälische-Wilhelms Universität Münster.

Jan started working with solar applications in the Pacific Islands in 1993 delivering PV Systems into the Islands of Tonga until 1998. Two years in Australia ensued with time spent with the PV group at the ANU working on concentrating PV applications. In 2000 Jan returned to Europe where he joined Solarcentury building the emerging PV industry and delivering PV plant into various iconic commercial and domestic settings as Technical Director. From around 2010 the focus moved to large-scale ground mount systems to the present multi-hundred MW plants with Statkraft. As Director of Asset Management Jan is responsible for the European fleet of PV Plants under SK management. A key focus is the long-term optimisation of Plant technical and commercial performance via advanced in-house Statkraft analytics

Mikel has over more than 6 years experience in renewable energies. Beginnings in wind energy projects such as commissioning 3MW wind turbines. He continued his professional development in photovoltaic energy as a commissioning manager for PV inverters. Now, in Acciona energía he holds the position of PV field O&M Engineering, leading technical support to the company's assets worldwide. In addition, he ensures the implementation and compliance with Acciona´s guidelines and procedures, best practices and improvement actions.

Pedro has more than 16 years of experience in the IT and Renewables sector. The path during the years allowed the acquisition of experience ranging from Software Development, Project Management and Research & Development. His professional development was enhanced with several International assignments, that allowed him to combine knowledge and leadership in the sector. Currently it’s the Chief Technology Officer of Aeroprotechnik, where it leads the technology infrastructure of the company.

With 18 years experience of putting PV panels on a variety of things and in many different sunny places (aka PV project engineering), last year Guy made a change into the world of software development. Joining PVcase he was able to use his knowledge to Product Manage the development of the hugely successful Ground Mount tool. He is always looking for ways to increase the design quality and efficiency of PV engineers.

Claire is now responsible for the organization of our O&M department, focusing on our 250 MWp Vietnamese project and taking benefit of the return of experience of our O&M team based in Australia. Previously moving from site to site, Claire is now based in our Montpellier offices in France but she often assists the project teams on site during T&C an O&M launching activities.

Brian Knowles leads the energy storage team at Pexapark, focusing on supporting clients interested in exploring how energy storage can benefit their renewable portfolio as either standalone or co-located with renewable generation. Brian has over 10 years of experience developing and financing energy storage projects participating in wholesale energy, ancillary services, and capacity markets.

Charles Lesser is CEO of Apricum’s UK office and heads Apricum’s global Transaction Advisory practice. Across 25 years of energy investment banking, he has won numerous awards advising companies from Series A to FTSE 100 on corporate and asset M&A or equity financing, and has deep ties with institutional investors. He has a passion for energy storage, merchant risk and creating long-term partnerships. He previously headed EMEA energy investment banking at Macquarie.

Carlos joined Foresight in December 2011. Prior to that, he covered several roles at Renewables Energy Source 'RES' project developer and technical consultant in the international Renewable Energy sector with a particular focus on the Spanish and Italian markets. Based in Foresight's UK HQ, Carlos is responsible for the origination, arrangement and execution of infrastructure investments in Southern Europe, primarily in the renewable energy sector and has led Foresight's investments in subsidy-free solar assets in the Iberian peninsula. Carlos graduated in Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management Engineering from UPC Barcelona and is fluent in Spanish, Catalan, Italian and English.

Yuyan works for Fluence Asset Performance Monitoring platform Nispera. She is mainly responsible for product development of the Asset Performance Monitoring platform, with particular focus on the photovoltaic(PV) assets. She also contributes to the creation of advanced analytics and performance analysis tools. Before joining Fluence, Yuyan worked as Solar Design Engineer, and collected her experiences in the area of PV through developing and delivering PV projects in European countries. Yuyan holds a Master of Science Degree in Renewable Energy System from Technische Universität Berlin.

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Rob is the CEO of Heliolytics, a performance analytics company specializing in aerial Module Level Thermal Audits (MLTA) and aerial remote sensing for PV system performance analysis. Rob received a PhD from Queen's University specializing is PV system performance modelling and optimization and has worked with groups internationally to optimize PV performance and integrate new technologies. Rob has multiple publications in the PV sector, focusing on performance modelling and prediction.

Ruurd Immel is a member of the Rabobank renewable energy team and responsible for originating, structuring and executing onshore and offshore wind and solar transactions throughout Europe. His focus on renewable energy projects that benefit from corporate PPAs (i.e. no subsidies), or are fully or partially exposed to merchant price risk. Over the last four years Ruurd has successfully closed several transactions, mostly in the Nordics and Spain.

After studying economics, Andrea Voigt gained different international experience in sales and acquisition. She switched to renewable energies in 2009. Based in Italy, she founded the Italian Aream company and gradually built up the PV portfolio. As managing director she is responsible for the Asset Management and handled various M&A transactions in Italy. Since 2019 she is also responsible for the energy trading of the whole Europe portfolio.

Schuetz brings extensive experience in the global power generation industry. At SMA, he leads the organization’s service offerings including a variety of risk-sharing options for customers – from extended warranties to spare parts guarantees to complete plant-wide operations and maintenance. In those capacities, he leads cross-functional service teams to operate cohesively as one unit. He empowers the teams to optimize project results and create operational excellence. Before joining the SMA team, he worked for GE Power as a senior project manager for field execution. Prior to GE, he spent more than 10 years at Alstrom Power, serving in multiple roles during that time. Schuetz earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and energy technology at the University of Applied Sciences, Konstanz. He also earned an MBA in management and operations from the Robins School of Business. Schuetz speaks English, Spanish and German.

Massimiliano Pili has been working in the energy sector since 2000 with more than 12 years of experience in renewable energy overseeing the construction and operation of solar projects in Italy, Spain, Chile, Japan and Netherlands.Currently, he is Head of Engineering and Construction in Encavis, leading the construction of 500MWp of solar plants in Spain, after the successful completion of 106MWp in the Netherlands in 2018. He is also managing director of Encavis Technical Services GmbH, the in-house O&M service provider of the Encavis group.

Edwin founded Solarplaza company in 2004. He is a senior PV expert and started in the photovoltaic solar energy business in 1994. He has experience as a solar energy consultant and project developer in more than 200 PV projects. Edwin holds a Master’s degree in Chemical engineering and previously worked in the Chemical industry before starting his first consultancy company in PV in 1994.

Lisette Buist is the Events Team Lead at Solarplaza, the global platform for knowledge and network in the solar PV industry. She specializes in events focused on Solar Asset Management, as well as Solarplaza's Future of Energy series. Lisette is the president and co-founder of the Solarplaza Foundation, and a driving force in Solarplaza's Diversity & Inclusion efforts. She has previous working experience in business process management and production planning at AkzoNobel and holds a double Master's degree from the Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University) and ESADE Business School. Any excess energy that remains after setting the stage - or taking it herself, being a trained moderator - she shakes off through dance, field hockey, fitness and yoga.