Solarplaza Summit | Asset Management Europe

Janine Mehner has been a professional host for more than a decade. Her main topics are digitalization and sustainability, because she thinks, that can only work together and should be built up right from the beginning. She works for a lot of ministries, institutions, and enterprises all over the world.

Antonio Domínguez joined Quintas Energy in 2014 as an associate in the company’s Asset Management department. After becoming contract manager, he moved on to a Senior Analyst position within Quintas Analytics, before his promotion to Head of Analytics in 2021. Antonio graduated from the University of Pablo de Olavide in 2015, with a twin degree in Law and Business Administration. He went on to gain further qualifications in these subjects from Washington & Jefferson College in the USA, the Catholic University of Lyon, and Universidad Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid. As Head of Analytics, he has overall responsibility for the business unit’s activities, as well as for implementing business intelligence tools, developing process automation solutions, creating bespoke interactive reports for clients, and overseeing digitization projects within the renewable energy industry.

Right after passing exams as electrical engineer at RWTH Aachen University 1995 Heiner Breuer cofounded abakus solar AG and helped to develop the company from startup to an internationally acknowledged EPC and O&M service provider with a clear focus on high-quality solar PV assets. On the management board Heiner always had a focus on technology-related responsibilities like system development, engineering, quality control and asset management added with entrepreneurial aspects like sales, contract negotiations and stakeholder communication. In 2016 ENcome Energy Performance acquired abakus where he acted as CTO. From 2019 Heiner supported Edify Energy in Australia, focusing on utility-scale solar plus storage plants, as Technical Director. As of 2021 he is engaged as Senior Technical Expert as Obton, where he is leading the efforts to design future-proof “Solar+” power stations.

Christine Lins works as Executive Director of GWNET, the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition, which aims at empowering women in the sustainable energy sector. GWNET has more than 3.500 members from 150+ countries. Furthermore, she is Member of the Board of Directors of ISES, the International Solar Energy Society. From July 2011 until March 2018, Christine Lins acted as Executive Secretary of REN21, the Renewable Energy Policy Network of the 21st Century, headquartered at UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme in Paris/France. Between 2001 and 2011, Ms. Lins served as Secretary General of the European Renewable Energy Council. Previously, she worked in a regional energy agency in Austria promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. Ms. Lins holds a Master’s degree in international economics and applied languages. She has more than 25 years of working experience in the field of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.

Christian is the Managing Partner of Ernst Burghardt Assekuranzmakler GmbH. He is specialized in insuring international infrastructure & renewable energy projects in order to obtain the financing commitment from a bank or investor. As a global independent insurance broker, he has more than 20 years of experience, industry-specific expertise and detailed knowledge of the world's insurance markets. His career began at AON plc, London - the world's largest industrial insurance broker. Before joining Ernst Burghardt Assekuranzmakler GmbH, he was Managing Director of one of Europe's leading insurance brokers for renewable energy. His extensive insurance expertise is based on insuring international renewable energy projects of more than 5 GW capacity, which he accompanies during the development, construction & operation phases in more than 15 countries worldwide - mainly in the solar and onshore & offshore wind sectors. Moreover, he has been active as an official Lenders Insurance Advisor for banks, investors & project developers with large, international project portfolios for over 10 years. Christian has a university degree in Business Administration, a qualification as an international industrial insurance broker and holds a university certificate as an expert in offshore wind energy.

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 led energy projects throughout Europe as Senior Project Manager.

Niklas Will, CFA is Head of Operations Solar Central Europe at Encavis AG since 2020. In total Niklas has seven years of experience in the renewable energy industry. In his role he is responsible for the Asset Management of a 500 MWp portfolio of operational ground mounted solar assets. The portfolio comprises both subsidy-based and non-subsidy-based assets in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden. In the management of the 50 companies, his focus is on operational excellence for each SPV. Before he moved into the renewables sector Niklas gained substantial experience in the auditing sector in Germany for four years incl. a secondment at Cooper Parry in the UK. Niklas holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Hamburg School of Business Administration (HSBA) in which he specialized in finance. His profound interest in finance led Niklas to pursue the CFA Charter, which he was awarded in 2022. Since then, he is actively involved in the CFA Society Germany.

Jan Krcmar is the Executive director of the Czech Solar Association and a renewable energy consultant. Before taking over the management of the solar association in 2022 he was the chairman of the board for three years, overseeing topics such as new large-scale PV projects, subsidies and investment protection. Before that he was the communications director for Photon Energy NV, an international PV IPP.

Pietro Radoia is a senior solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. He joined BNEF's solar team in early 2011, and covers European PV markets, secondary PV market activity, and PV Levelized Cost of Electricity analysis. Before joining Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Pietro completed an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College, where he specialised in Environmental Economics & Policy. Prior to his postgraduate studies he worked for the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) in Brussels for two years.

Jan Willem has over 20 years of experience in the energy market and worked for some of the larger utilities. Early 2020, Jan Willem sold his previous companies Greenspread and Greencrowd to private equity concern NPM Capital. Since his departure in October 2020, Jan Willem works as an independent consultant at Stratergy. Stratergy advises funds, banks, utilities, and large consumers and producers of energy and specializes in maximizing asset value and minimizing financial risk.

Energized by constant change, curious and always learning

Charles Lesser is Partner and Head 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.

Leticia is a legal professional with over a decade of experience in complex banking transactions, regulatory analysis, and sustainable finance. As the Director of Sustainable Finance Advisory at Sustainable Capital Group, she leads experts in advising companies and investors on sustainability disclosures, emphasizing the application of the EU Sustainable Finance regulation. Leticia possesses profound knowledge of SFDR and EU Taxonomy, using regulation to leverage the impact of both companies and investors. Prior her focus on sustainable finance, she garnered over 5 years of experience in diverse banking operations both in Brazil and in the international context, including mergers & acquisitions, project finance, capital markets, and debt/corporate restructuring.

Neil Copeman, Global Head of Commercial, boasts 15 years of operational asset management and renewable energy expertise, coupled with a background in strategy and management consultancy. Since joining WiseEnergy in 2017, he has been instrumental in establishing the company’s Commercial function. Under his leadership, Neil has assembled a robust team of over 30 Commercial professionals and oversees teams located in London, Milan, Hyderabad, and Madrid. Over a span of approximately six years, he has expanded WiseEnergy's commercial asset management operations to encompass eight global locations, including the UK, Italy, India, US, Portugal, Chile, Spain, and Poland. Neil's responsibilities in commercial asset management span a broad spectrum, encompassing PPA revenue management, incentives and subsidy management, regulatory compliance, contract management, tendering and initial legal management, insurance renewals and claims, as well as general asset issue resolution and optimization. In addition to his core responsibilities, Neil has spearheaded the development of commercial asset management software and facilitated the establishment of WiseEnergy’s in-house Legal team. He has also been instrumental in building the company’s ESG practice, which he actively manages and develops. Furthermore, Neil holds a position on WiseEnergy's Senior Leadership Team and serves as an advocate for NextEnergy Group's LGBTQ diversity initiative. Neil brings a wealth of experience from previous roles, including expertise in acquisitions and divestments, onshore wind, DCF valuations, capital and fund raising, strategy execution and implementation, as well as managing shareholder and stakeholder relationships.

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.

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.

Rebecca McManus is the Renewables Lead at Aurora Energy Research.