Solarplaza Summit | Asset Management Texas

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A native of the Panhandle, Alison left Texas 20 years ago to pursue a career in solar energy and couldn’t be happier that big solar has taken root the Lone Star State. After kick-starting her 15-year career with the German Solar Industry Association in Berlin, Alison has sold roof top solar, helped grow a US monitoring and controls provider into a global brand, took a short foray into supply chain and distribution, and is now happily focused on utility-scale projects. As the Business Development Manager for SOLV Energy’s Services Division, Alison rustles up new opportunities for the #1 Global Affiliated O&M Services Provider as ranked by Wood Mackenzie for five consecutive years. SOLV currently manages over 9.5 GW of renewable energy assets across the U.S. When she’s not working with IPPs and project owners to construct, operate, and repower their assets, she’s chasing her two kids or riding her horses through the sage brush.

Lauryn is an Asset Manager at Orsted Americas. She has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Francis Marion University. Lauryn has several years’ experience in the renewables industry, assisting on various sustainable initiatives during her time. She works directly on the Asset Management team for Onshore projects and has assisted in the management of ~800 MW of wind & solar projects. In the last few years, Lauryn & her colleagues have launched an initiative to outline a PV module EOL recycling program. They are driving the module recycling industry and earmarking Orsted Americas as an industry leader by banning landfilling of modules worldwide.

Michael Enger, currently the Director of Energy Market Operations, joined Austin Energy in 2001 after graduating from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Economics and a brief stint with a mutual fund company. Michael has spent nearly all of his 21 years at Austin Energy within the Energy Market Operations group performing or overseeing a variety of wholesale market and risk management tasks and projects but takes the greatest pride when identifying new opportunities, programs, or revenue streams that create additional benefit to the Austin Energy customer.

Dr. Janell Hills is Director of Workforce Programs at the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), an independent nonprofit working to build the foundation for rapid adoption of clean energy and energy efficiency. She has 17 years of experience in higher education, 13 years of experience in grant administration including development, implementation, and management. Dr. Hills has developed work-based learning and registered apprenticeship programs for innovative occupations such as pharmacy technician, information technology, and had the opportunity to enhance the plumber’s registered apprenticeship program by adding digital plumbing layout design equipment for course implementation. Dr. Hills is an enthusiastic leader who is passionate about education and workforce equity. She thoroughly enjoys creating sustainable and equitable career pathways for underrepresented and underserved populations and BIPOC communities.

Jeff Wang, an accomplished speaker and expert in the solar energy industry. Jeff holds a physics degree from the University of Hawaii and has been dedicated to the industry since 2006. With his expertise in DC cabling and connectors, Jeff has worked diligently to support customers in optimizing their CAPEX and minimizing their OPEX while improving safety in PV installation. He has had the privilege of visiting over 10GW of solar installation sites and has trained over 2000 installers since joining Staubli in 2017. Jeff is passionate about sharing his knowledge and expertise to help advance the industry. He has spoken at numerous conferences and events around the world and is always eager to learn from others.

Hilary Lefko is a Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright’s Washington D.C. office. She focuses her practice on all areas of federal income tax law, with a particular emphasis on tax controversy and renewable energy tax issues. She represents developers and investors in various energy and renewable energy projects, including transactions involving section 45 production tax credits, section 48 investment tax credits, and other renewable energy incentives. Most recently, Hilary has been advising clients on the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. She also advises US and foreign Tax planning for non-US businesses of US companies, offshore funds, domestic and international project finance and a variety of US inbound international business transactions. Earlier in her career, Hilary served as an aide to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and to Congressman Cal Dooley. Hilary frequently represents purchasers and sellers of ownership interests in single renewables projects and portfolios of renewables projects. She also advises US and foreign Tax planning for non-US businesses of US companies, offshore funds, domestic and international project finance and a variety of US inbound international business transactions.

Martin leads Aurora’s US Research team, responsible for all US power market analytics and modelling, including long-term market forecasting and nodal pricing. He has a decade of experience in the energy transition, including roles with system operators, and utilities. Martin holds a Masters in Sustainable Energy Systems from the University of Edinburgh and a MMORSE from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

Douglas Young is a Supervisor in the Portfolio Management Division of the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office (LPO). Prior to LPO, Doug served for 17 years as a key executive for MicroVest, an asset manager investing in both private debt and private equity in Emerging Market Micro and SME Financial Institutions. Doug began his career as an auditing professional and he spent four years in Santiago, Chile as a Senior Audit Manager for E&Y with clients in the Banking, Energy and Mining Sectors. Doug is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley’s MBA program and studied Accounting at Loyola University Maryland, where he has served as an adjunct instructor in the Finance and Accounting Departments for the Undergraduate and Graduate Programs. Doug resides in Arlington, Virginia.

Caitlin Smith, Vice President of Policy and Corporate Communications for Jupiter Power, is an energy professional with thirteen years of experience in electricity market policy, regulatory and government affairs. For the last ten years, she has focused on electricity market design and has worked both as an advocate for policies that enhance competitive energy markets and as an advisor on the commercial and financial impacts of energy policy. In her current role, Caitlin has responsibility for Jupiter Power's policy positions related to the commercial operations of utility-scale energy storage in power markets throughout North America and leads the company’s corporate communications and public relations. Caitlin has specific in-depth experience with the ERCOT market and was the first in-house counsel for the Independent Market Monitor to ERCOT. She is the current Vice Chair of ERCOT’s Technical Advisory Committee, the highest committee comprised of stakeholders, which makes recommendations to the ERCOT Board. She founded the Texas Energy Storage Coalition and is an active advocate in front of the Texas Public Utility Commission and the Texas Legislature. Caitlin is dedicated to promoting women in energy and policy and has been active in volunteering with the Gulf Coast Power Association’s EmPOWERing Women Program, with the Women of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Industries, and as a contributor to Pink Granite, a network and foundation that promotes women in policy and politics in Texas. Caitlin founded Jupiter Power’s Women’s Professional Development Initiative in 2022. Caitlin holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Economics from the University of Texas, a Juris Doctor from Pennsylvania State University, and a Master of Laws in Environmental & Natural Resource Law and Policy from the University of Denver.

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.”

Eric Wright is a senior research analyst with the Clean Energy Technology team at IHS Markit (now part of S&P Global) and is responsible for the North American solar photovoltaic market, with an emphasis on downstream analysis. He has a background in state-level policy analysis and project implementation and contributes to country-specific publications, project tracking, and forecasts. Previously, he has worked as an energy analyst, assessing integrated resource plans, renewable portfolio and energy efficiency standards, distributed energy projects, and impacts of utility rate cases and new plant investments on clients and utility customer classes. Mr. Wright holds a Bachelor of Science in environmental science from the University of Missouri and a Master of Science in Climate Change and Society from North Carolina State University, both in the United States.

Scott Macmurdo leads the sales team at Duke Energy Renewables, where he works to connect corporate and utility customers with large-scale solar, wind, and storage projects in ERCOT and throughout the United States. His work includes crafting offers, negotiating power purchase agreements, and managing customer relationships throughout the project development process. Prior to joining Duke Energy, Macmurdo worked in various capacities for NRG Energy, one of the nation’s largest independent power producers; the Corporate Eco Forum, a membership organization for sustainability executives; and the Council on Foreign Relations, a foreign policy think tank. Macmurdo is based in Austin, Texas.

Jaime Carlson is head of Commercialization and Market Risk at SB Energy, a climate infra-tech platform backed by Softbank and Ares Capital to develop high capacity solar and storage across the US. Prior to SB Energy, Jaime was Executive Vice President of Operations at Cypress Creek Renewables and Global Director of Finance at SunEdison’s TerraForm Group. Jaime also led M&A in the Americas for Rentech, Inc., a Blackstone-backed $550MM revenue natural resource company. Jaime served in President Obama’s first term as an advisor for finance and operations to former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. During her three years, Jaime directly oversaw the deployment of over $35B in Recovery Act funds. Bloomberg New Energy Finance named her one of the country’s thought-leaders in Alternative Energy. Jaime received an MBA and MEM from Yale University and a BS from Tufts University. She is currently a Yale University alumni board member, Friends of the LA River board member, Aspen Institute scholar, advisor to UCLA’s Institute for Environment and Sustainability, and Truman National Security Project fellow.

Mr. Kezell is currently Director of Weatherization and Inspection at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Over the last ten years he has also worked in Senior Director and Director roles at CPS Energy in San Antonio, Texas and Seminole Electric Cooperative in Tampa, Florida respectively. Previously he worked with WorleyParsons (now Worley) in Reading, Pennsylvania and Chattanooga, Tennessee in several roles including Project Manager, Director of Construction Management, and General Manager of Chattanooga Operations.  Earlier in his career he worked for an independent power producer and consulting engineering firms in the San Francisco Bay area in California.  While there he helped to develop and execute new power projects and worked as an air quality compliance consultant. He is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and Arizona State University and is a licensed Mechanical Engineer in California.  David and his wife Anjanette are proud parents of three grown children.

Keith is a renewable and solar industry veteran with extensive international experience. He has worked in several leadership roles. Most notably he was an executive at technology provider Solmetric, which was acquired by Vivint Solar in 2015. At Vivint, Keith oversaw launching Vivint's C&I division. He has held executive level positions at HiQ and Sea Bright Solar. He is a regular speaker at industry events on the topic of cybersecurity for the grid. He received an MBA from Fordham Business School and holds degrees in Chemical Engineering and Economics from Rutgers.

Hesston Klenk is an experienced leader and policy and government relations specialist. His extensive experience includes land use policy, water policy, energy policy, renewable energy development, air quality, and state/federal permitting. Hesston currently leads state government relations in the Western and Central U.S. at AES Clean Energy. In this role Hesston and his team focus on policy initiatives which impact an evolving energy sector where he has a proven track record of finding common ground between government, private industries, landowners, and environmental groups on many complex issues. Prior to joining AES Clean Energy in 2022 Hesston spent 18 years working in the mining industry where he focused on government relations, communities and social performance, and Native American engagement. Hesston has led functional teams in several countries around the globe including Peru, Chile, and Australia.

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Cory leads the finance and accounting functions at Spearmint. Cory brings 15 years of infrastructure development experience working with world class investment funds at Blackrock, JP Morgan and Blackstone. His teams have raised $8B+ of project capital and successfully developed and constructed over 4 GW of power generation capacity across the globe. He is a Certified Public Accountant and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.