Solarplaza Summit | Energy Storage USA

Tom Colebatch is a Managing Director in Macquarie’s Commodities and Global Markets (CGM) group based in New York, with a focus on structured transactions including debt, equity and risk management across power and environmental markets. Tom’s is responsible for origination in the U.S. grid-scale energy storage space, including provision of structured finance, equity, offtake and hedging offerings to clients.

John D’Anna is President of Horizon Energy, where he leads national-scale solar and storage initiatives with a focus on innovation and operational excellence. A licensed Professional Engineer with over a decade of experience, he has delivered more than 5 GW of renewable energy projects and built high-performing teams that drive strategic growth. His background in systems integration and business leadership uniquely positions him to navigate the technical and commercial complexities of clean energy. John’s experience makes him a strong voice on grid integration, energy storage, and scaling renewables.

Drew Weiner is a Commercial Structuring Manager at Orsted, where he leads project business case development with a focus on revenue strategy, offtake structuring, and project financing for large-scale renewables and storage. His work spans risk management, procurement strategy, and other key commercial activities that shape project returns and investment decisions.

Communications and negotiation Expert. International, resourceful, dynamic business leader with 30 plus years’ oil and gas diversified experience. Government Liaison assisting companies navigate the system. Provided Governmental options and services through available federal and state apprenticeship grant awards and incentives. Extensive knowledge of global markets. Subject Matter Expert on requirements of Apprenticeships and Prevailing Wage IRA responsibilities. Highly effective in a time-constrained and high-pressured environments, achieving desired results while maintaining customer loyalty.

Coming soon

Sam Thomas is a visionary IT, OT, and Cybersecurity leader with more than 17 years of experience driving technology transformation, operational resilience, and business growth across the energy and renewables sector. He currently serves as Vice President of SCADA Delivery – North America at Power Factors, where he leads delivery operations, customer engagement, and strategic initiatives that advance the digital backbone of renewable energy assets. Previously, Sam held senior leadership roles at Western Midstream, NextEra Energy, and Occidental Petroleum, where he directed large-scale IT and SCADA programs, modernized cloud and infrastructure platforms, and strengthened cybersecurity postures in high-availability, regulated environments. He has successfully led teams of nearly 300 professionals, delivered multimillion-dollar global technology programs, and advised executives and boards on IT governance, compliance, and operational risk. Sam holds dual master’s degrees—a Master of Science in Computer Engineering and an MBA in International Business—as well as advanced certifications in cloud computing and leadership from the University of Texas at Austin and the London School of Business Administration. His expertise spans SCADA and ICS systems, NERC-CIP compliance, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), enterprise data management, and cybersecurity frameworks.

Nick Maynard has been with Arevon for nearly four years and has more than 15 years of experience in engineering, construction, and the project management of large commercial and utility-scale photovoltaic & BESS projects in the United States and Guam. His experience in renewable energy includes engineering, finance, and construction support for greenfield development and merger and acquisition projects. Before joining Arevon, Nick led the design, installation, and commissioning of approximately 2.0GWdc of solar PV projects, amounting to approximately $2 billion in capital. Since joining Arevon, Nick has engineered another 1.5GWdc of PV and 760MW of BESS in California, Nevada, and Indiana. As the Senior Director of Engineering, Nick’s responsibilities include executive reporting, the establishment of processes and procedures, fatal flaw analysis, negotiation of EPC technical language, review of QA/QC reports, cold and hot commissioning, and owner engineer’s support. Nick obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

Nicolas leads the operations and maintenance for the large scale renewable plants at TotalEnergies Renewables USA. He has previously implemented the “technical asset management” activity for TotalEnergies Headquarters in Paris for its worldwide fleet. With academic degrees from MinesParis Tech and the Grenoble INP in France, Nicolas has been working for the last 12 years in large energy corporations (AES, EDF, TotalEnergies) but also startups. His contributions allowed better competitiveness through operational excellence initiatives, digital tools, KPI creation and market intelligence.

Coming soon

In a twist to the usual format, this session will end with one spontaneous speaker from the audience. One attendee will be chosen live to share their biggest insight and a bold outlook for what’s next. No slides, no prep just one unscripted moment to close the session with a spark.

Raafe is Camelot's Head of Energy Storage at Camelot Energy Group. He brings a great depth of knowledge across the energy storage project lifecycle having held tactical and leadership positions at TATA Power (public utility), Mortenson Construction (EPC), Sunnova Energy Corporation (finance + asset management), Pine Gate Renewables (project development), and Visteon Corporation (product development). His interdisciplinary approach has resulted in over 5 GW of operating projects (wind + solar + storage) and over 25 GWh (storage) across the United States. He is a recipient of several national and international awards, including being a Forbes Under 30 honoree in the field of energy. An ardent advocate for energy access and equity, he is an accredited lecturer for the Battery MBA program and devotes his time to educating stakeholders in the energy storage space about technical and commercial challenges from the cell to a fully functional container system. Raafe has a Bachelor's in Electrical & Electronics Engineering degree from Manipal University and a Master's in Energy Science, Technology & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Sara Marra-Medeiros has built her career in the clean energy manufacturing space, with a background at SolarEdge and JA Solar, where she supported EPCs, developers, and commercial partners across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Today, she is based in Charlotte, NC and leads efforts at enSights, the only complete business energy management platform. Her work focuses on helping solar and storage teams streamline O&M, asset management, and storage workflows through an AI-enhanced EMS—reducing response times, improving uptime, and making data actionable.

Natalie has become a valuable asset in the energy industry, specializing in land management and title curative issues. She's got a talent for chasing and closing deals, organizing projects from concept to finish, and coaching agents through landowner negotiations. She loves working in the land industry because she's always learning something new. Hailing from Beaumont, TX, Natalie and her husband have made a home in Shiner, TX, where they've taken on the rewarding task of raising two adopted daughters. At Dudley, Natalie brings enthusiasm and dedication to our team, sharing her wealth of knowledge and expertise with our clients and contract land agents.

Bill Kost is the Energy & Power Advisory Leader at Marsh, based in Houston, Texas, overseeing risk management and insurance solutions for sectors like power generation, renewables, and petrochemicals. With over 19 years of experience in the global energy industry, Bill specializes in complex insurance claims and specialty insurance products such as parametric and weather insurance. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri and a Master’s in Environmental Science and Management from UC Santa Barbara. Bill is an Associate in Enterprise Risk Management (ARM-E) and a Licensed Broker across all 50 U.S. states.

Doug Sheridan is Managing Director & Founder of EnergyPoint Research in Houston, Texas. His professional background and interests includes energy, energy transition, energy policy, corporate finance, capital markets, economics, economic policy, project evaluation, customer satisfaction, and market and data analysis. He has been published, cited and featured in numerous national and global publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNBC, Fortune Magazine, The Sunday Times, and other trade, business and financial media worldwide. Sheridan holds a BA in economics and English from Vanderbilt University, and a MBA in finance, marketing and general management from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He is a native and resident of Houston, Texas.

Marianna Rasamoela is a Senior Manager of Energy Markets at Avantus, the largest independent solar and storage developer in the US. With her deep expertise in energy markets and modeling, she leads revenue analysis that contributes to financing and PPA negotiations. Her decade-long journey in the energy industry has seen her expertise span across supply chain and energy markets. She began her career at PowerAdvocate (now Wood Mackenzie), where she worked with utilities to optimize their Transmission & Distribution (T&D) spend. In her subsequent role on the trade floor at Southern California Edison, Marianna was instrumental in onboarding and strategizing for the first co-located solar plus storage power plants, marking a significant milestone in the industry. Marianna holds a Master's degree in Economics and Energy from Johns Hopkins, SAIS.

Vanessa is a senior analyst with our Energy Transition Practice, covering the U.S. energy storage market with a particular focus on grid-scale battery storage. Before joining Wood Mackenzie in 2021, Vanessa was a battery storage analyst specializing in downstream revenue analytics and long-term price forecasting. Earlier in her career she was an analyst in North American natural gas infrastructure and power markets at Genscape, now a Wood Mackenzie company. Vanessa is also a committee member and mentor with She’s in Power; a Colorado C3E program designed to grow and inspire women to be clean energy leaders. Education: BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder

Terry Wang leads market strategy for battery storage at SunCode. Prior to joining Suncode, Terry Wang has been a veteran in energy storage sector, focusing on market and commercial analysis and supply chain management. He worked previously as senior manager of energy storage at Clean Energy Associates, manager of market and commercial analytics at Aypa Power, and led finance and market analytics at Prisma Energy. Terry received his MBA from Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

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.

Vikram Bagri is a Director at Citi Research covering the Alternative Energy, Renewables and Refining sectors in North America, having re-joined the firm in 2023. Prior to this, he has over a decade of experience on the sell-side covering the Engineering & Construction, Exploration & Production, Midstream Energy and Refining sectors at firms such as Citi, Jefferies and Needham & Company. Immediately prior to joining Citi, Vikram covered the Alternative Energy space at Needham & Co.

Tiffany Wang is a senior analyst on the Clean Energy Technology team at S&P Global Commodity Insights. She provides strategic market research on both behind the meter and front of the meter energy storage with a focus on the North American market. Tiffany holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Coming soon

Eula Billaut is a Project Engineer at EPRI with a background in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley. Her work centers on BESS safety and emerging energy storage technologies, and supports the deployment of safe, reliable, affordable, and environmentally responsible energy storage across the grid.

Pooja Shah is a Senior Consultant on DNV’s Energy Storage and Emerging Technologies advisory in North America. Ms. Shah is a leading expert on energy storage development and clean energy project finance. At DNV, she leads the technical due diligence practice for Production Tax Credits (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC) transfer transactions across solar, wind, and storage technologies. She has served as a senior manager and energy storage expert across several utility-scale tax equity, debt, and tax credit transfer deals. Prior to joining DNV’s Independent Engineering team, Ms. Shah led Owner’s Engineering services for energy storage at DNV and was a lead engineer at Kiewit Energy before that, where she supported project development, engineering, and design on some of the largest solar and energy storage projects in North America. Pooja earned her Masters of Science in Systems Engineering with a focus on renewable energy systems from Syracuse University, New York.

Joe Nasser is the Senior Director of Origination at Titus Low Carbon Ventures, where he leads power origination efforts across utility-scale projects and cutting-edge solutions for AI data centers in ERCOT, MISO South, and SERC. With over a decade of experience in the Texas power market, he brings a deep, cross-functional background in trading, operations, planning, and development strategy.

Aaron Barker is Director of Due Diligence at Fractal Energy Storage Consultants, where he oversees financial and technical evaluations for utility-scale battery storage projects and portfolios totaling over 10GWh of planned capacity. He supports battery developers to make better investment decisions in volatile markets. Aaron specializes in systems engineering, technoeconomic analysis, and optimization for hybrid energy systems, with deep expertise in how sourcing constraints, policy shifts, and technology choices impact long-term project value. Previously, Aaron was a Senior Researcher at NREL, where he led analysis for the Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform and was Principal Investigator on the MIRACL microgrids and resilience project. His early career focused on offshore renewables and O&M strategy as part of the €23M LEANWIND and €13M MARINA EU wind energy initiatives. Aaron holds a Ph.D. in Renewable Energy and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from University College Cork. He brings a unique blend of technical rigor and commercial insight to today’s challenges; from navigating battery tariffs and evolving OEM contracts to helping developers respond strategically to policy or market-driven pricing shifts.

Jim Stuart serves as NERC’s associate director for Registration, having been with NERC for more than 15 years in various compliance and other roles. In his current role, he is responsible for ensuring that the NERC registry accurately reflects the function each registered entity performs associated with reliable operation of the bulk power system. Prior to joining NERC, Mr. Stuart worked as an auditor with WECC when the NERC Reliability Standards became mandatory and enforceable for the first time. Prior to that, he spent more than 20 years in various engineering and management roles in bulk power system operations at a large investor-owned utility in the Western Interconnection. Mr. Stuart earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Utah State University.

Jenny Speck advises clients on the qualification for and the monetization of energy transition tax incentives. She has worked on a range of energy transition projects, including onshore and offshore wind, solar, combined heat and power, biogas property, carbon capture, hydrogen and clean fuel credit projects. She has firsthand knowledge of the carbon capture industry, having served as the senior manager of tax and regulatory compliance at Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC from April 2022 through October 2023. At Navigator, Jenny led all aspects of tax qualification, utilization and reporting compliance for federal income energy tax credits and served as Navigator’s sole liaison with the US Department of Energy. She was recruited and served as an independent Merit Reviewer of the Department of Energy loan program for carbon capture and storage demonstration projects. Jenny also provides tax advice on traditional purchase agreements, including the sale and purchase of tax credits, joint ventures, financings and other general transactional work.

Dr. Scharf leads SkyTerra at the leading edge of AI, automation, solar and battery innovation and integrated energy solutions, from microgrids to utility-scale infrastructure. His peer-reviewed work in Science and Nature on silicon-rich anodes and AI-guided X-ray tomography underpins two patented platforms now moving from pilot lines to grid deployments. previously, he scaled lithium-ion cell production at Tesla’s battery manufacturing and, at Accenture, advised global utilities on battery adoption and grid modernization. By optimizing energy-storage supply chains and advanced materials, he has delivered more than $650 million in cost savings and steered multi-megawatt storage and solar projects from concept through commissioning. Jonathan regularly briefs utility boards and investors on technical risk and market viability, blending deep engineering fluency with sharp commercial insight. He also serves as Chair of the State Membership Committee at CleanTX, forging alliances with EPCs, OEMs and energy operators to accelerate technology adoption statewide.

ucian Gavriliuc is Executive Director of E3 Consulting’s Energy Storage practice, where he advises developers, investors, and insurers on utility-scale battery energy storage projects across ERCOT, CAISO, and PJM. A licensed Professional Engineer and IEEE Senior Member, he brings nearly two decades of experience in technical due diligence, interconnection strategy, EPC and O&M contract negotiations, and lifecycle cost modeling. He has supported transactions exceeding $80 million and guided construction-phase reviews for projects up to 650 MWdc PV and 272 MWh BESS. Before joining E3, Lucian was Senior Project Engineering Manager with Trina Storage and held senior engineering roles at Fluence, Hargrove, and Wood. His background spans utility-scale solar, storage, and industrial power systems, with expertise in system protection, grid compliance, and risk management. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Technology (Power) from the University of Houston, magna cum laude, and an MBA from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.Active in the power industry since 2004, his technical background spans evaluation of electrical equipment—including medium- and low-voltage transformers, motors, switchgear, motor control centers, and variable frequency drives. Mr. Gavriliuc also has experience with uninterruptible power supplies for 125VDC switchgear control systems and inverters for 208Y/120V three-phase AC systems. He has designed electrical power systems in compliance with engineering standards and codes such as IEEE, NEC, NFPA 70E, the NESC, and ANSI. He has also conducted power system studies for both utility-scale and renewable energy (solar PV) markets. An active member of IEEE, he stays current with industry trends and emerging technologies. Mr. Gavriliuc holds a BS in Electrical Technology (Power) from the University of Houston, graduating cum laude, and an MBA from the University of Georgia and is a registered professional engineer.

Steve joined Delafield Energy in 2024 and has over 20 years in the utility and energy industry. He's held leadership roles across North American RTO/ISOs focusing on transmission, renewables, and battery storage. Steve holds an MBA from Indiana Kelley and enjoys reading, running, and outdoor activities in Colorado.

-

Business Developer at Solarplaza