Solarplaza Summit Finland

The Industry Advisory Board empowering the event

The combined wealth of knowledge, years of experience, and high-level network of our expert advisory board members help shape our program and enhance our event. Their involvement guarantees the practical and inspirational relevance of our event in the dynamic and ever-evolving solar landscape.

Alexander Rudberg

Country Director Finland

Alight

Eero Oksanen

CEO

Forus

Eero Oksanen is the CEO and founder of Forus. Oksanen has worked his whole career with sales of electricity and is an entrepreneur since 2007. Forus is one of the leading solar consultancy companies in Finland. Besides solar energy, Forus sells and develops financial services that can stop climate change profitably.

Juan Andrés García

Head of Development Europe

FRV

Juan Andrés Gracía is an Industrial Engineer with over 18 years of professional experience in Business Development and Project Management within the renewable energy sector for leading clean energy companies such as Acciona and FRV. He has had the opportunity to coordinate large wind, solar, and interconnection projects across Europe and Latin America, managing them from initial promotion to COD and achieving successful results. Currently, Juan focuses on leading Europe Business Development within FRV. His responsibilities include identifying new opportunities, originating projects, acquiring projects (M&A), establishing partnering structures, and developing and consolidating the company's pipeline.

Matti Parpala

CEO & Co-Founder

Will & Must Oy

Matti is the CEO and co-founder of Will & Must Ltd, which was founded to do more & talk less about advancing green transition and stop climate change. Since 2022, W&M’s focus has been on launching an industrial-scale solar power industry in Finland. Before entrepreneurship, Matti has gathered extensive experience as an executive, board member and consultant both in private and public companies and institutions. A graduate of Aalto University School of Business and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, he’s well versed to navigate complex challenges in the public-private interface.

Bo Nordberg

Director – Project & Structured Finance

Nordic Investment Bank (NIB)

Bo joined NIB’s Project & Structured Finance team in 2020. Prior to joining NIB, he was the Sector Head in Corporate & Institutions Corporate Credit at Danske Bank, responsible for the Construction, Industrials & Materials sectors. Before Danske Bank, Bo worked at the Danish Export Credit Agency, EIFO, where he was involved in several project-financed Renewable Energy projects

Amelia Oller Westerberg

Senior Consultant

SWECO

Amelia is an energy strategy and advisory consultant at Sweco, focusing on transactional advice, particularly technical and regulatory due diligence for RES and BESS in the Nordics. Previously, she worked as a PV market analyst with a diverse range of clients, including public agencies, utilities, project developers, and non-profit organizations. Amelia represented Sweden for two years in the IEA PVPS Task 1 (Strategic market analysis and outreach) and spent three years part-time on industry policies for a trade association in Brussels. She is also a frequent public speaker and co-author of several reports on solar PV market trends.

Speakers

Kyle Barth

Senior Consultant

Kyle Barth

Senior Consultant

Apricum

Kyle Barth is a Senior Consultant with Apricum, based in Berlin. Kyle’s focus is on strategy and transaction advisory in all areas of renewable energy, with recent emphasis on battery energy storage, solar PV and energy management and flexibility solutions. Previously, Kyle spent several years at ABB, in progressive strategy and business development roles focused on electrification, digital transformation, and facilitating the acceleration of the energy transition. Kyle has an MBA (from IESE Business School in Spain) and prior studied electrical engineering (at North Carolina State University in the US).

Gabriela Peña Balderrama

Senior Advisory Associate Nordics and Baltics

Gabriela Peña Balderrama

Senior Advisory Associate Nordics and Baltics

Aurora Energy Research

Gabriela is part of the Nordics & Baltics team based in Stockholm, providing advisory services and market forecasts for the energy sector. Over the past year, she has conducted approximately 15 battery valuations to support transactions and debt financing across the Nordics and Baltics. With nearly nine years of experience in the energy industry, Gabriela has been with Aurora Energy Research for over a year, focusing primarily on utility-scale batteries and ancillary markets.

Nils Kernell

Co-founder and CPTO

Nils Kernell

Co-founder and CPTO

Qurrent

Nils Kernell is the CPTO and co-founder of Qurrent, a market-leading optimization platform for battery storage systems and renewable energy. Before starting Qurrent, Nils spent many years in the technology industry, building and scaling tech-enabled products at a tech unicorn and one of Sweden's largest web platforms.

Kinga Charpentier

Partner, Energy & Infrastructure Corporate Finance

Kinga Charpentier

Partner, Energy & Infrastructure Corporate Finance

EY-Parthenon

Kinga brings extensive expertise in financial advisory within the energy and infrastructure sectors. With a career spanning over 20 years, including significant time in investment banking in London and Dublin, she has advised a diverse range of clients on complex domestic or cross-border mergers & acquisitions and debt financings in this sector. She is co-leading EY's Nordic Renewables team and also serves as the Energy & Industrials Leader for EY-Parthenon in Europe Central, demonstrating her deep commitment to accelerating the energy transition. Her insights are particularly valuable in navigating the financial complexities and investment opportunities within the rapidly evolving solar and energy storage landscape in the Nordics and beyond.

Elina Kärkimaa

Head of Engineering, Solar & Wind & BESS

Elina Kärkimaa

Head of Engineering, Solar & Wind & BESS

Fortum

Elina Kärkimaa is a known solar PV expert in Finland with over 12 years of experience from large-scale PV and BESS on several markets. She leads a versatile renewable energy engineering team in Finland's largest energy company Fortum Oyj, acts in Solar Power Committee of Renewables Finland, and has worked previously as energy consultant in Etha and leading both multi-GW project development and engineering teams in Ilmatar. Her motto is that all solar and BESS (or wind) that gets built should be built as smartly as possible to maximize its benefits for the society.

Mika Paloranta

CEO

Mika Paloranta

CEO

Skarta Energy

Twenty years in the energy/utilities industry. Previous positions include e.g., VP, Head of asset backed trading at Fortum and CEO of Auris Energia (active in gas sales and trading, and energy services). Last two years the CEO of Skarta Energy, currently the largest industrial scale solar producer (IPP) in Finland.