Solarplaza Summit | Hungary

Joshua is a renewable energy professional with over 12 years of commercial and technical experience in utility-scale battery storage and solar technology. Joshua is the Head of Storage at Econergy, a renewable energy IPP that operates across 6 different regions with over 450MW of solar, wind and battery storage projects under construction and 155MW of operation solar PV. He joined in 2021 to head the technical, commercial, and strategic aspects of the company’s stand-alone and co-located storage projects in the UK and also developing the overseas storage strategy. Econergy is currently building over 100MWh of battery storage projects in the UK and has a further 1GW of storage projects nearing ready to build. Before joining Econergy, he worked for a leading German inverter manufacturer, SMA Solar Technology, where he served as the technical expert for the UK and Ireland. He has been involved in the design and delivery of over 800MW of utility-scale solar and storage projects.

Istvan Pocs, Senior professional with more than 20 years of experience at various fields of management and 15+ year of experience in energy industry. During his career he managed energy projects between USD 50-500 million. Took leading part of developing Renewable Strategy of MOL Group, Hungarian Oil and Gas major, focusing to power generation projects, geothermal and biogas. From 2015 he founded leading Hungarian PV developer company, PANNON Green Power and managed over 35 PV projects in parallel across the country on an end-to-end basis. Member of various Hungarian think tanks, focusing to batteries, EVs and balancing market. He is recently joined to EDPR, strengthening wind and solar business development activities in CIS and Balkan region. Economist. Speaks on English, Russian, Hungarian.

After graduating at Corvinus University of Economics in 1995 Mihály has joined Structured Finance desk at ABN AMRO Bank Hungary. After few years he moved to the Bank’s Treasury department as a Corporate Sales manager. After the merger with K&H Bank in 2001 he was appointed to the Head of the Treasury Sales Department and in 2008 he became the Head of Financial Markets Department and the Treasurer of K&H’s Bank. In 2019 he was appointed to the Head of Specialized Financial Services & Financial Markets Directorates which covers K&H’s Project Finance, Real Estate Finance & Institutional Banking Client Services as well.

Sándor Végh, currently head of Structured Finance at Erste Bank Hungary Zrt. (EBH). Earlier he worked for BayernLB Group (MKB Bank, Hungary) in different manager positions. Sándor has 25+ years of experience in the banking sector, especially in the fields of project and structured finance as well as corporate finance. Sándor graduated in Finance at Corvinus University Budapest and holds a postgraduate degree in law (ELTE Budapest).

Evangelos is Aurora’s Head of Southeastern Europe, based in Athens. While at Aurora, Evangelos has gained extensive commercial due diligence experience in renewable energy and storage asset investments across Europe and Australia. He managed Aurora’s multi-client study on hydrogen and has also advised major developers and infrastructure funds on the business case of battery, pumped-hydro and compressed-air storage technologies. Before joining Aurora in November 2017, Evangelos spent 4 years at Imperial College London as a Research Associate at the Centre for Environmental Policy and a consultant with Imperial Consultants. He also co-authored the book ‘Energy innovation for the 21st century’. Evangelos holds a PhD in Engineering (Energy Systems) and an MSc with Distinction in Sustainable Energy Systems from the University of Edinburgh, and an MEng in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Csaba Polgár is one of the founding partners of Pontes Budapest. He leads the energy, infrastructure and project finance and arbitration groups in the Budapest office. His main areas are renewable project developments, acquisitions, divestments and financings, with special emphasis on solar projects. He also has substantial experiences in loan restructurings, NPL acquisitions and insolvency matters. Before establishing Pontes Budapest, Csaba spent more than seven years with Allen & Overy’s Budapest and London Offices working on energy matters and cross border M&A deals

Krisztina Vauver graduated from Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Law in 2001 and continued her studies in an LL.M. program in 2008. As a freelancer attorney-at-law and legal representative of more investors on the field of renewable energy, had a 10-years of experience in assisting renewable energy law sector in all aspects. Krisztina participated in the first solar power project in Hungary, followed by many more. She has been providing legal assistance to domestic and foreign investors in the renewable energy market since early 2008.

Ernő Kiss, President of the Hungarian PV and Solar Collector Association, has done voluntary work for the past decade to promote and encourage the spread and social acceptance of PV and solar collectors in the Hungarian market. Today the Hungarian PV and Solar Collector Association has more than 300 member companies that are active in the Hungarian solar industry. As a business owner, Ernő has invested in solar energy for 20 years. He has organized and executed several domestic and cross-border renewable energy investments. Market share of the company is significant in household and commercial sized solar systems, while PV power plants are also being implemented is succession. Currently, a total of 70 MW capacity is under construction.

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