Solarplaza Summit | Nordics

Following her studies in energy system engineering, Amelia Oller Westerberg has been involved in preparing the last four Swedish national survey reports for IEA PVPS. The task is focused around compiling the annual changes in installation volumes, price development and regulations at national level and together analyse the global trends. Within her employment at Becquerel Sweden, she also holds a position of Market analyst at the European Solar Manufacturing council, the industry organization representing the European upstream PV industry.

Anna Werner has a PhD in Physics and has a degree from the Stockholm School of Economics. She has worked for five years with energy policy issues on the Swedish Home Owners Association and is since October 1st 2019 CEO of the Swedish Solar Energy Association.

Mikkel joined Our New Energy as a Partner in 2019, and heads up the Nordic and UK markets. He came from a position as Head of Origination at Danske Commodities, where he was responsible for their +6GW renewables PPA portfolio. Our New Energy is the leading European PPA advisor having closed +2.5 GW of long term PPAs for unsubsidised assets across Europe. Mikkel Kring is a strong believer of hybrid projects (wind+solar), and predicts a rapid expansion of solar in particularly in Sweden and Denmark.

Alexander Esser founded and heads the dedicated Nordics & Baltics team based in Stockholm with 15 team members, offering advisory and forecasts for energy markets in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, and Norway. He has been with Aurora for 7 years and Previously, he led the continental commercial team and was part of the initial team building up the Berlin office. In his currently role, he oversaw more than 30 transactions and debt financing of wind, solar, battery and electrolyser assets and portfolios, as well as strategic projects such as the first project finance of an electrolyser for green steel in Sweden and the evaluation of capacity markets for Finland.

Johan is an Investment Manager in the Infranode team with more than 5 years of experience from M&A transaction. Since joining Infranode he has participated in several processes and transactions in the Nordic infrastructure space. Johan’s transaction and origination work is general across the Nordic region with responsibility for Infranode’s ESG related initiatives and he serves as a Director on the Board of Eneo Navitas AB and as Deputy on the Board of ElectriCity. Johan holds a M.Sc. in Finance and Strategic Management from Copenhagen Business School including an exchange semester at Singapore Management University. He is a native Swedish speaker and is fluent in English.

Frank’s journey in the solar market started in 2008. He co-founded KiesZon, the largest vertically integrated developer in The Netherlands, together with Gideon Overwater. The main reason to get into solar was to make the generation of energy with natural resources more accessible. After 5 years, they wanted to make a bigger impact and help other businesses to profit from the sun as well. For this reason they started a new company in 2014, PVO International. PVO takes care of the total procurement process for solar power developers and large scale EPC’s. The PVO formula helps her customers to reduce risks, to create flexibility, to obtain the best conditions and to assure highest quality standards. As commercial director Frank makes his impact in the Benelux, the Nordic region, Poland, South-East Europe and Australia.

Since 2003, Benedikt Ortmann, PhD, dedicates his career to photovoltaic projects all over the world. Before joining the team at BayWa r.e. in 2011, he built the international project business for SOLON SE in Berlin from scratch and turned it into a successful and highly profitable business division. His career in the renewable energy business started at S.A.G. Solarstrom AG, Freiburg, where he was CFO from 2003 until 2006. BayWa r.e. Solar Projects is one of the key driving solar development companies worldwide, providing greenfield development, turnkey construction, financing and sales of photovoltaic power plants. The company has installed a solar capacity of more than 3.4 GW and is a subsidiary of BayWa r.e., a part of the BayWa AG.

Andrea Viaro is Head of Sales EMEA at Stäubli Electrical Connectors AG. He holds a master's degree in materials engineering and already has more than 10 years of industry experience with other tier-1 module manufacturers and technical consultancies. Andrea contributes to the company's strategy and, together with his team, strengthens the global leadership position of Stäubli's growing eBOS portfolio. As the world's most installed PV connector, the Original MC4 continues to set new benchmarks in the industry thanks to Stäubli’s pursuit of excellence and innovation.

Andreas is Member of the BoD Obton Group Holding A/S, Partner and Co-head of acquisitions and financing at Obton A/S. He joined Obton as employee nr. 5 at Obton 11 years ago, which now counts over 300 people. Previously, Andreas has served as Board Member for Koncenton from 2016 to 2021. He is involved in solar since 2009.

Erik has 10+ years of experience as an energy economist and energy analyst. Since joining Pexapark in February 2021 Erik has supported solar, wind and offshore wind developments in PPA negotiations, valuations, and strategy across Europe. Prior to this Erik worked in Mexico as an independent consultant where supported utilities and institutional investors in their investments and PPA structuring in solar and wind projects. Erik also has 3 years' experience working in the US analysing natural gas and commodities in the North American. During this time, he advised utilities and investors on their energy assets, portfolio management and long-term planning.  Erik holds a dual masters focused on energy from Columbia University and Sciences Po, Paris and a BA in Politics and Economics from Lund University.

David Johann leads the European Sales at BELECTRIC, one of Europe’s leading EPC and O&M service providers in the development, construction and operation of solar power plants. He looks back on 12 years of experience in the solar industry. In his previous role at BELECTRIC, he served as Vice President Sales Operation for the BeNeLux market. He made a vital contribution to BELECTRIC assuming a strong position in the Netherlands with 160 MWp contracted EPC and O&M services. Before joining BELECTRIC in May 2010, David Johann spent five years working in different Financing positions in Industrial business. He holds a degree in business administration.

Anja Dehne is shaping the PV industry since 2004. She launched her career in solar energies as a Product Manager and continued to grow as a Key Account and Global Account Manager. Since December 2021 she acts as Senior Global Account Manager at meteocontrol and supports the strategic sales processes thanks to her extensive experience with international customers and projects in Asia, Australia, Europe and in the US.

Nikolaj Holtet Hoff is founder and CEO of Nordic Solar. Nikolaj holds a Master of Economics and has throughout his career worked in M&A, strategy, business development, and private equity. Nordic Solar was founded in 2010 and operates out of Copenhagen. The company develops, constructs, and operates solar parks in 12 countries across Europe. The operational portfolio is 325 MWp and the project pipeline for construction over the coming 3 years is 1,75 GWp covering Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Greece. Nordic Solar is a privately owned IPP with more than 650 shareholders and targets an IPO within the coming years. Nordic Solar has concluded both corporate and utility based PPA’s and is actively working on PPA solutions for its pipeline projects, which are all market price based.

Kasper Lind Christensen is the Head of Portfolio Management at EWII Energi, where he is responsible for the handling, pricing and balancing of EWIIs energy sales business and BRP-role. He has been with EWII since 2017, but has been in the energy business since 2008. The EWII Group is located in Denmark and is the Triangle Region’s local utility company (electricity, heat, water and fiber network). As a multipurpose utility company, we believe it is our responsibility that everything people take for granted works. We take good care of our shared infrastructure and with due care we ensure that our customers can take electricity, water, heating and fibre network for granted every day. The EWII Group helps shape the future of the energy industry and plays a central role in the development of intelligent solutions and sustainable energy technologies. We deliver tomorrow’s society through energy.

Niklas Korsgaard Christensen is the Managing Partner of Plesner and advises on the implementation of large complex projects, transfers and dispute resolution in the practice areas energy, infrastructure and construction. Niklas has special expertise in the practice areas energy, infrastructure and construction and advises on the implementation of large projects, the transfer of such projects and dispute resolution. Niklas is a certified arbitrator and holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge. He has considerable teaching experience and has been an external lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. Niklas is the Managing Partner of Plesner (since March 2021) and a member of Plesner's Board of Director (since 2018).

Peter Braun is Head of the Project Development and manager in the Nordic region - Sweden, Norway & Finland - in European Energy. Peter has extensive experience in all aspects of sales, business development and project management and has more than 20 years of experience in the energy business. Peter joined European Energy in 2021 and holds a Master of Science in International Business and languages.

Christoffer Caesar is the CEO of Soltech Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of Soltech. Christoffer has a vast knowledge of the renewable energy market after several years of international focus on complex wind- and solarpower solutions. His drive is a constant ambition to find new ways to create sustainable energysystems with focus on solar power to meet both the customers and the global Sustainable Development Goal.  

Amit Chauhan is the Business Development and Sales Manager (Nordics and Baltics) at Fluence. He is responsible for developing the region with customers and industry stakeholders to enable the growth of energy storage markets. As part of his responsibilities, he leads all the interaction with clients, about the benefits of Battery Energy Storage from the inception till the completion of the deal. Amit has worked previously with Siemens Corporate Technology in Distributed Control systems and for 5 years has been working in the different roles starting from Commissioning of hybrid power plants, Engineering, and presently leading Sales for Battery Energy Storage Systems. Amit holds a Bachelor of Engineering, and a Master of Science in European Master in Renewable Energy from Germany with Specialization in Grid Integration of Distributed Energy Resources from Spain.

Jørn Rosager is the Head of Development of Solar PV for Powertis Denmark. He has been working together with Soltec since 2010 where he started in Denmark, and has since then been working in several different regions. He has extensive knowledge within Agriculture, greenhouses and solar, and utilizes the combination of this knowledge to develop the best Agro-voltaic projects in Denmark, taking into consideration the biodiversity of the local areas.

Carlos Álvarez, Ph.D. in electrical engineering, joins Huawei in 2019 as director of the grid solution. His work focuses on the study of network codes and the integration of renewable energy into the electrical grid. It also participates in the standardization committees of the IEC, within the TC82, TC8 and TC120.

Mark is Chief Investment Officer in Better Energy and a solar energy finance expert with over ten years of experience in pioneering finance for solar energy across Europe. Global experience has provided Mark with great insight into how renewable project finance and the power markets work. He brings fresh perspectives and a deep understanding of global energy market dynamics and economic influences. Prior to co-founding Better Energy, Mark served several years as advisor in solar energy finance in London and as M&A Advisor at KPMG in London. He has more than 20 years of international business management experience, with particular expertise in international partnerships, mergers, acquisitions and divestments. Mark holds two graduate degrees, one in Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School and a second in Financial and Management Accounting from the University of Southern Denmark. In addition, he holds a Diploma in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Monterey International Institute, California.

Even Kvelland is the co-founder and COO of Glint Solar, a Norwegian software company whose platform helps leading solar developers quickly identify and analyze greenfield solar projects for both ground and floating PV. Prior to Glint, Even worked in a number of energy-related functions spanning consulting, business intelligence and diplomacy in Europe, Africa and the US. Even studied energy, economics and international affairs at Macalester College and Columbia University, respectively.

Nicola Kopij Zanin is a Project Manager for Solarplaza, part of Finance & Innovation team, contributing to the company's growth in markets worldwide. Prior to joining Solarplaza, he gained experience with EU development financing, having set up his own organisation. In the past, he held positions in different industries across Italy, Poland and the UAE. Nicola holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and Business from LUISS University in Rome and a Master's degree in Finance & Investments from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.