Solarplaza Summit | Nordics

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thomas Dorsch is an experienced Sales and Marketing Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the renewables and environment industry. He holds a Master’s degree (M.B.A.) from University of Applied Sciences Würzburg. From 2012 to 2018, Thomas Dorsch worked as Head of Sales & Marketing at one of BELECTRIC’s former subsidiaries. In 2018, he started his journey at BELECTRIC. After being in charge of the company’s Sales Germany as well as Global Marketing & Sales Coordination, he took over the position of Head of Sales Germany & Nordics in 2023.

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.

Vítor is currently the Technical director utility Europe of LONGi Solar since 2020. He has spent 14 years at TÜV Rheinland and brings extensive PV know-how in different areas including auditing and inspecting factories and installations in Europe, Asia, and South America, supervising construction and evaluating performance, as well as undertaking safety inspections and performance enhancement of PV plants worldwide.

Barbara joined SunMind at the creation of the team within VINCI Concessions in 2019. She firstly worked on the structuration of the offers in France, Portugal, Greece and Sweden and developed the first projects of SunMind. She is now responsible for the opening of the office in Sweden with the objective to develop solar utility scale projects. She holds a double degree in Management with an MSc in Finance from EDHEC Business School. SunMind, a subsidiary of VINCI Concessions, is dedicated at developing, financing, construction and operating solar photovoltaic plants in the long term.

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.

John founded Flower in 2020 during his engineering studies at Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Flower has since grown to become the leading RTMA and optimizer of BESS in Sweden, and with a growing presence across many European markets. In Sweden Flower is responsible for trading more than 80 % of all batteries.

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.

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.

Starting November 2022, Max manages Solkompaniet's Utility business, driving origination, development and EPC for large scale solar projects. Max joined Solkompaniet as Chief Revenue Officer in April 2022. Max holds a MSc in Engineering Physics from Uppsala University. He has experience from consulting, banking, tech, media and retail gained at Accenture, Swedbank, Bonnier, Adlibris and Semantix. Solkompaniet is a pioneer in Swedish PV, our founders started all the way back in 2002. In 2022, Solkompaniet revenues exceeded SEK 780 million and employed over 200 experts. The business spans professional training, PV system wholesale, C&I projects, through Utility scale EPC-projects to origination and development. We’ve delivered over 1200 projects so far, and our Utility business has the largest origination and development pipeline in Sweden. Solkompaniet’s majority owner is Axsol, whose philosophy is to invest and support disruptive companies active in the solar energy industry. Axsol is part of Axel Johnson, a family business founded in 1873 and now run by the fourth and fifth generations.

After his master's thesis about the Internationalisation of the PV Industry Raphael started his career in 2011 working for Q-Cells and later Ingeteam. Since 6 years he has been working at Sungrow, now leading the Nordic region.

Maria Merdzhanova heads the Sales team covering Eastern and Northern Europe, UK & Ireland within Jinko Solar. Maria joined Jinko Solar in 2011 where she has been responsible for sales and business development. Maria is cooperating on regular basis with EPC companies, distributors, and investors, representing Jinko Solar in sales contracting negotiations, as well as working closely with developers and energy consultants in the region. Her strong experience in PV industry as well as her business background makes her an expert in her field.

Founded wind developer Kraftö AB in 2006 with a track record of developing and constructing 500MW+. Held various management positions. Joined Soltech Energy Solutions in 2015 as CEO and transformed the company from a small consulting firm into a 60 million euro developer, EPC, and O&M provider in large-scale solar energy and energy storage. Specializes in business modeling and commercial structures for renewable energy projects.

Ghada Alafranji is a seasoned technical sales professional working alongside the business team at RatedPower, a deep tech company that offers a cloud-based software to instantly carry out the design and engineering of solar plants and reduce energy costs, ultimately maximizing project profitability. With a background in sustainable and renewable energy engineering, Ghada blends her business acumen with solid technical knowledge. At RatedPower, she is responsible for the Nordic region (Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden), ensuring exponential growth within these markets and the development of RatedPower’s technology.

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Nicola Kopij Zanin is a Managing Director for Solarplaza Consultancy. Prior to joining Solarplaza, he gained experience with EU development financing, having set up his own organization. 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.