Solarplaza Summit | Spain

Marta del Amo is a science and technology journalist with more than 13 years of experience, in which she has worked for national and international media and public institutions. Since 2022 she has been the editorial coordinator at Retina, the technology media of Grupo Prisa. She made her debut as an editor in the Science section of Diario Público; she then spent three years in the Communications Department of CSIC, the largest public research organization in Spain; and for almost nine years she has been editor-in-chief of MIT Technology Review Spanish edition, the Spanish edition of the oldest technology media in the world. For more than two years she published a weekly column on technology in El Español and collaborated with other specialized media such as Forbes. She also combines her work as a journalist with public appearances as a speaker and master of ceremonies at events focused on innovation, technology and science.

Mr Kim Keats is a Director at K4K Training & Advisory. Kim started his career in economic consulting at London Economics in 1995 and joined the new London office of ICF International in 2000. Joined IPA Energy + Water Economics in 2007 developing and leading the transaction team based in London until the end of 2014 when he relocated full time to Madrid. Set up the market advisory team at K4K (www.k4kadvisory.com). His primary focus on the preparation of market studies to support and inform financing, refinancing, IPOs and M&A of power, fuel and water desalination projects in Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Asia and the Americas covering both conventional and renewable generation technologies on behalf of major international project developers, financiers and fuel suppliers. Over the past 17 years, Kim has supported the successful completion of 47GW and 471MIGD of capacity with a transaction value of more than USD32 billion. He has worked in Spain since 1998 advising on a variety of thermal and renewables projects and for different clients.

Miguel holds a double degree in Energy Engineering and International Finance. He has previous quantitative analysis and M&A experience. During his 12+ years working in the energy markets, he held the positions of Head of Portfolio Management at Enovos and Vice President for Origination at Danske Commodities amongst others. He develops the project behind Our New Energy to provide an answer to the need for an independent, transparent and reliable partner in the energy transition journey.

With a 14-year track record in the world of energy, he began in the consulting field leading the energy procurement department at Creara Consultores giving advice to energy purchasers for more than 6 years. After that, he moved to Nexus Energía to bring market representation services for renewable producers for two years. On 2017 he joined Engie in the Global Energy Management area, starting as a manager of large accounts and finally as a sales manager, participating in the closing of several PPAs since the first ones in 2018. After a 5-year career at Engie, in mid-2022 he joined Enerparc, as PPA Origination Manager.

With over sixteen years of experience in the PV sector, Carolina Nester's career began in 2007 as a solar module manufacturing Process Engineer spanning into the field of solar installation permitting, design, construction management, commissioning and subsequent supervision and control of solar assets. In 2012 she diversified her experience in the area of PV consulting supporting the development and management of net metering solar installations. The experience gained through 2014 allowed her to make the transition to the discipline of Asset Management covering the Technical and Commercial Asset Management scope of the discipline managing assets for a total of 200 MWp. Since joining Sonnedix in 2017, Carolina has evolved into the role of Head of Asset Management for Iberia being responsible for the overall performance and optimization of a 300 M€ revenue solar asset portfolio. Carolina holds an Industrial Mechanical Engineer degree by Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.

Alejandro D. Rosell is a lawyer by education who started his career involved in the International Business Development Area working for ICEX in the Spanish Embassy in Brazil. After practicing as a Foreign Trade Expert for 2 years in Euroestudios Infrastructure and Engineering Company he entered the renewable energy and solar energy market as an International Development Manager for Elecnor-Atersa group. Later on he was hired to develop the Emerging market area for Photon magazine as an Editor, and Market Research Expert. During 5 years he acquired a deep knowledge of the Photovoltaic Solar Market, mainly dealing with emerging areas such as Latin America, Africa an EMEA regions. In 2013 Alejandro founded and managed SunAdvisors as an advisory service for emerging companies dealing with the international solar market. All while keeping on writing as a journalist in different media and offering advisory services for companies such as SATEC, Generalia, Grupo Clavijo and Energías Renovables. Alejandro is a skilled professional in solar energy, international business, market research and analysis and keeps a large list of high profile contacts within the industry.

Tomás García is the lead Senior Director of the Energy & Infrastructure Advisory practice in Spain & Portugal at JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) since April 2020. In this role, he leads the team providing transactional and financial advisory services for renewable energy assets in Iberia. Prior to this, Tomás was the Managing Director of the Solar & Wind Projects business in Spain & Portugal at BayWa r.e. (2019). Prior to this role, he was the Head of Business Development EMEA, Energy Group at Canadian Solar (2017-2018). Before that he served at SunEdison as General Manager, Rural Electrification EMEA (2014-2015) and as Head of Strategy & Market Development EMEA & LATAM (2011-2014). Before that Tomás was Market Strategy Manager at First Solar (2008-2011) and a Strategy Consultant at the Monitor Group (2004-2008). Additionally, he has also worked as a Venture Capitalist, Research Scientist (doing science on solar PV materials), University Teacher and FX Trader. Tomás was a PhD student at Florida International University, earned his MSci at King’s College London and his Masters degree in Physics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He is fluent in Spanish and English and functional in Italian.

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Shaheer Hussam is an American energy sector executive with 19 years of experience in Europe, the U.S., & Latin America. As Senior Director of Europe with Clean Power Research, Mr. Hussam focuses on renewables data & analytics for IPPs, technical consultancies, and asset managers. Mr. Hussam is a graduate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Burchard Scholar. He is based in Helsinki, Finland, and was previously in Boston, Mexico City, and Washington, D.C.

Estefanía Orellana is Sungrow's Senior Manager of Claims of Contracts for the European Region. As a lawyer with dusty boots, she has 8 years of experience in management of infrastructure and renewable projects and has coordinated on-site activities of EPCs, BOP, Supply and Service Contracts as well as all related major subcontractors in projects throughout Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. Offsite, she has led negotiations of key supply contracts for 3 GW of PV projects and 1 GW/h for Energy storage projects. She holds an LLM in international commercial Law from Heidelberg University (Germany) and is currently listed as a Professor of Commercial and International Law at the Santiago University and Diego Portales University in Chile.

Lluis Juncosa is the Director of EMEA Operations and Maintenance at Canadian Solar. In his role, Lluis is responsible for overseeing O&M operations on utility scale sites within EMEA region. Lluis is also involved into the future O&M growth and expansion. Lluis is having over 15 years of experience in operating solar assets and over 500MWp of utility scale solar. Prior of joining Canadian Solar, Lluis was working in companies like SunPower or Trina Solar. Lluis has an Electronical Engineering Diploma and renewable energy Master degree from Polytechnic University in Barcelona (Spain).

Lucía is the Head of the Energy practice at Ontier. She has extensive experience in renewable energy transactions and international bidding processes, advising national and international clients in the acquisition and construction of renewable assets. Lucia graduated in law at University of Santiago de Compostela, followed by a Master's Degree in Legal Consultancy at Instituto de Empresa (IE). She complemented her studies with courses in Communication in Business from Harvard University (Boston, MA) and Private International Law at The Hague Academy of International Law (The Hague, Netherlands). In 2009 she began her professional career in the legal department of Gestamp Group, which and continued in Cobra, the industrial subsidiary of ACS Group. In 2014 Lucia joined the Corporate Department of BDO Abogados, where she provided legal advice to national and international companies, especially in contracting, corporate restructuring and company acquisitions; additionally, she collaborated with the Real Estate department. Lucía joined Ontier in 2017, forming part of the Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions department until her appointment as partner of the Energy Area in 2022. Within her teaching experience, highlight her participation in the steering committee and as a professor of the course on renewable energy law at the University of Navarra, in addition to being a collaborating professor at the Instituto de Empresa (IE) and the University Pablo de Olavide. She has also participated as author and co-author in numerous specialized legal publications. Member of the Madrid Bar Association.

With a degree in Business Administration granted by the Comillas Ponitificia University and a Senior Management program coursed in one of the most prestigious Business Schools in Europe (Instituto de Empresa ), I started my professional career in KPMG where I spent 6 years working in the Auditing and Transaction services departments in Madrid. In 2001 I left KPMG and joined Banco Español de Credito (Banesto), one of the major Spanish banks as Executive Director within the Capital markets division, heading the Infrastructure finance department. After 8 years in Banesto, I decided to leave the banking sector and moved to FRV to become Head of Business Development. After two years taking care of the international expansion of the company into new markets I was appointed as Chief Investment Officer and Treasurer. I´m responsible of the fundraising activities within the FRV group including both debt and equity as well as the M&A business. I’m also member of the FRV Executive Committee

Victoria has spent the last 13 years working on Origination and Development of renewable energy projects, specializing in photovoltaic solar energy. She has worked in major companies in the industry, from utilities to EPCs. Her work covers from the greenfield phase to COD and she has experience in various European countries (Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom) and Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Honduras). She also worked as Technical Director of the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF), analyzing the sector and preparing regulatory proposals for the different administrations. Currently, she is a Project Development Manager in Shell's Onshore Power Iberia team, focused on the development and construction of the company's portfolio in Spain.

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Josefin Berg, Associate Director in the Clean Energy Technology group at S&P Global Commodity Insights, analyzes the trends and strategies in the downstream photovoltaic (PV) market. Her focus areas include PV demand and forecasts, company strategies (developers and engineering, procurement, and construction providers); mergers and acquisitions, costs, and the integration of PV in the power generation mix. Ms. Berg authors reports on PV markets and trends, and she regularly speaks at industry events. Ms. Berg holds a Master of Science in environmental engineering from Uppsala University, Sweden. She speaks English, French, Spanish, and Swedish and is based in Barcelona, Spain.

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As part of the investment team of Encavis AG in Hamburg, Julius Weidemann is responsible for executing PV transactions from start to finish (including DD, proprietary valuation and bidding, leading contract negotiations such as SPA, EPC, PDA/ DSA, Project Financing Agreements) across inter alia Spain, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. Both the acquisition of fully developed and/ or grid connected assets but also (and mainly) the establishment and the supervision of PV development partnerships (just like the one with the organization experienced in the management & optimization of assets and a small developer close to Seville) lie within his core activities.

Dr Julián Ascencio-Vásquez has over eight years of experience in PV yield and O&M optimization, currently as Senior Staff Engineer at the Solar Centre of Excellence (CoE) of Envision Digital, and is an active member of the International Energy Agency - Task 13 PVPS Programme. His primary R&D activities include designing and implementing performance and risk modelling and assessment algorithms of PV systems operating worldwide. Before Envision Digital, he worked for several renewable energy companies in Chile, Belgium and France. His academic background includes a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, received in 2021, a B.Sc. in Civil Electrical Engineering from the P. Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile, Master in Electrical Engineering and Sustainable Development from the ESIEE-Amiens, France, and Master in Automated Systems Engineering from the University of Picardie Jules Verne, France. He is the first author and contributor of over 30 scientific articles and reports and a participant and speaker at the most prestigious solar R&D international conferences.

Irene leads Quintas Advisory, the technical advisory team at the Quintas Group. The team provides expert renewable energy services with a global reach. Irene joined Quintas in 2009 as Head of technical Asset Management. Over the past 14 years with Quintas, Irene has gained a wealth of experience across the sector in different markets, including Italy, the UK and Spain – first as Group Head of Asset Management and now as Group Head of Advisory Services. Irene graduated from Engineering College in Seville with a degree in Industrial Electrical Engineering. Her immersion in the PV sector began in 2003. Prior to joining Quintas, she was responsible for project management and development of PV solar plants across Spain. During the first Spanish solar boom, Irene was responsible for development, engineering design and construction of PV projects in various parts of the country. Irene took her project management experience to Montealto Energia in autumn 2009, before joining the Quintas Energy group at the end of that year.

Francisco Solchaga, Partner of the Energy department, has more than 20 years of experience and, more specifically, advising in the renewable energy sector, in which he has extensive experience. He regularly advises on projects related to the promotion, construction, financing and operation of energy projects, both in their contractual and regulatory aspects, having advised all kind of players involved in a project (project promoters, contractors, financing banks, project purchasers and sellers, as well as the managers of the photovoltaic plants once they are in operation), and has extensive regulatory knowledge of the sector. He has also wide experience in all legal related secretarial duties to investment and renewable energy companies. J.D. from the University of Zaragoza (graduated with honours), Francisco joined Araoz & Rueda as an associate in 2000, after two years as an associate at Uría Menéndez, where he acquired experience in mergers and acquisitions and securities market.

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Alex Rudnicki is leading the Sales & Marketing activities at Vigdu Technologies. He has over 20 years’ experience in the commercial side of the business (Sales, Business Development and Marketing) in various Start-Up companies in the S/W and H/W markets. Alex joined Vigdu Technologies 2 years ago to lead its business operations, following his experience developing sales and creating major partnerships in Europe, Latin and North America. He holds a degree in Economics and Computer Science from the Bar-Ilan University, Israel and MBA from Rotterdam School of Management from Erasmus University, The Netherlands.

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Javier Becerra is a Chemical Engineer from Universidad de Mälaga, and Masters degree in Management and Finance from IESE, Universidad Navarra. His experience is mainly based on large-scale photovoltaic and wind power promotion in Latin America and Europe (Abengoa, Naturgy). He has developed infrastructure and renewable projects in Brazil (+200 M Euros) and Chile (120MWp photovoltaics) He is currently Business Development Director at Quantica Renovables, a leading spanish company in the Self Consumption PV sector, implementing the company's commercial and product expansion in the market.

Amadeu Anguela joined Plenium in 2015 and is currently a director in the investment team, where he focuses on energy infrastructure investments in Southern Europe. He is based in Madrid. Since joining Plenium, Amadeu has closed over 20 M&A transactions worth €3.0bn+ and raised over €1.0bn of project finance. Mr. Anguela sits as a member of the board of directors of a number of portfolio companies owning wind and solar PV portfolios with an aggregate operating capacity of 730MW. Prior to joining Plenium, Mr. Anguela worked for two years for RWE. Mr. Anguela holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña and an MSc in Engineering Management from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Guillermo is a Director in the Investment and Asset Management Team of Incus Capital, a real assets’ specialist focusing on providing capital solutions to the European mid-market sector with c. €2.7bn raised across 8 funds. Since joining Incus in 2013, he has been responsible for executing transactions within the renewable energy, infrastructure and alternative assets industries. Prior to Incus, Guillermo worked at Optima Corporate, an independent investment banking and advisory services firm founded by senior Citigroup professionals, advising on the sell side, buy side, restructurings, mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures to corporate and private equity firms. Guillermo holds a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and BSc in Industrial Engineering from ICAI (Madrid).

Venu Gopal leads Technical Services at Nextracker in the warranty phase and oversees support for the European installed base and a significant portion of the US. With an impressive fleet of over 22 GW under his responsibility, Venu leads a team of engineers dedicated to providing an exceptional experience for Nextracker customers, from Asset Owners to Operations and Maintenance teams. In addition, Venu spearheads the deployment of Severe Weather mitigation and monitoring software tools, enhancing fleet management and control capabilities. With a background in Industrial Engineering, Venu joined Nextracker in 2019 and has played a constant role in facilitating the development of support tools for enhanced customer experience. Venu's focus revolves around continuous product evolution and incorporating customer feedback, driving innovation within the company.

With over nine years of experience in consulting and the renewable energy industry, Jesús specialises in identifying the optimal strategies for cleantech investments. He plays a pivotal role in driving Bluetree Group's market expansion in Europe and LATAM, ensuring that clients successfully achieve their strategic investment objectives. Holding academic qualifications in Law and Business Administration, including an Executive Master's degree in Business Administration from IE Business School, Jesús actively participates in the group to enhance innovative efforts in structuring Asset Management, Technical Advisory, and Distributed Generation solutions for Independent Power Producers, investors, fund managers, developers, EPCs, and other key industry stakeholders.

Prior to co-founding Ecoppia, Eran Meller was the CFO of Telmap (acquired by Intel; NASDAQ:INTC), the CFO of X-Tip (acquired by DentSply International; NASDAQ: XRAY), the CFO of Info-X (acquired by 3M; NYSE:MMM), and the CFO & COO of MTI Precision Products (sold in a leveraged buyout). Previously, Eran worked with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private arm of the World Bank Group, and was responsible for a portfolio of over $100M in Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi and Zambia. Eran holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, a Masters in Economic Policy Management from the Columbia School of International Affairs, and a B.A in Economics and Management from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Eran completed all three degrees with distinction. He serves as a mentor at the Technion's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Juan Luis Cantón is Country Head for Spain and together with his team is driving the expansion of the company in the region, a fast-growing market with more than 150 team members and a multi-giga pipeline of projects in development. With more than 20 years of experience in the renewable energy industry, Juan Luis has contributed to the development of the sector by boosting the growth of large German renewables companies based in Spain. With a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of León, Cantón started his career as commercial director of Tau Solar - SAG Solarstorm Group and has also led the development project of S.A.G. Solar Development & Construction GmbH in Spain and Latin America, as well as the expansion of the business of ib vogt GmbH in Spain.

With over 15 years of experience in the renewable sector, Matias has developed his career mainly in most areas of the renewables business, including development, construction, asset management and investment. He is currently Partner at Optimize Energy, a service provider specialized in risk and energy management aiming at fostering professionalisation and optimal electricity sale among renewable energy producer, as well as Technical Director at Everwood Capital and Partner at Circle Energy. Prior to that Matias was Director of Asset Management at Vector Cuatro with direct responsibility over the operation of PV and wind projects with aggregate capacity in excess of 2.5 GW in 10 countries. Previously he has been directly involved in the construction and maintenance of numerous utility scale PV plants in Spain and Italy with the company Isofoton. He holds a degree in Physics from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and is fluent in Spanish, English and Italian.

With over 15 years of experience in the renewable energy sector, Jaime Goyanes began his PV journey by spearheading international business development efforts for large-scale utility projects, successfully cultivating an extensive project pipeline in diverse regions such as India and Australia during his tenure with OPDE. Subsequently, Jaime relocated to Mexico, where he further honed his expertise by driving project development initiatives in Central America and the Caribbean as part of the SunEdison team. Inspired to explore new horizons within the PV sector, Jaime made a strategic career transition to focus on distributed energy solutions, particularly in the realm of self-consumption for B2B clients, while operating in the United Kingdom. His efforts in this domain led to the formulation of comprehensive value propositions, culminating in the establishment of a robust self-consumption portfolio at Endesa, where he contributed his extensive knowledge and led to Endesa X being one of the main players within the self consumption sector in Spain. Currently serving as the Director for Self Consumption at Eranovum, Jaime continues to make significant strides in the industry. He is instrumental in integrating self-consumption practices into Eranovum's highly ambitious e-mobility strategy, paving the way for a future that prioritizes sustainable energy solutions.

Alexandre is Research Lead at Aurora, leading the French and Iberian power market modelling and analysis. Formerly expert at Elia System Operator in the European market department. Alexandre holds two master's degrees, one electrical engineer degree from the Université of Liège, and one general management degree from the Vlerick Business school.

Stefan, co-founder and CEO of SecondSol, is at the helm of Europe's leading photovoltaic marketplace for new and used solar components. With over two decades of unparalleled experience in the solar industry, Stefan has an unrivalled understanding of the sector. Currently, he and the team at SecondSol are dedicated to building a robust ecosystem for PV spare parts, while actively promoting PV reuse and recycling. Their collaborative efforts are driven by a mission to promote sustainability and encourage responsible practices throughout the solar industry.

Andrés is CEO of ISIGENERE. Born and raised in Colombia, Andrés studied Computer Science and holds an MBA by the Kellogg Graduate School of Business in USA. Andres started his career working in software startups. After his MBA he worked for the consultancy McKinsey & Company in Spain where he advised clients in strategy and technology projects. Later on he moved to Santander Bank where he led the growth of the subsidiary of the bank from 1 country and managing 80 million euros of spend, to 11 countries and 8000 million euros of spend. Now in Isigenere, Andrés is leading the growth of the company in utility scale and self-consumption projects while continuing the innovation by creating new and better versions of ISIFLOATING, its floating solar system. the pioneering company in floating solar systems since 2008 when their first floating solar system was designed and installed in Alicante (Spain).

Jorge de Miguel is responsible for the area of development and construction at Aquila Clean Energy in Spain. He has worked in the renewable energy sector since 2012. Before joining Aquila Clean Energy in 2022, he was global director of technical advisory at a leading renewable energy consultancy in Madrid, where he led the entire business line, managing a team of 60 professionals worldwide. Prior to that, he worked as APAC director for the same company in Tokyo. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Organization Engineering and a Master's degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), and a Master's degree in International Business Administration from CECO, Madrid.

Alejandro is Director of Ecologic Transition at beBartlet, the first public advocacy cabinet of Spain. He is the former Director of Regulation and Studies of UNEF, the Spanish Photovoltaic Association. He holds an Industrial Engineer degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and a Master in Power Sector Regulation from ICAI Comillas. He has more than ten years of experience in economic and regulatory analysis of the power sector in Spain.

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Originally from Brazil, Lorena Nieuwenhoven completed a double major degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2019. She then deep-dived into the area of renewables and sustainability, helping expand the penetration of solar energy in the Iberian markets through her work as a Project Manager for Solarplaza. Apart from her work in the Spanish and Portuguese markets, Lorena has also spearheaded topical conferences related to Green Hydrogen and Hybrid Renewables.