Solarplaza Summit | Sustainability & Circularity

A pragmatic legal professional, member of Brazilian and Portuguese Bar Associations, currently working in the sustainable finance sector and following the ESG trends in the EU finance market; focused in the application of the EU Sustainable Finance regulation (SFDR, EU Taxonomy and EU Green Bond Standard) and in the utilization of green financing frameworks such as sustainability-linked loans for finance transactions. Before stepping into the sustainable finance space, worked for 5+ years in conducting complex banking operations both in Brazil and in the international context, including mergers & acquisitions, project finance, capital markets and debt/corporate restructuring.

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Manuella Appiah is a business and human rights expert leading the ESG strategy development and implementation of Sunrock. Sunrock is a large-scale ground, water and rooftop solar assets developer and energy producer. Prior to her appointment at Sunrock, she headed a team of (senior) policy officers at the Dutch Social and Economic Council that was responsible for facilitating multi-stakeholder agreements. These agreements supported and monitored extractives sector companies’ compliance with international ESG guidelines in their supply chains. She is particularly knowledgeable about the operationalisation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. She has in the past also implemented projects for international institutions like the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation.

Andrea Mungai is currently in charge of integrating Sustainability in the Supply chain of Enel Green Power following the Sustainability Ecosystem Unit strategy which is addressed to the extended value chain of Renewable Energy involving Suppliers/Contractors and PPA Partners. He is also chairing the WG on Circular Design of the Global Alliance for Sustainable Energy, Graduated in Chemical Engineer at Pisa, he works the Enel Group since 2010, before joining the Sustainability unit in Enel Green Power in 2018, he was responsible of supporting Enel thermal fleet on chemical and process issue of the Flue gas and treatment water plant.

Daniela Ariolli is part of the Italian R&D department at BayWa r.e. and she is in charge of the circular economy activities of the ongoing H2020 project TRUST-PV. She holds an M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, an Erasmus Mundus program jointly operated by the Central European University (Hungary), the Lund University (Sweden), the University of Aegean (Greece) and the University of Manchester (United Kingdom). Her master thesis focused on circular photovoltaic economy in Europe. She has over 15 years of experience in the sustainability sector, working in multinational companies such as Ticket (Edenred group), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and ArcellorMital, where she specialized in environmental audits, due diligence, preparation and assurance of Sustainability Reports (GRI), environmental management systems (ISO 14001), solid waste management, circular economy, greenhouse gas inventory and social and volunteer projects.

Haseeb is a part of Energy Systems at DNV based in the Netherlands and works as a solar consultant. Energy Systems – DNV provides technical advisory to help industries and government to navigate the complex transition in the energy industry. Haseeb holds a master’s degree (double degree master program) in Sustainable Energy Technology at the Technical University Eindhoven (TU/e), Netherlands and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden with a specialization in solar energy and sustainability. He has over 4 years of experience working in the renewable energy sector. Before joining DNV, he worked at Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) as a researcher. He is passionate about energy transition and sustainability and has been involved in a broad range of projects such as technical due diligence in solar, sustainability (LCA) analysis, and techno-economic analysis. In the past, he has been also involved in EU H2020 and other international projects.

Perine Fleury is co-founder of Biosphere Solar, a start-up based in the Netherlands. With an open-source, fair, and modular approach, Biosphere Solar is working on the next steps in solar panel designs. Perine is a researcher in circular systems, currently writing her Master Thesis at the TU Delft and Leiden University on open-source hardware and the sustainability of the (solar) energy transition. Her background in activism, project management, and local plastic recycling systems, has made her dedicated to bringing about a sustainable and fair future.

Hsin-Hsin joined ROSI as commercial engineer in 2021. Hsin-Hsin holds three master’s degrees in materials science engineering (National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan), energy engineering (Universitate Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain), and sustainable energy technology (Eindhoven University Technology, the Netherlands). She also has experience in life cycle assessment, particularly for end-of-life PV module recycling process. Hsin-Hsin has engineering background but also has a heart for interactions with people in the sustainable energy field that drives innovation towards real implementation. Hsin-Hsin is in charge of market development and environmental assessment at ROSI.

Tomaso Charlemont graduated from the Technical Naval Institute (Genoa, Italy). He is an executive with over three decades of experience in Business Development and Supply Chain. After more than 20 years in the fields of data communication, he embraced a second career in renewables in 2008. Over the past 13 years Tomaso developed and consolidated his experience in this latter field of activity joining PV inverter OEMs Satcon and Chint Power Systems, WTG manufacturer and EPC Vergnet and British renewables developer RES. More recently, he joined BayWa r.e. where he coordinates the development of the Solar PV Revamping and Repowering business across the EMEA Region.

Fridolin is Co-Founder and CEO of SOLAR MATERIALS. The German clean-tech startup has developed a patented process to recycle solar (PV) panels. Fridolin has a background in industrial engineering with a focus on light-weight, hybrid materials. SOLAR MATERIALS is setting up a semi-industrial pilot line in Germany which will start recycling in 2023. Fridolin has a background in industrial engineering with a focus on light-weight, hybrid materials and is part of the expert panel for the development of the new VDE application rule for solar panel recycling.

Active on industry association management & development. An expert in circular economy (Policy - Regulatory - LCAs), EU law (environmental, internal market, competition and international trade law), advocacy, project management, sustainable finance and industry-related issues with a strong expertise in the fields of raw materials & downstream industries.

Thomas Sauer is the President & CEO of EXXERGY GmbH. The focus of this internationally oriented consultancy firm is on the energy, special raw materials and specialty chemicals. In 2009, he leveraged EXXERGY Green Power Holding GmbH into a group dedicated to the development, implementation and operation of power plants in the field of renewable energies. In addition, in 2010 he launched NEXXERGY Green Power Trading GmbH, a trading platform for components for the renewable energy sector. Thomas C. Sauer is a member of the Leadership Council of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) in the U.S. and a member of the Economic Council of the CDU. His specific expertise lies in the energy, aviation, chemical engineering and specialty materials market segments. He obtained a masters degree from the University of Karlsruhe as a result to his studies at the Technical University of Munich and the University of Karlsruhe (TH).

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.