Solarplaza Summit | The Netherlands

Marnix is Energy Contract Manager for Nobian, with experience in chlor-alkali manufacturing, hydrogen business development and energy procurement. Together with a dedicated team of energy experts, Marnix is responsible for the broader energy portfolio and needs for Nobian’s production sites. Within this capacity, he works on the acquisition of PPAs for renewable wind and solar energy. Beyond this, Marnix is project leader for renewable hydrogen projects within Nobian and works on various other energy related topics.

Hisham is the Head of Strategic Growth &Venture Capital at Sungrow Europe. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing partnerships, joint ventures, and investments that drive Sungrow's growth strategy. Prior to joining Sungrow Europe, he worked on M&A and Business Development at Shell. He plays a pivotal role in steering Sungrow Europe towards sustainable growth and innovation in the renewable energy industry. Hisham is a Chartered Engineer, a graduate of Texas A&M and holds an MBA from the University of Oxford.

Annemarie Schouten is heading the solar development team of Vattenfall in the Netherlands. She is also active in the board of Holland Solar, being responsible for large-scale solar. Annemarie has had a leading role in creating amongst others the Holland Solar code of conduct for developing ground mounted PV-installations. This in combination with an in depth knowledge on developing solar parks and her intrinsic interest in innovation and renewable energy, ensures that she knows what it takes to create future proof solar projects. Annemarie has a legal and business background and is motivated to take the Dutch energy transition to the next level.

Bart Pycke, holding an MSc in Electrical Engineering from Ghent University, is the founder and CEO of Yuso, a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) and Route-to-Market provider operating in Belgium, the UK, and the Netherlands. With over twenty years of experience in the energy sector, Bart began his career as a system planning engineer at the national Belgian dispatch centre prior to deregulation. He then initiated and led the trading activities of a Belgian utility company coinciding with the market's opening. Before establishing Yuso, Bart also managed the electricity trading operations at an international commodity trading company based in Switzerland.

Guy worked as quality, safety and project manager for Hydrogenics from 1999 to 2007. During this period he was closely involved in the development of the alkaline electrolyser and the first R&D models of the PEM electrolyser. Between 2007 and 2019, Guy worked as operations director for a large EPC company active across Europe in the development, construction and operation of PV plants, where he gained extensive experience in PV and built an extensive global network of specialists. In 2019, he founded his own company, Navitas Projects, where he provides technical and financing consultancy for renewable energy projects in Europe.

Jakoba van der Mei works as an Investment Director at StartGreen Capital. StartGreen Capital has over €400 million in assets under management and provides both entrepreneurs and project owners financing for the energy transition and the circular economy. Her personal focus is on wind energy, solar, battery storage systems and energy infrastructure. Previously she held roles within investment banking in London and projectfinance at SMBC where she financed 1.9 GW of offshore and onshore wind. Jakoba is responsible for the acquisition, deal execution, and portfolio management of the new StartGreen Transition fund.

Roland joined European fast charging company Fastned back in 2014 and in his previous roles he was mainly focussed on the technology. From early 2023 he is responsible for energy sourcing for all countries where Fastned is active. This includes closing PPA's, purchasing guarantees of origin and selling HBE's and similar e-credits.

Jochem has a background in chemistry and physics with a focus on the energy transition. Prior to joining the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) he worked in the university and finished a PhD in chemistry on forming hydrogen from water to store renewable energy. At the RIVM Jochem works as a researcher in the field of third party risk assessment. His involvement includes projects surrounding the energy transition such as wind turbines, and energy storage systems from the perspective of safety. Overall Jochem has over 10 years of experience in the field of the energy transition with a focus on fundamental research and safety.

Els has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance, corporate lending and project finance. Within Project Finance she is responsible for originating, structuring, negotiating and executing renewable power transactions for Solar, Wind and Batteries. Mostly bi-lateral deals and complex portfolio transactions based on subsidy schemes, corporate PPA’s and merchant revenues.

Geeske is an experienced legal professional with a strong focus on the energy sector and a background in politics. With her experience in regulatory affairs at Alliander, a leading energy network company, Geeske has successfully navigated complex regulatory landscapes and provided strategic counsel to senior leadership. With a focus on building relationships and making a positive societal impact, she has previously served as a Municipal Councilor for VVD Groningen, actively shaping policies related to urban development, economical affairs, and community engagement. Her pragmatic approach to bridging strategic goals with practical implementation reflects her dedication to making meaningful contributions while advocating for effective policies and regulations in the energy sector.

Pallas (1963) graduated in social science, information management, business administration, and art academy. She worked in the early nineties in implementation of new business processes that changed because of automation. From 1995 to 2005 she focused organizational change, innovation and product development as a consultant and interim manager. Pallas is active in energy branch since 2001 and works within Alliander since 2004. She is board member of the supervisory board MVO Nederland, chair of the supervisory board of OnePlanet Research, member of the national council Raad voor de Leefomgeving en infrastructuur, and member of advisory boards for Amsterdam and other Dutch cities, provinces, and EU initiatives.

Jérôme Le Page chairs the Electricity Committee and is a member of the Board at Energy Traders Europe. With 15 years of experience in the fields of energy and finance, Jérôme coordinates the advocacy initiatives of Energy Traders Europe on wholesale electricity market design at European level. He also oversees the harmonization of national electricity frameworks across Europe and the integration of renewable energy and new flexibility sources into the wholesale market. Jérôme has a background in Law and Economics (Paris Sorbonne University and University of Cologne).

Arja Even has over 20 years experience in societal transitions of which 15 years in the energy transition. She works at RVO, the ‘Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland’, eg the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. RVO is known for financial subsidy schemes and programs directed to other necessary conditions. She is program coordinator, for a program focusing on flexibility, storage and grid congestion for both renawable energy plants and enterprises.

Wilko is a lawyer and has ample experience in regulated markets and competition law. His main focus is the energy sector. He works in cases relating to the energy transition, grid congestion, and tariff regulation. Prior to joining the ACM, he worked as an attorney in Stek’s regulatory team. Wilko holds LLM’s in both European law and law & economics.

Mike has gained management experience in the M&A of technical and IT companies such as EY. He has also fulfilled a crucial management role in several projects for TenneT, such as congestion management, reactive power (too high voltages), batteries, sales (ETPA), mergers (CertiQ and Vertogas) and is a shareholder representative for several subsidiaries. Due to increasing grid congestion throughout the Netherlands, grid operators are (temporarily) unable to realize new connections to the grid in more and more places. The grid operators are also seeing an increase in voltage problems (too high or low voltages), causing inverters at people's homes, but also other grid elements at the grid operators to fail. The goal of GOPACS is to become the platform to prevent grid congestion and other types of transport problems. This creates space on the grid to realize new connections, the grid operators keep the grid stable and they can continue to connect new sustainable generators and consumers. GOPACS is and will become the platform for a traffic jam-free energy system!

Mirjam has over 20 years of experience in the energy market and worked for TenneT, RWE and Essent. As senior advisor Public Affairs and stakeholder management, she co-wrote the climate agreement. She has a lot of experience with solar and wind generation and high-voltage connections. Since 2022, she has been using her knowledge to reduce grid congestion by developing (decentralized) integrated energy hubs for business parks and smart cities. In combination with renewable generation, battery storage, heat-cold systems, charging stations, hydrogen and green gas. She loves connecting technologies and people who together help further the energy transition and keep it affordable for everyone.

Eline Fleur Speklé is a policy officer for the energy transition at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. She has a legal background, with a Master's degree from Edinburgh University in Global Environment and Climate Change Law. In her current position, she focuses on the SDE++ subsidy for solar and wind energy, as well as improving the link between the energy transition and the transition towards a circular economy. She is passionate about pursuing a just and sustainable energy transition and incorporates this in her work.

Daniela is responsible for capturing revenues streams of GIGA Storage’s existing and to-be-developed energy storage projects. Creating different routes-to-market as well optimization on the transmission costs is key for bankable business cases. Daniela has a strong background in energy markets and renewables with various commercial roles in trading and sales at Vattenfall and Shell.

Tim is an investment professional in the renewable energy sector working at Klimaatfonds Nederland. Besides being a key member of the investment team, he is involved in battery storage developments and the sourcing and execution of PPA's to make projects bankable. Over the last years, Klimaatfonds Nederland successfully executed several Corporate PPA's and secured predictable revenue streams for their (solar) projects. Prior to Klimaatfonds Nederland Tim worked in the energy team of PwC’s M&A department. He holds a Masters’ degree in Sustainable Energy Technology from Delft University of Technology.

Lianne has 8 years of experience in renewables. She has worked on the contracting side of the innovative offshore wind Two Towers project (19 MW, the Netherlands, 2021) and is currently involved in the contracting and financing of various solar projects (including PPA and storage aspects) in the Netherlands. Before joining Green Giraffe, Lianne worked as a lawyer at Allen & Overy in the Dutch project finance team. Amongst others, she advised on the financing of the Krammer onshore wind farm (100 MW, the Netherlands, 2016) and solar park Sunport Delfzijl (31 MW, the Netherlands, 2016). Lianne holds an LLM in European energy and climate law from the University of Groningen.

Alice van Rixel is a policy officer for the energy transition at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. She works on questions on how to integrate solar energy in our current and future (energy) systems. She is a system thinker and is always curious to learn more about the interaction between the system and the outside world. The focus is on spatial aspects, but always taking into account the others: the technical, legal, social, and economic aspects. Likes to connect the dots.

Antonios Kouzelis, with a background in Sustainable Energy Technologies from TU Delft, focuses on developing and optimizing renewable energy systems as PowerField's New Business Development Manager. His expertise covers solar energy, energy storage, and e-mobility, along with conducting techno-economic analyses for new technologies such as agriPV and battery storage for trading. At Lightyear, Antonios researched the impact of vehicle-integrated solar panels and vehicle-to-grid energy trading on Li-ion battery life. Leading TU Delft's Eco-Runner Dream Team to develop a hyper-efficient hydrogen vehicle showcases his dedication to merging technological innovations with sustainability.

Arash Aazami (1977) is an entrepreneur, system innovator and is considered to be one of the international thought leaders in the energy transition. In 2010 he founded the world’s first energy independence company -which earns more the less it delivers-. In 2015 he started the Internet of Energy Initiative. Now he leads Unify.energy, developing the underlying algorithms, architecture and supporting community for the Internet of Energy. Arash’ presentations are characterized by fluency, unexpected paradigms and a personal character. So stay with him: your view on energy could change overnight.

Dick Weiffenbach is managing director of Netbeheer Nederland, the association of grid operators in the Netherlands. He has held this position since July 2020. Before that, he was more than twenty years active as a partner in various management and board positions at EY/HVG Law, inter alia as Sector Leader of all energy professionals of EY The Netherlands and Belgium. The main challenge for grid operators, in his view, is to fulfill their central role in the energy transition.

Nold Jaeger leads the Holland Solar policy and public affairs team. Holland Solar represents the Dutch solar-PV market in The Hague and Brussels. He has been involved in the policy-making field for solar PV for the past five years. With a background in EU energy and climate policy, for the last five years, he has focussed on improving the development conditions for large-scale solar PV on land, rooftops, and water and residential PV.

Steven Blok is part time consultant democratic innovation and public participation at Berenschot. He has advised all layers of Dutch government and worked with multiple societal organizations to create public value. He is also a post doc researcher at the Erasmus University Rotterdam where he studies public participation processes all over Europe, developments in the volunteering sector and social dilemmas of self-organizing citizens.

Tjeerd Jongsma is a figure of inspiration and leadership in the realm of sustainable industry. He is the Managing Director of the Institute for Sustainable Process Technology (ISPT) in Amersfoort. Known for his charisma and determination, Tjeerd is a prominent figure in discussions about the future of sustainable industry, both in the Netherlands and internationally. He is convinced that the Netherlands can lead the sustainable transition and that the Dutch process industry is poised to be at the forefront of this change. After a study in Chemistry and a PhD at Shell, Tjeerd worked for Wageningen University as an agro-technological researcher. In 1996 he became Director of Food and Food processing. From 1999 he held the positions of Director of Corporate Technology and Director of Corporate Research at Friesland Campina. His passion and vision to tackle the societal challenge of the energy and raw materials transition eventually brought him to ISPT where he took up the position of Managing Director in 2010.

I am a Partner in the Brussels office of Fieldfisher in the Energy and Utilities team, and more broadly involved in the EU Regulatory department. I primarily advise on energy law related matters (electricity/gas), renewable energy projects and drafting of energy contracts. This further comprises environmental and climate issues, and public procurement. I am also, from a procedural side, involved in EU regulatory matters including biocides & marketing of products.

Mike has over 10 years of experience in the energy market and has experience with PPA’s as well working for an energy company as for a developer/IPP. Recently Mike negotiated and closed several Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (CPPA’s) between Ecorus and multiple different large corporates like Fastned. Ecorus is a founded in 2010 solar developer, financer, EPC- and O&M party and is active in multiple different EU countries with a strong focus on large scale rooftop projects for the logistic, retail and industrial sector and utility scale ground-mounted solar parks.

Hubert Penn is the founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Dexter Energy, where he helps build and commercialize the industry’s leading AI-based forecasting and trade optimization services. Prior to Dexter Energy, he worked for an investment company where he successfully managed and monitored investments and portfolio companies. Hubert holds an MSc in Aerospace Engineering from TU Delft and is a Certified Management Accountant.

Jan-Phillip is part of Encavis AG’s investment team and based in Hamburg, Germany. Since joining the German IPP in 2020 he has lead PV transactions in Germany, The Netherlands and Spain where he was responsible for contract negotiations (SPA, EPC, Project Financing, etc.), due diligence process and financial valuation. Jan-Phillip is particularly interested in creating client-driven, subsidy-free business cases for renewables.

After finishing his master degree in business economics at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Harold started his career as commercial banker in 1996. Harold has worked at several Dutch banks, and has fulfilled rolls in relationship management, structuring management buy outs, risk management and general management. After a post-doc study Corporate Social Responsibility at Erasmus Universiteit, he joined the Triodos Renewables Energy team. Harold’s main focusses are solarprojects and heat- and coldstorage projects in the Dutch market. As Triodos is a frontrunner in renewable energy since their origination in the 1980s, Harold is very interested in financing new technologies. His main goal is to contribute to fighting the climate change.

Fleur Greetham has over 20 years of experience consulting in the Dutch energy market. Having started out advising on the BritNed interconnector before moving on to CCGTs/CHPs she now advises on all types of RES including solar, storage, heat, waste and electrolysers for major utilities, integrated energy companies, developers, financial investors and Dutch policy makers. She currently leads the build up of AFRY’s (formerly known as Pöyry) consulting expertise in the Dutch energy market supported by a team of colleagues located in both Rotterdam and Oxford. Her work often pivots around the need for insight on the Dutch energy market, building on AFRY’s price projections for the Netherlands (and surrounding markets) which covers all commodities including electricity, gas, carbon, hydrogen, ancillary markets and certificates. Using these and her in-depth knowledge of the Dutch energy market, she is able to offer key insights and consultancy advice for transactions, policies, market entry, company strategies, asset developments and PPAs.

Michel Chatelin heads the competition & regulatory practice and co-heads the Eversheds Sutherland Energy group. He is specialised in EU, anti-trust, commercial and energy law, and has a special focus on energy transition and renewable energy projects. Michel advises both national and international clients, as well as governmental bodies and utilities, and has a very wide experience in the renewable energy sector and ESG related matters. He also helps companies with commercial contracting, competition compliance and procurement matters. Michel is consistently acknowledged by both the Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 directories as being a leading practitioner in his field. Michel has been recognised as a Global Leader Energy – Renewables 2023 by Who’s Who Legal.

Willem Stitselaar is a founder and partner at DevCap Infra - an investment firm focussed on scaling future proofed energy businesses. Previously Willem was Senior Managing Director at Macquarie Capital where he worked for more than 17 years in infrastructure and energy. Before that he was active at ABN AMRO and PwC. Willem holds a Master of Science (Economics) from the University of Amsterdam.

Edwin founded Solarplaza company in 2004. He is a senior PV expert and started in the photovoltaic solar energy business in 1994. He has experience as a solar energy consultant and project developer in more than 200 PV projects. Edwin holds a Master’s degree in Chemical engineering and previously worked in the Chemical industry before starting his first consultancy company in PV in 1994.

Dee Yon Chng (pronounced Dion) is a project manager for Solarplaza spearheading the following events in chronological order: Agri-PV 2023, Floating-PV 2023, Energy Storage Spain 2023, Romania 2024, France 2024. Prior to Solarplaza she helped co-found a "floating" coaching company, and worked as sustainability consultant. She is a strong believer in knowledge sharing around sustainability topics, with 10 years of chairman experience in facilitating a collaborative and fruitful discussion.