Solarplaza Summit | The Netherlands

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!

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.

Tim is an investment professional in the renewable energy sector working at Klimaatfonds Nederland. Throughout his master studies Sustainable Energy Technologies at Delft University of Technology he gained professional experience during internships at, amongst others, Vattenfall and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. After his studies he started his career at PwC and he joined Klimaatfonds Nederland as investment manager in 2021. Besides being a key member in the investment team, he is devoted to the sourcing and execution of Corporate PPA's to make the projects bankable. Recently, Klimaatfonds Nederland successfully executed several Corporate PPA's and secured predictable revenue streams for their (solar) projects.

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.

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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).

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.

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.

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Nienke Rijpstra works as an Investment Director at StartGreen Capital, where she manages the team of Energiefonds Overijssel. This fund has €330 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 solar, battery storage systems, energy infrastructure, and geothermal energy. Nienke is responsible for the acquisition, deal execution, and portfolio management.

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.

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.

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.

Ivo van Dam has over 20 years of experience in electric systems, electric components, and electric distribution, with the last 15 years dedicated to the renewable sector with projects combined with PV, EV charging, battery storage, and hydrogen. Ivo has recently headed the project delivery and engineering unit of Vattenfall and is currently CTO at PowerField and PowerGo and responsible for project delivery, engineering, and new technology development. From 2019 Ivo has performed several technical feasibility and market studies around electrolysis, green hydrogen and integration of hydrogen and battery storage in renewable generation units. Ivo is known to have the highest quality focused procurement strategy in the market and is a creative technology lover.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jan Willem has over 20 years of experience in the energy market and worked for some of the larger utilities. Early 2020, Jan Willem sold his previous companies Greenspread and Greencrowd to private equity concern NPM Capital. Since his departure in October 2020, Jan Willem works as an independent consultant at Stratergy. Stratergy advises funds, banks, utilities, and large consumers and producers of energy and specializes in maximizing asset value and minimizing financial risk.

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.

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.