Conference Speakers

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Guido Agostinelli is the Sector Head for Solar Energy in the Global Energy Infrastructure team at IFC, where he deals with the corporation's investments in Solar PV and Distributed Generation solutions. He created investment opportunities and worked on projects for the World Bank Group totaling more than $2 billion. Prior to joining IFC in 2014, Guido has been managing partner at Syntegra Solar, an international business advisory firm, and senior partner in the venture capital team at Good Energies, a fund focused on renewable energies that backed some of the most successful IPOs in the solar sector in the late 2000s. Earlier in his career, he has held managing positions and served in the advisory boards of leading international R&D institutes such as IMEC and CSEM. Guido holds a PhD in engineering from the University of Gent and an MBA from SDA Bocconi in Milan.

Roman Alberti, the Co-Founder of Voltfang serves as its CEO. With a background in mechanical engineering, Alberti's passion for sustainability led him to establish Voltfang, a leading scale-up in Energy Storage Systems. By repurposing automotive batteries, he has demonstrated his innovative prowess aswell as his commitment to reducing waste and advancing environmentally friendly and economical solutions.

Dr Julián Ascencio-Vásquez has more than eight years of experience in the field of 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, M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Sustainable Development from the ESIEE-Amiens, France, and M.Sc. 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.

The apprenticeship as electronic worker combined with the subsequent studies of Electrical Engineering/Economics in Germany and Argentina laid the foundation for Uwe Augustat's profound applied knowledge and international onshore project experience in Asia, Middle East, Europe and South America. Twenty five years in technical roles in various power distribution, generation and energy storage projects shaped his goal-oriented approach in the business. Leading the application/ solution business for reliable grid connection in Infrastructure and Industry in combination with a smart battery storage and control systems is his main focus.

PhD in applied Physics at Physics Department, University of Milan. He studied Physics at University of Milano specializing in nanomaterials for energy applications. From 2012 to 2022 he worked at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and specifically at the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI). His main role was to design and execute experiments aimed to assess the performances of thin film PV devices ranging from single cells to large area modules and estimate the long term lifetime and degradation rate through accelerated stress test (indoor vs outdoor). From Oct 2023 he started to work at TUV Rheinland as global manager in PV sector. One of his main tasks is to maintain the highest quality standard in the testing and inspection services of PV modules, focusing particular attention to the update and development of new measurement procedures. Since 2023 he is official member of the IEC Technical Committee 82 and actively participates to the activity of Working Group 2.

While studying Mechatronics at the university of applied sciences in Ulm, Julius Bäurle works in the research and development of innovative battery management systems at id-eee. His expertise and passion revolves around methodological prototyping, solar power electronics and battery storage systems.

Jessica Berneiser has been working as a researcher in the team "User Behavior and Field Tests" at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE since 2018. In her research, she examines barriers and drivers of the energy transition, the acceptance of renewable energies and environmental policy measures as well as their social and socio-economic impact. One of her research foci is the social acceptance of agrivoltaics in sub-Saharan Africa. The role of efficacy beliefs in the context of rural electrification is also part of her PhD at the University of Groningen. Furthermore, she has been working as a scientific advisor for the German Council of Experts on Climate Change (ERK) since 2022.

Jérôme Bersano is Director of ESS Products at Northvolt. He is responsible for the development and ownership of the portfolio of Energy Storage Systems products from the initial strategic, technical, and commercial concept studies through industrialization and production. He also leads strategic partnerships to enable new applications, develop pilot opportunities and shape future product development. Jérôme has been working much of his career in the battery industry. Prior to joining Northvolt, he was Director of Sales & Marketing at Phenix Batteries, a developer and manufacturer of second-life energy storage solutions, while acting at the same time as a Business Manager in the battery recycling industry. Before this, Jérôme was leading the Product Management activities at Husqvarna Construction Products. Jérôme holds a Master of Business Administration in Strategy, Project and Programme Management from Skema Business School, France, and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Sigma, France.

Jiri Bim is a consultant for several Czech companies that are developing PV and Agri-PV project pipelines in Czechia. He deals with aspects of permitting and zoning as well as grid connection and other technical aspects. He has hands-on experience developing ground-mounted PV projects. He is also PhD. student and researcher at FEE CTU in Prague and his main topic are Economic aspects of renewable energy sources. He has focused on agrivoltaics and is also active in establishing legislation for agrivoltaics in CZ and Central Europe. From January 2022 he is a Head of the agrivoltaics section in the Czech Solar Association. Now he focuses mainly on regulation implementation and development large scale photovoltaics and agrivoltaics installations in the Czech Republic.

Philipp is an international expert in island energy supply and rural electrification. He conducted a PhD in engineering about 'Barriers to implementing renewable energies on Caribbean islands' at the TU Berlin. In 2011, he joined the Reiner Lemoine Institut and he started to develop the Off-Grid Systems Research Unit, which he is currently heading. Within the Unit, he develops and manages projects and strategic processes. In 2019 Philipp was appointed Visiting Scholar in the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) of the University of California, Berkeley as part of the C-BEAR+ project and he is a selected member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Since 2020 he is also leading the RLS-Graduate School on Energy System Transition with currently 6 PhD students.

Dr. Jonas Böhm is VP Mobility Americas at TWAICE, the leading battery analytics software. He is focused on unlocking the battery-powered future for everyone by working deeply with customers and partners in the mobility sector. Next to that, he is a Fellow of the Global Future Council on Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains of the World Economic Forum and a thought leader on platform dynamics and networked markets (especially e-mobility) - co-authored more than 25 articles, conference contributions and books.

Fabio Bottoni is a Specialist Solutions Architect of Amazon Web Services within the Energy and Utilities vertical. Fabio focuses on helping Utilities and Energy companies to solve their challenges using AWS technology leveraging his industry expertise. Before joining AWS in 2021 he worked for Enel-X where he matured industry knowledge around IoT use cases, connecting EV chargers, but also industrial and renewable assets for monitoring and operations. He is currently leading EV Charging solution guidance development within the AWS Energy Technical community.

Jeanne Buée is a research analyst in the Energy & Charging team at Rho Motion. She is working on developing analysis and forecast reports on the EV charging markets and renewable energy markets. She has acquired a good knowledge of the energy sector, as she formerly worked as a research associate at Wood Mackenzie in the Gas & LNG division.

Mr Clerens studied law at the University of Saarbrücken and the University of Mainz. Since 1996, he has worked as a consultant for a private company specialising in European Affairs in Brussels. In his capacity as Brussels Representative of different European associations, he has been involved in the climate and energy field since 2003. He has managed the EASE office in Brussels as Secretary General since its establishment in September 2011. Since then, EASE has grown from the initial 13 founding members to over 70 and is still growing rapidly.

Liam Coman is a solar research analyst within the Clean Energy Technology research team at S&P Global. He researches the global PV inverter market within the solar supply chain. He works with suppliers to analyse trends, produce market forecasts and assess the competitive landscape of the solar inverter industry. Prior to joining S&P Global, Mr. Coman worked for an engineering consultancy specialising in environmental regulation and policy compliance. He holds an M.Eng in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from Trinity College Dublin.

Violette Coquatrix is Vice President of Supply Chain Operations EMEA at Fluence Energy, a global leader in energy storage products and services, and digital applications. She is responsible for Supply Chain, Logistics, Procurement, Manufacturing and Quality for the EMEA region. New to the energy industry, she has over 15 years of cross-industry experience in operations excellence, working in large corporations like Michelin, Johnson & Johnson, and Philips Lighting, as well as in high-growth start-ups/scale-ups across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Anna Darmani is a lead analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, where she leads the research and analyses on Europe, Middle East and Africa storage markets. She has more than seven years of experience in the energy industry, developing innovation and technology roadmaps and conducting EU research and advisory projects. Anna was one of the European Battery Alliance founding members and has worked with different industrial players to make Europe a global leader in the booming battery industry.

Martin Daronnat is currently Head of Flexibility Germany at Engie Global Energy Management et Sales (GEMS). Active since more than 10 years in the energy business, Martin has a strong background in Flexibility and Renewables origination. He has been developing flexibility markets and solutions (VPPs, demand side response, batteries) globally in Europe, Asia and Africa, for companies like E.ON, Vattenfall and Energy Pool. He lead and closed several large PPA transactions with financial and industrial partners on the back of RES assets, both pre and post FID, in the context of assets bids, asset divestments, or portfolio exposure hedging. The GEMS team currently offers flexibility offtake agreements of many sorts (fixed price, floor, VPS, profit share, consulting) towards flexibility assets (internal and external) to allow asset owners to make their assets bankable with the desired level of risks exposure.

David Daßler received his M.Sc. degree in Applied Mathematics from the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK Leipzig). Since 2012, he has been working at Fraunhofer CSP in the field of reliability and energy yield assessment of solar modules and systems. 2015 - 2021: Scientist with a focus on energy yield evaluation and modelling with a special interest in Big Data, machine learning and statistics. 2021 - today: Head of team "PV System Assessment & Diagnostics" His main area of research is the application of mathematics in the field of photovoltaics, the requirements for data quality of monitoring data, the detectability of defects as well as risk minimisation within portfolio analysis.

Jan Willem de Jong is CEO and Founder of iwell GmbH. As a serial entrepreneur, Jan Willem de Jong enables business as a force for good. Always under the guise: improve the world, start a company. With iwell he is rebuilding the European energy system with intelligent battery hardware and software. From centrally managed, fossil and predictable towards local, clean and dynamic.

Martin Dennenmoser is leading the R&D Team of BayWa r.e. Solar Projects. He is responsible for the technical product development and improvement of utility PV parks and Battery systems. He has deep technical knowledge within Solar PV and Batteries as he is working since 18 years in the field of renewables. He worked in a module manufacture company, in Fraunhofer ISE for battery and off-grid applications, as consultant for business models for batteries, as project engineer for utility scale solar plants, as product manager and RnD engineer.

Benedikt Deuchert is Head of Business Development and Regulatory Affairs at Kyon Energy, one of the leading battery project developers for utility-scale battery storage projects in Europe. He is responsible for developing new business models and leads initiatives to shape the regulatory environment for flexibility services in the electricity grid in general, and for battery storage in particular. Before joining the management team of Kyon Energy, he gained 8 years of experience in the energy sector, most recently as Senior Consultant at E-Bridge Consulting (Bonn, Germany). Benedikt Deuchert holds an MSc (Master of Science) degree in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich.

- Mission: Electrify everything (that can be electrified) with clean and renewable energy. - Bruce Douglas has 25 years' international experience in the promotion of renewable energy and electrification. - He is currently CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance, the single voice for the international renewable energy industry, representing wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, storage and green hydrogen. - Previously he has held the following positions: Director of Communications and Business at Eurelectric, Deputy CEO of SolarPower Europe, Coordinator of the RE-Source Platform - the European alliance for corporate sourcing of renewable energy, founding Chairman of the Global Solar Council (GSC), Chief Operating Officer at WindEurope for 10 years, founding Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Managing Director of FLiDAR, an offshore wind company. - He has a Master degree in renewable energy systems technology and is fluent in English and French.

Jozsef Farkas, Managing Partner at P3 group, is responsible for the software & energy domains at P3 group, a leading technology consultancy. With more than ten years of experience, he is an expert in smart charging infrastructure, standardization, and digitization within the energy sector. In his capacity, he spearheads the development and implementation of cutting-edge software solutions tailored to meet client needs, driving notable advancements in both the e-mobility and energy markets.

José Ferrari Careto spent most of his professional career in the Telecommunications sector, as a Board Member and Director of several companies. He first joined the EDP Group in 2003 as Board Member of companies in the gas sector, having left in 2006 to serve as a Member of the Board of Directors of the National Communications Regulatory Authority - ANACOM - for about 6 years. He returned to the EDP Group in 2012, as Member of the Board of Directors in several Business Units, Director of the Corporate Marketing and Customer Department and Director of the Digital Global Unit, where he led EDP Group's Digital and IT transformation program. He is currently CEO of the Portuguese Distribution System Operator, E-REDES, Chairman of EDP Redes España and Global Head of the Distribution Business of EDP Group.

After completing his degree in electrical engineering, Robert began his automotive career with Honda in Ohio, working in the Product Engineering division for 15 years. Highlights from his career include leading the implementation of Honda's hybrid powertrains for North America, being chosen as a key project leader for the Acura TLX and NSX and leading the Infotainment engineering team. Since joining SBD in 2017 as a key member of the Connected Car and EV teams, he has led large projects for many OEMs and Tier 1s and now serves as the Domain Principal for electrification. 

Julian Fleischmann is a doctoral student and researcher at University of Freiburg, TH Cologne, and Reiner Lemoine Institute Berlin. He focuses on open software for facilitating the planning of integrated water-energy-food-environment infrastructure solutions. So far, the research and software approaches have been applied for case studies in Lebanon, Germany, Costa Rica, Colombia, Morocco, South Africa, and Namibia.

Georg Gallmetzer is Managing Director and co-founder of ECO STOR GmbH. He is responsible for project development and regulatory affairs promoting the realization of ECO STOR's large scale storage pipeline in Germany. Georg has dedicated 18 years of passion on energy transition related engagements, developing technical and commercial clean tech solutions based on biomass, waste, PV, demand response and large scale batteries.

Dan Garlin is COO of Uniper Renewables, where he is responsible for EPC & Operations. Dan joined the energy industry in 2006 and held various positions in E.ON (now RWE) Renewables realizing projects in various European countries and the US. He also gathered experiences in various strategy and engineering services assignments. In 2020 he created Uniper Renewables, which is one pillar of Unipers decarbonization strategy for the future.

Mauricio Garrido has more than 13 years of experience in the energy sector, most of his experienced being focused on Energy Management related activities. In January 2011 he joined EDP Renewables where he is currently Director of PPA Origination for Centralized Generation in Europe. He is responsible for the origination, negotiation and execution of Power Purchase Agreements in the twelve European geographies in which EDP Renewables has presence. Regarding his academic background, Mauricio studied Civil Engineering at Polytechnic University of Madrid and he has an MBA from IESE Business School received in 2007.

Carmen Gimeno is the Secretary General of GEODE, the European association representing the interests of 1200 private and public energy companies for both electricity and gas in 14 European countries. She is also a Managing Partner at Verdia Legal in Barcelona, where she has been working since 1995. Her expertise in energy law is built upon over 20 years of experience in this field. Ms Gimeno holds a Law degree from the University of Barcelona (1992). In 1993, she became a Member of the Bar Association of Barcelona. In the same year, she earned a postgraduate degree in Business Management Techniques at the Business Studies School of the University of Barcelona. She also studied Political Science and Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and completed a study period within an Erasmus Programme at Ruprecht-Karls Universität in Heidelberg, Germany, specialising in International and Community Law (1990-1991).

Adrian Gonzalez is a passionate energy transition professional, with background in electrical and industrial engineering, and holds an Executive MBA on the energy sector. He has become a power system expert by working +10 years in electricity transmission, firstly in the Spanish TSO, REE, and later for the European Network of the Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), and several years as innovation and renewable energy consultant. Adrian works within the International Renewable Energy Agency, IRENA, as Programme Officer on Innovation and End-use sectors, where he contributes to promote accelerated deployment of renewable energy through systemic innovation.

Alan is the Director of Europe at ESS Inc. and brings over 15 years of experience in the rechargeable battery space. He is a serial entrepreneur, focusing on new technology and has successfully founded and run several technology ventures in the UK, Germany and Switzerland.  Alan has also held senior board-level roles at battery companies. He has been deeply involved in several initiatives relating to renewable energy, including the Think Tank on Energy Environment and Business initiated by Harvard Business School in 2010.   He started his career in high-volume manufacture of computer electronics with IBM, Scotland and later worked as a senior manager in the Instrumentation Division of VDO Adolf Schindling AG, Germany, a world-leader in automotive instrumentation and now part of Continental.

Ulrike Gunnemann is a passionate advocate of sustainable energies. In her role as Head of Global Hybrid at BayWa r.e., she is dedicated to the development of complex renewable energy projects combining different electricity generators and storage technologies. Before joining BayWa r.e. in April 2022, Ulrike worked as manager and expert for an international engineering consultancy company. Being worldwide active in numerous hybrid and storage projects as well as energy system studies, Ulrike advised governments, investors and project developers in the development of green energy solutions. Ulrike combines engineering, financial and AI expertise with excellent track record in setting up new business fields, strategy and M&A.

Claudia Günther leads the Research teams for Northwestern Europe at Aurora. In this position, she is responsible for the power market outlook for these markets, alongside strategic studies on the energy transition, covering topics evolving around electricity market design, decarbonization of the power sector, renewable energy and energy storage. She has an extensive track record of acting as an advisor on project and studies for developers, investors, utilities, grid operators and policy makers on the national and EU level.

Laurene Gusse has extensive experience in engineering and industrial projects. She started her career in ENGIE Networks & Infrastructures, overseeing the construction and the commissioning of gas compressor stations and storage facilities, leading the Industrial Design Department, and contributing to Green Mobility projects. She joined ENGIE solutions in 2016, taking over transformation projects supporting entities in their transition towards a sustainable energy system. After two years spent contributing to the execution of the Group's strategic plan, she recently joined the Management committee of the Renewables Industrial Platform, as Deputy Head of the Quality & Procurement Department and as Head of Quality Department to develop ENGIE's capacity to improve the sustainability of its supply chain.

Markus Hackmann is the managing director of P3 and responsible for the area of e-mobility. After completing his engineering studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, he joined P3 in 2006 and has since been working on numerous projects in the field of e-mobility technology strategies, lithium-ion batteries and the charging of electric vehicles. Since a few years and with the breakthrough of electric mobility, numerous projects with utilities, grid operators have been added. Likewise, Markus and the P3 work with numerous investors on the topic of technical due diligence. The P3 e-mobility team currently consists of over 200 consulting engineers.

Ella-Lovise H. Rørvik is a machine learning engineer at Aneo AS. She leads AI initiatives within various flexibility projects in the company, working with cases from user flexibility to local energy markets. She has a Master of Science degree in Cybernetics and Robotics from NTNU (2020) and specializes in optimization, forecasting, control systems, and distributed energy systems.

Here is the speaker form returned, and a headshot. For the bio, would this work: Evan Hartley is a Senior Analyst at Benchmark Minerals, principally covering cathode material and battery cell manufacturing and pricing. With over two years experience, Evan has insight into the global supply chain, having visited multiple production facilities in both China, and Europe, and understands the challenges and opportunities encountered by manufacturers. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is the leading price reporting agency for the lithium-ion battery supply chain, from mine to cell.

Christopher works as Data Scientist at The Mobility House to generate a clearer visibility over the flexibility assets such as charging stations and vehicles connected through the backend in the portfolio. In parallel, Christopher continues his work as a scientist with the ISEA Institute, RWTH Aachen University. Christopher's research focusses on applying machine learning and big data algorithms on public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Key questions are how the existing infrastructure can best be used, how future expansion is best placed, and how electric vehicles can positively interact with the electricity grid. Through the platform www.mobility-charts.de as well as appearances in various conferences, he is a leading voice on charging infrastructure usage in Germany. As part of electric mobility, he also focusses on buffer batteries and home energy storage systems. He has experience in the fields CAPEX/OPEX projection for power and gas grid assets, power grid and power market modelling, wind energy tenders, and renewable energy technology. He further has an extensive IT and programming background with projects completed in database management and back-end development.

Raphaël Héliot is Policy Manager at AVERE - the European Association for Electromobility. Within his work, he advocates for the promotion of legislative and non-legislative European initiatives which aim at supporting the deployment of e-mobility. He is also involved in several expert groups/ forums of the European Commission (EAFO, Sustainable Transport Forum, etc) where he leads the work on charging infrastructure's deployment, EV's roll out and more sectoral issues including fire safety, skills, grid and urban mobility. Prior to that, Raphaël Héliot has worked in consultancies on transport related topics.

Josef Hermann (M.Sc.) is an industrial engineer of Renewable Energies and a professional consultant on a variety of energy-related topics. He worked on numerous rural electrification projects in Ethiopia, Germany, Nepal, Autonomous Palestinian Territories, and Peru. He has diverse expertise in the field of governmental and non-governmental development cooperation. For the last 2 years he was working on a Baseline Study and the Development of a Sustainability Framework as well as Capacity Development Interventions on Solar PV Electrification of public institutions in Ethiopia.

Holger Hesse is Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Kempten. He holds a PhD in physics and he gained expert knowledge in the fields of battery storage and energy markets through various stages in industry and academia. He was postdoctoral researcher at Technical University of Munich and consultant for BMW, e.on and other well renowned industrial players. His research team has a particular focus on battery storage modelling including techno-economic analyses, energy dispatch optimization and machine learning derived control of systems.

Julia Hildermeier joined RAP's Europe team as an electro-mobility and transport expert to explore the benefits of integrating electrified transport in a smarter and decarbonized power market. In addition to providing research and policy analysis, she leads RAP's electric transportation program for RAP's EU department including strategic planning and outreach in Brussels and beyond. Before coming to RAP in 2018, Hildermeier worked for the European Federation for Transport & Environment, advocating for a cleaner, fairer, and more sustainable transport system. As clean vehicles and e-mobility officer, she conducted policy research and managed internal and external research projects, co-created and implemented the organization's advocacy strategy on electro-mobility, and advised decision-makers at the EU level as well as in key Member States. This included expanding stakeholder coalitions and networks, such as the European Platform for Electro-Mobility. Julia Hildermeier holds a doctorate in sociology from Humboldt University Berlin and Ecole Normale Superieure Cachan in Paris. Her academic work included identifying the path-rupture potential of environmental regulation in the European automotive and transport sector. Previously, while earning a master's degree in social sciences and serving as a research assistant in an EU-funded project at Berlin's Center for Social Sciences, she compared the innovation potential of electric vehicle battery politics in Germany and France. Hildermeier publishes and reviews papers in scientific journals on mobility and climate topics. A native German speaker, Julia is also fluent in English and French.

Alexander leads Sonnen's commercial and industrial storage development activities in the position of Vice President C&I since 2019. Prior to sonnen, Alexander helped build the stationary energy storage business unit at VARTA as technical director. He has a diploma and a doctorate in physics.

o Gadi Hirsch is the lead market and policy analyst at SolarEdge Technologies. A part of the strategy group, Gadi is leading the coverage of key market segments, technological trends and policies. He particularly focuses on European distributed energy systems markets - aimed at deriving key insights for business strategy formulation. He holds a BA in economics and has previously led economic analysis and management consulting teams.

Bärbel Höhn is a German politician for Alliance '90/The Greens. Ms. Höhn became State Minister for Environment and Agriculture in North Rhine-Westphalia from 1995 to 2005. In 2005 she was elected to the Bundestag in the 2005 national elections. She first served as chairwoman of the Committee on Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection from 2005 to 2006. Between 2006 and 2013 she was vice chairwoman of the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag, and as such responsible for the issues of energy, climate, environment, transport, agriculture, nature conservation and construction. From 2014 to 2017 Bärbel Höhn served as chairwoman of the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Having participated in various UN Climate Change conferences, she was a regular speaker at international climate and energy conventions. From November 2017 to October 2023, Bärbel Höhn was acting as unpaid Special Representative for Energy in Africa for the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and since November 2023 she is BMZ Special Representative for Decentralised Energy Supply with focus on the entire global South. In this regard she promotes the importance of Decentralised Energy with her many years of political experience and expertise in renewable energy.

Mr. Luke Hu co-founded Electroder, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer focuses on battery cell design and development. He is currently focusing on building and operating the company's global business. Mr. Hu has been leading his team completing cell design projects, developing advanced design tools for global users, and advising the company's clients in cell development process. In 2022, Mr. Hu led his company joining the Global Battery Alliance as its first member focusing on battery design and development. Before founding Electroder, he had a decade of experience in manufacturing and technology and held a variety of management roles globally. Mr. Hu graduated with an MBA degree from Cornell University and a bachelor's degree of engineering from Beijing University of Technology.

As a senior associate in Berlin, Andreas Jahn focuses on issues relating to the German 'Energiewende', or energy transition, helping develop and advance regulatory options for a carbon-neutral power sector, including demand-side resources and tariff design. He also supports RAP's work throughout Europe. Jahn has extensive experience with power markets and regulation, as well as knowledge of the German national political arena. Prior to joining RAP, Jahn was responsible for all energy policy and regulatory matters as the director of regulatory affairs at lekker Energie, a German electricity and gas provider. Through his work as a senior expert for the Association of New Energy Suppliers, he gained valuable insight into political decision-making processes and legislative procedures. He was also a member of the Federal Ministry of Economics' task force on legislation to implement grid regulation in Germany. Andreas Jahn has extensive knowledge of the technical, environmental, and political aspects of energy markets through his degree in environmental science from Leeuwarden (Netherlands) and Bingen (Germany). In addition to his native German, Andreas speaks fluent English and advanced Spanish.

Ulrike Jahn is a graduate physicist and works as a scientific group leader in the Photovoltaic Systems and Integration department at the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics CSP in Halle, Germany. Her work focusses on the diagnosis and reliability of PV systems. She is project manager of an international expert group, Task 13 of the PVPS programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which deals with technical and economic aspects of the reliability and performance of PV systems. She has been coordinating this network of currently 185 international experts in 25 countries since 2010.

Dr Carlos Javier has over 18 years experience in engineering, negotiation and strategic sales across Spain, United Kingdom, Ireland and Italy. Between 2010-2014, Carlos was Head of Engineering at UK construction and development company where he led the design of >500MW of UK solar projects. Carlos holds an executive MBA and has experience in portfolio management and project finance. He was the Technical Director at one of the largest renewable energy funds in the world with over 1GW of assets under management (AuM). In the last 2 years, Carlos has been managing the Asset Management arm of Elgin Energy, a unique and successful development platform recently acquired by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). Oversight of a large UK based asset base means Carlos is uniquely placed to have a comprehensive understanding of asset performance in the UK and Ireland.

Felix Jedamzik leads the sales team Flex at coneva GmbH. As an expert for flexibility markets, Felix is helping utilities and commercial customers to valorize demand response capacities from batteries, EV-chargers and heat pumps on the European energy markets. He passioned about finding multi-use case strategies for commercial and industrial sites in order to optimize the overall energy costs with holistic energy management measures. Prior to coneva, for 8 years Felix has been working as International Business Development Manager at Next Kraftwerke GmbH, a leading Virtual Power Plant operator in Europe.

A consultancy mission for the Belgian TSO, early on in Thomas' professional career, sparked a general interest for energy market. This resulted in Thomas joining Engie in 2010. Over the years, Thomas has held various & diverse positions within the company, allowing him to have a broad understanding of the complex energy markets. As Business controller & head of Finance, he played a key role in setting up and developing Engie's bulk commodity trading activities. As IT project manager, he has been responsible for professionalizing the German energy management activities (power dispatching, ancillary services and intraday trading). Around 2019, Thomas decided to move away from energy trading and focus on renewable energy. Next to the development of 'as-a-service' large-scale solar projects, Thomas is today actively involved in diversifying and upgrading Engie's renewable service portfolio, both through integration of new technologies (such as storage) and the development of new innovative business models.

Gunther Kellermann has been Managing Director of the Section Batteries at the ZVEI (Electro and Digital Industry Association) since February 2024. He represents the battery industry in Germany vis-à-vis politicians and authorities. Prior to that, he was responsible for various topics in the field of environmental regulation and substance policy in the ZVEI for 4 years. Before joining the ZVEI, Mr. Kellermann worked for several years in the field of political advocacy at BASF and the VCI (Federation of the German Chemical Industry). Mr. Kellermann studied in Freiburg and graduated with a degree in economics.

Torsten Knop spent his whole career in the utility industry. After a brief period working for an industry association he joined the RWE Group (today E.ON) in 1999. Here he was mostly focused on public affairs issues concerning transmission and distribution grids. With the start of formal regulation in Germany in 2005 he moved to regulatory affairs and is currently responsible for European Regulation at E.ON SE. He is an economist by qualification.

Jochen Kreusel is Senior Vice President of Hitachi Energy, Zurich, and Global Head of Market Innovation. He studied electrical engineering at RWTH Aachen University (Germany), where he was also granted his doctorate. From 1994 to 2020 he worked with ABB, where he held managing positions in marketing and technology. Jochen Kreusel is President of T&D Europe and member of the Supervisory Committee of VDE Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies. He is member of several committees of the European Commission and the German government on aspects of the future development of power systems. Moreover, he is honorary professor at RWTH Aachen University, where he is teaching power economics in liberalized electricity markets.

Jan Kula is a Business Development Expert in CEZ Distribuce, a Distribution System Operator in the Czech Republic. He is responsible for reshaping company's strategy towards clean energy and Smart Grid Technologies. His expertise encompasses power engineering, EV charging stations infrastructure and Digitalization. Additionally, he serves as the vice-chair of the E.DSO Technology & Knowledge Sharing Committee and is a member of Eurelectric and the EU DSO Entity.

At Breakthrough Energy, Maria leads the Germany program and supports EU-level policy engagement. Before joining Breakthrough Energy, she worked for the Volkswagen Group Representation in Brussels, shaping the regulatory conditions for electric vehicles and smart mobility. Prior to that, she worked for Vestas Wind Systems' Public Affairs Team, advocating for renewable energy. Maria brings a background in international business and politics, holding a master's degree from Copenhagen Business School. Her academic journey included living experiences in Turkey and China.

Jonathan Leloux began his solar energy adventures in 2005 and has since worked in the field of solar photovoltaic energy as an engineer, researcher, consultant, and entrepreneur. His expertise is focused on photovoltaic (PV) system engineering, encompassing residential distributed PV and large-scale PV plants, bifacial PV, agrivoltaics, BIPV, floating PV, CPV, and solar resource assessment. He holds an Engineering Degree in Mining and Geology and a PhD in Solar Photovoltaic Energy Systems. He is a co-founder and the managing director of LuciSun, which provides technical guidance through consulting services and products to actors in the solar energy sector across all project phases, including early design, PV engineering, financing, construction, commissioning, and operation. As part of his role at LuciSun, he is actively involved in several research projects at national, European and international levels, along with other team members, ensuring that the company's initiatives are closely integrated with the latest advancements in solar technology. He participates in the IEA PVPS Programme Tasks 13 on PV System Performance and Task 15 on BIPV.

Helena Li, Executive President of Trina Solar, is a highly experienced senior executive, who has spent more than thirteen years devoting to solar energy development since April 2011. She joined Trina Solar in September 2013 as Managing Director and Vice President for Asia Pacific and the Middle East, and served as Trina Solar's Head of Global Module business and Vice President of Trina Solar from 2019 through early 2022. Trina Solar is involved in the residential, industrial and commercial (C&I), and utility segments of the solar and energy storage markets. Helena oversees Trina Solar's all business units and markets in the three segments globally. Helena has also been tasked with helping Trina Solar position itself as a 'total solutions' provider for solar energy. Before joining Trina Solar, she worked for US semiconductor company Intel, possessing strong technical and global marketing background. She began her career in 1998 with Microsoft.

Mr Ilya Likhov - Hi-tech entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Neosun Energy - is a distinguished authority in the field of Solar Energy, and international business strategy with over 20 years of hands-on experience. His innovative business model has the potential to revolutionize the solar energy market. In 2015, Mr. Likhov embarked on a groundbreaking venture, establishing his own production of power equipment in China. Since then, he has held the esteemed position of General Manager at NEOSUN Energy, a forward-looking manufacturing enterprise that specializes in crafting solar panels, next-generation lithium-ion batteries, and other pioneering energy solutions.

Corrine Lin is the Chairman and Chief Analyst at InfoLink Consulting. With over a decade of experience in business analysis in the renewable energy industry, she leads solar, energy storage, clean electricity, and carbon market research teams, offering business consulting services for competition and transformation. Working alongside more than 160 energy giants worldwide, InfoLink Consulting has become a world-leading renewable energy research consultancy. Its regularly published reports on PV supply chain prices and technologies have become crucial benchmarks and reference sources throughout the global PV industry. InfoLink believes that staying closer to our clients brings us closer to the market. Under Corrine's leadership, our teams continue to expand their research scope, providing strategic advice to transform businesses and stand out in the competition.

Atse Louwen is a Senior Researcher at Eurac Research, Institute for Renewable Energy. His main research interests include the performance and reliability of Photovoltaics (PV), modelling and machine learning of PV performance and solar irradiance, and the sustainability of PV. He is team leader in Performance, Reliability and Sustainability of PV. Currently, he is involved in the numerous European projects. In Horizon Europe projects NEXUS and PILATUS, he is leading the evaluation of performance and reliability in outdoor testing and contributing to the assessment of sustainability and economics of novel and existing PV technologies. In MC2.0 Atse is coordinating the sustainability assessment of integrated PV products. In the Horizon 2020 project TRUST-PV he analysed the long-term performance of a large fleet of PV systems and is contributing to the ongoing digitalization of the PV sector along the value chain. Before joining Eurac, Atse worked at Utrecht University's Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, where he attained his PhD performing multi-disciplinary assessment of PV technology, including Lifecycle Assessment and performance analysis1. As a Post-Doc at the Copernicus Institute, Atse was a work package leader in the EU H2020 project REFLEX, examining technological learning and experience curves for a variety of renewable energy technologies.

Florian Lüft has been Head of Business Development of Univers German entity since 2020. Univers is one of the world's leading Greentech companies with a strong focus on the digital transformation of the energy- and mobility sector. In his position, he is responsible for the strategic and operational development of new business areas with focus on corporate fleets and real estate. He has gained more than 20 years of experience in sales, strategy, marketing and business development. Lüft holds a diploma in Business Administration.

Aquin Magnus is a research engineer at ENGIE Laborelec, the research and innovation expertise centre for electric energy of the ENGIE Group. At Laborelec, he is active as project manager and project engineer contributing to research projects aimed at improving the design and performance of PV or PV-BESS hybrid assets. He holds degrees in renewable energy engineering from Uppsala University and IST Lisbon.

Sebastian Mahlow, Managing Director of ison GmbH with almost 20 years of experience in the energy transition. After building up the electricity and biogas portfolio at LichtBlick SE, he went on to connect over 1,000 mini-CHPs to create Germany's first virtual power plant at residential level. Most recently, he launched the energy-as-a-service business at LichtBlick and founded the company ison in 2022 to leverage flexibility potentials for prosumers.

Florian Mayr is an expert for strategy, business development and transaction advisory in the global renewable energy markets, including energy storage. Mr. Mayr leads Apricum's energy storage practice and is responsible for the company's international activities in this field. In particular, Mr. Mayr supports Apricum's clients in successfully accessing new markets and seizing attractive business opportunities. He is also active in advising cleantech companies on corporate and project financing, including M&A, fund raising and due diligence. Furthermore, he is a regular contributor to external publications and a frequently booked speaker on the topic of energy storage. Prior to Apricum, he spent a decade in senior positions at McKinsey & Company and RWE, where he was mainly involved in strategy development projects both in the conventional and renewable energy sectors. Mr. Mayr holds a master's degree in engineering from the Technical University of Berlin, and an MBA from the Technical University of Berlin and the University of Mannheim.

Stanislas is a Business Developer and Senior Solar PV Consultant in Multiconsult, Norway, with over 15 years of experience. Stanislas has been one of the founding members of Multiconsult's solar energy advisory team, specializing in solar PV projects in emerging markets. Focusing on floating solar PV since 2016, he has extensive international experience from solar projects ranging from Eastern/Southern Africa to Central/Southeast Asia.

Deepak Mohapatra works as the Senior Officer - Business & Market Development at the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE), a leading global business association representing the decentralised renewable energy (DRE) sector for provision of energy access in developing and emerging countries. He works closely together with more than 200 ARE Members, as well as international and local partners to improve market conditions, facilitate capacity building, and establish favourable environment enabling business for private sector companies in DRE space across the globe. Previously Deepak worked at a German NGO called 'Lernen - Helfen - Leben e.V. as a Project Coordinator. He holds MSc. in Renewable Energy Management from Technical University of Cologne (TH Köln), Germany and B.Tech. in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), India.

Juan is a principal analyst on Wood Mackenzie's Power and Renewables team covering distributed solar market developments across Europe. He also coordinates Wood Mackenzie's global solar market outlook update report every quarter. Prior to his current role, Juan was a senior conference content manager, leading content development for Wood Mackenzie/Greentech Media's energy transition conference portfolio in collaboration with our global research practice heads. He has also published research on renewables and green hydrogen development in the Middle East and Africa. Juan holds a master's in media and communications from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a bachelor's degree in journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid.

Molly is a Senior Research Analyst in the solar PV team at Exawatt (part of the CRU Group). Molly oversees Exawatt's tracking and forecasting of PV module efficiency and architecture. In addition, she undertakes analysis of capacity, production and financial data for PV manufacturers. Molly joined Exawatt as an analyst in 2020 whilst finishing her studies. Molly has an undergraduate degree in Physics and postgraduate masters degree in Solar Cell Technology from the University of Sheffield.

Dr. Thomas Müller is co-founder and CTO of SPiNE GmbH. He is responsible for technical implementation of the SPiNE local and cloud software stack. He formerly served as Technology Lead and Product Manager in various companies in the energy sector, including coneva GmbH (a 100% subsidiary of SMA AG) and Vattenfall. He has deep technological expertise on all levels of energy flex, from steering local flexible assets like electric vehicles and heatpumps and storages, to forecasting and optimization, aggregation and pooling within virtual power plants, and finally energy market integration including FCR, Day-Ahead and Intraday markets.

Dr.-Ing. Björn Müller has been Managing Director of Enmova GmbH since 2021. Mr. Müller studied economics at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg from 1991 to 1998 and graduated with a degree in business administration. From 2004 to 2006, he studied energy management at the University of Koblenz-Landau and graduated with a Master of Science. In 2018, the University of Kassel awarded him the title of Doctor of Engineering (Dr.-Ing.). Mr. Müller worked for a large international auditing company in Freiburg from 2000 to 2005. After working as an independent consultant for 2 years, he held various positions at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg from 2007 to 2021. His last position there was as group leader of the "Photovoltaic Power Plants" group. In 2021, he founded Enmova GmbH from Fraunhofer ISE. Mr. Müller has many years of experience in business and technical issues relating to the planning, construction and operation of PV power plants. He also has in-depth knowledge in the field of energy meteorology and climatology.

Growing up on a family-owned farm Fabian Neu was able to gain a deep understanding of farming practices and suitable crop rotations. With several years of expertise in both the agriculture and renewable energy sectors, he has cultivated a deep understanding of sustainable farming practices and clean energy. Following his university degree in Agricultural Science and Economics from the Universities of Bonn and Göttingen, he pursued an internship at a large agricultural enterprise in Australia, notable for its pioneering work in large-scale drip irrigation for crops. Afterward he held a position as a speaker at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture for over two years, focusing on innovation and digitalization. In addition to gaining political expertise in European funding programs and contributing to guidelines, he was involved in evaluating research proposals in the field of innovative and sustainable agricultural concepts, including Agri-PV. Passionate about integrating agricultural practices with innovative technologies to advance sustainable and efficient agriculture, paired with clean energy, he has been active in the Agri-PV sector for over 3 years now. In 2023 Fabian Neu joined RWE Renewables as a Senior Expert for Agri-PV. He supports the global Agri-PV market development and effectively capitalizes on the synergies between the agricultural and energy industries. He is a Member of the consortium defining livestock-specific guidelines for Agri-PV in Germany under DIN SPEC 91492.

Started professional career as a Chemical Engineer at Galp in 2010, starting in Sines' refinery Technology department. Moved to the Lubricants department where in 2014 took the lead of the Product Development. In 2017 changed to the Planning and Technology Department to lead the Refining Analysis and Development unit. In the beginning of 2020, became the Head of Midstream (& Refining) Innovation Center, developing projects around circular economy and low carbons fuels. In 2021, lead the development of the Galp strategy for hydrogen and joined the team created to execute it, becoming Head of Technology. In mid of 2022 joined EDP as Head of H2Tech department and in the beginning of 2023 embraced a new challenge as Innovation Director of EDP Produção, developing projects around energy transition and renewable energies. MSc and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico. Loves to travel, backpacking style, probably the reason for being passionate about energy efficiency and sustainable mobility.

Dr. Benedikt Ortmann is Global Director for Origination & Business Development Projects for the BayWa r.e. Group. He has more than 20 years of extensive experience in the renewable energy sector. Before joining the BayWa r.e. team in 2011, he was CFO at S.A.G. Solarstrom AG in Freiburg and built up the international project business of SOLON SE in Berlin, developing it into a successful and highly profitable division. At BayWa r.e., his current focus is on the origination and development of new markets, technologies and on sales for the entire projects business, including wind, solar and new technologies. BayWa r.e. is one of the key companies driving renewable energy development worldwide. The company provides end-to-end project solutions, ongoing operations management and is an Independent Power Producer with an expanding energy trading business. The company has installed solar, wind and battery capacity of more than 6 GW. BayWa r.e,'s joint shareholders are BayWa AG, a globally successful business with revenues of €23.9 billion, and Energy Infrastructure Partners, a market leader in energy infrastructure investment that manages over €7 billion from global investors.

Jan is Sr Policy Advisor at SolarPower Europe. He's responsible for rooftop solar, prosumers, and digitalisation in the EU's solar PV trade body. He leads the advocacy based on product and market trends in EU countries and legislation. He also consults members on regulatory developments. In the past, he has worked as a product and project manager for Pulse of Europe.

Haralambos Panagopoulos is a senior Process Simulation & LP Planning Optimization Engineer at Hellenic Petroleum Refining, Supply & Trading of Oil Products & Petrochemicals S.A. , which is the main subsidiary of HelleniQ Energy Holdings Group. He has been working in the Oil Downstream Sector for 10 years, with experience in a variety of different functions spanning from physical crude oil/oil products supply & trading and paper hedging, to refinery production planning, scheduling, process simulation and optimization. He currently investigates - through LP model development - the potential of pilot-scale and new processes for renewable fuels production, for integrating renewable energy to refinery processes in the system of Hellenic Petroleum refineries and for the reduction of Scope-1,2,3 emissions.

Elodie Perret has joined BayWa r.e. as EU Policy Manager. She has more than 15 years of experience in Policy and regulatory issues in the renewable energy sector. She previously worked for the French Renewable Energy Association on wind before joining EDF Renewables in 2012, where she worked on offshore wind before becoming Head of Regulatory Affairs in 2016. In 2021, she became regulatory advisor for hydrogen. BayWa r.e. is a leading global renewable energy developer, service provider, distributor and energy solutions provider with operations in 31 countries, a turnover of around €6.5 billion and sustained growth throughout its history.

Conor Power is the Product Line Director of Energy Storage at Analog Devices, based in Limerick, Ireland. He is responsible for leading the commercialization of storage technologies and solutions to accelerate the decarbonization of the energy grid. Over the course of his career, Conor had held various roles in R&D, product management, marketing, strategy, and business leadership. He has a BEng in Electronic Engineering from the University of Limerick and a Master of Business degree from University College Cork.

Francisco Quiroga is currently the Ambassador of Mexico in Germany. He holds a Master of Operations Research from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a Master's degree in Economics from Yale University. In the current administration, he has served as Undersecretary of Mines in the Economy Ministry. He has direct knowledge of the German business environment, and private sector experience in developing international investment and trade projects, particularly in the mining and metallurgical sector. He has participated in technical negotiations and in the application of trade rules.

Aleksandra Radwanska is Country Manager Poland at Next Kraftwerke and works on sustainable energy solutions for the company. She leads the Polish team and is responsible for business development in the Polish market, focusing on market development, risk management and regulatory issues. Before joining Next Kraftwerke, she worked at InnoEnergy and General Electric. She holds an engineering degree from Warsaw University of Technology. She also holds a degree in Innovation Sciences from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and in Sustainable Energy Technologies from the Eindhoven University of Technology. Aleksandra enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for digital energy technologies. She is Vice President of the Polish Chamber of Energy Storage and Electric Mobility PIME and a member of the Polish Energy Trade Association.

Marie Rajon Bernard is an Electric Vehicle Researcher working for the ICCT (International Council on Clean Transportation) on the International Partnerships team. She is also the Charging Infrastructure Cluster Coordinator and is based in Berlin, Germany. Her work supports cities' and countries' transition to zero-emission mobility through electric vehicle adoption and charging infrastructure development. She also supports the International ZEV Alliance and the ZEV Transition Council, two coalitions of leading governments committed to accelerating the transitioning to zero-emission vehicles, by being a Secretariat member.

A technical expert with a passion for electromobility - this is Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Richter, R&D Manager at DEKRA. He has almost 15 years of experience in the field of e-mobility, a topic that has been a recurring theme throughout his career: After studying mechatronics with a focus on vehicle mechatronics, Andreas was in charge of cross-divisional electromobility services from 2010 on and set up a DEKRA Group-wide E-Mobility Competence Center. In his current position as R&D Manager, two topics are particularly close to his heart: the electrical safety of vehicles and determining the State of Health of the EV battery. Andreas is also the founder of DEKRA's Battery Test for Electric Cars, a unique, patented procedure for determining the battery SoH.

Juan Rivier, Electronic Engineer and Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering by Comillas University, is currently Head of Global Regulation within Iberdrola Renewables, with a global responsibility (geographies and renewable technologies) on Renewables Regulation. He is a SolarPowerEurope and WindEurope Board Director. He has now more than 30 years of experience in the energy sector, beginning as an academic during 15 years at the Institute for Technological Research (IIT) of Comillas University, and joining Iberdrola in 2007 where he has been global responsible for Renewables Regulation and also global responsible for renewables PPA structuring.

Carolina Rodrigues Poupinha is an Associate Researcher working for the ICCT (International Council on Clean Transportation) on the light-duty vehicles program. Her current work aims at estimating the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of electric light-duty vehicles.

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Victoria Santos is a research associate in the Power and Renewables team at Wood Mackenzie, with a keen focus on the dynamic solar and storage markets in Europe. Her energy sector experience includes forecasting and analysis related to all aspects of onshore wind, solar PV and storage on which she has published various reports during her time at Wood Mackenzie. She also contributes towards Wood Mackenzie's global analysis and monitors project development, asset transactions and policy updates across the region.

Annie is Director of the RE-Source Platform, an alliance of stakeholders representing clean energy buyers and suppliers. Annie leads the Platform's energy buyer engagement and advocacy activities which advance RE-Source's mission to support more corporate buyers to procure renewable energy.

Marcel Schepers is product manager for flexibility marketing within EnBW Trading and the virtual power plant of EnBW and in this role responsible for the battery marketing business and offered range of services. He has deep expertise and insights about the flexibility markets, especially in Germany. Before he joined EnBW Trading, he formerly served as a consultant for the German energy industry and was part at the generation department of EnBW where he was involved in the development of large-scale battery projects.

Since 2021, Christian Schill is group manager of 'Photovoltaic Power Plants' at Fraunhofer ISE, Germany, after stations at Freiburg Material Research Centre (FMF), PSE GmbH and the University of Freiburg. He is an alumni of the Sustainability Center Freiburg. He works in the fields of quality of PV power plants, outdoor weathering of PV modules, climate data and spatial analyses, with a focus on integrated PV and digitalization in the PV sector.

Dr Frank Schlichting is the CEO of Kiwigrid. He studied applied physics at TH-Darmstadt and the University of California at Berkeley. After graduating, he moved to TU-Berlin, where he earned a doctorate in engineering. Parallel to his studies, Frank worked as a software developer at DaimlerChrysler InterServices. After completing his career in science he was involved in the development of the Volkswagen Autostadt as Head of Technology Development and Knowledge Management. Following positions at Atmel Semiconductors and the high-tech start-up Nanotron Technologies, in 2014 Frank became CEO/CTO at Solare Datensysteme in the field of renewable energies, leading on management, product development and internationalization for 6 years. In 2020 he became the CEO of Kiwigrid.

Michael is Executive Advisor to the CEO and a member of the leadership team. Alongside his business development work, Michael heads SolarPower Europe's award-winning market intelligence team. He is lead author of the annually published Global Market Outlook and EU Market Outlook, and works closely with Policy Analyst Raffaele operating the Solar & Storage workstream. Michael has been working in solar for over 20 years. After co-founding Photon-Magazine in 1996, he served in various positions within the Photon group, primarily as Editor-in-Chief of Photon International. In 2014, Michael started MISCHCO, a company offering strategy consulting and communication services to solar companies. In 2016, TaiyangNews, a digital news platform for the solar industry that Michael founded, went online. Michael studied Geology/Palaeontology at Bonn University, Geology at RWTH Aachen, and Mineralogy at Frankfurt University. He speaks German and English.

Oliver Schmidt is a clean energy expert with a focus on energy storage and solar. He published the book Monetizing Energy Storage and the online analysis platform www.EnergyStorage.ninja. He is also the founder and CEO of dvlp.energy, a software company supporting developers of renewable energy projects, and has previous experience as project manager and analyst at Apricum, the IEA and E.ON.

Laurent Schmitt has joined dcbel early January 2022 as CEO of Dcbel Europe as well as head of Utility vertical while funding Digital4Grids. He has been working for the last 25 years through the Automation, IT and Digitisation of the Power Industry. Before joining Dcbel, he was the Secretary General of ENTSO-E for the past 4 years and Global Smart Grid Strategy Leader at General Electric Grid Solutions. Laurent worked in Europe, the United States and Asia, on all sectors of the electricity value chain from power generation controls, intro trading and market, Grid management as well as DER integration and Microgrid community. Laurent has contributed to several strategic committees in CIGRE, IEC, EPRI and is now the Chair of the Digital Committee of SmartEn (the European association for Demand Side Flexibility). He has several times been named among the most influential people of the European Smart Grid industry and is very active through is LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. Laurent is French national, strong believer in the need to accelerate the Energy System transformation towards Prosumers to reach netzero ambitions by 2050. He graduated in Power System Engineering from Supélec in Paris and holds an Executive MBA from INSEAD, France.

Christopher Schöpf is the Sales Director, with a strong foundation in business management from the University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg in Dornbirn, Austria. His career started at Doppelmayr Cable Cars as Head of Controlling, and he later became the Head of Finance at Thien eDrives. In 2015, he served as Managing Director of Akku Mäser GmbH, an Austrian leader in battery trade, and in 2019, he founded e.battery systems, innovating in electromobility and energy storage solutions. Schöpf combines his financial expertise and entrepreneurial experience to drive the sales department towards strategic success.

Rebekka Schuster is the Chief Commercial Officer of EDF Renewables Storage Deutschland, a startup founded in 2018 in Berlin. The company's goal is to help the German industry build energy resilience through storage and solar energy projects. The company has successfully grown and is now one of the leading providers of storage as a service for the German industry. Rebekka brings more than a decade of experience in the renewable energy industry. Her focus has been developing PV plants and market access strategies throughout Europe for international companies. She joined the EDF group in 2018 with the focus on battery storage, integration of renewable energies and service concepts for the industry. She holds an MBA from EADA and HHL business schools. New business models and strategies to further develop the renewable energies market have been her constant driver.

Laurent Segalen is a franco-british clean energy investment banker. He is the founder of Megawatt-X, the London-based Energy Transition investment platform, which he currently heads. Laurent has been trading and investing billions of Euros in Clean Energy over more than two decades. Recent deals include PPA digital platform Zeigo, successfully sold to Schneider Electric; MARES interconnector, sub sea cable from Dublin to Liverpool, successfully sold to Foresight; Febesol, a leading German Rooftop Solar installer; Renewabl, a London-based Green Certificate platform; Abloco, a Dutch-based mobile batteries leasing company His career in Clean Energy spans over 25 years, from Director at pwc, Fund Manager at Mirova (Natixis) to Managing Director Clean Commodities at Lehman Brothers then Nomura. He was awarded Environmental Deal of the Year 2006 by Environmental Finance. While trading carbon, he was one of the co-authors of "scope 1, scope 2, scope 3" emissions concept and helped create the European Trading System. He is now special adviser to the Board of IC-VCM (The Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets), and founding member of EnergyTag, a non-profit organization promoting hourly matching of Renewable Energy certificates. Finally, Laurent co-hosts the award-winning podcast Redefining Energy with Gerard Reid. Launched in 2018, the podcast has now been downloaded more than 1.2m times.

Emilien Simonot is Head of Agrivoltaics for the EMEA and APAC regions at Lightsource bp, one of the leading solar PV project developers worldwide. Emilien is a seasoned senior executive working at the crossroad of energy sector, sustainability and innovation. With over 15 years of experience in renewables and innovation management, he has been involved with agrivoltaics since 2015, first from a venture capitalist perspective and then leading groundbreaking projects for large energy companies globally.

Sepehr Soltani is an Energy Storage Analyst at Rystad Energy, specializing in renewable energy with a master's in mechanical engineering. Since joining Rystad, he has been instrumental in advising on the pivotal role of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) in the energy transition. Sepehr's expertise encompasses energy storage technologies, power markets, and optimizing performance for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

Julia has over 20 years of experience in the energy and environmental sectors. She is a longtime advocate of clean energy technologies, working extensively to support the global environment and equitable policies. The LDES Council works with its diverse membership to commercialize and scale the long duration energy storage market. Previously she founded and was president of a strategic consulting company JASenergies and held senior leadership positions at the National Resources Defense Council working on coalition building and transmission planning, as a developer at Clean Line Energy Partners, a regulator at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, and as director of grid infrastructure planning and coordination for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Lars is a part of Fluence's Commercial, Market Development, Marketing and Policy Team in the EMEA region. He is responsible for policy and regulatory efforts on the EU level and throughout the EMEA region and supports the market and business development in Central Europe. Lars also leads the policy and market development for the TSO segment in the EMEA region, working with grid operators, regulators, and policy makers to establish energy storage as grid assets to improve utilisation and increase the operational reliability of power grids. Before joining Fluence, Lars worked for 8 years at Aggreko and Younicos (acquisition in 2017) on storage policy and market development globally, with a specific focus on storage-renewable hybrid assets. During this time, he participated in setting a 1GW storage target within Aggreko's company strategy. Before joining the clean energy sector, Lars worked at the political communication think tank ProDialog, and as a communication specialist for the European Parliament.

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Kieron is Senior Manager at Octopus Energy Group. He is responsible for delivering new customer propositions making energy more flexible. His work includes creating Saving Sessions, the largest UK customer demand shift programme ever with 1.9GWh shifted over 14.5 hours from 700,000 customers, and Intelligent Octopus, the largest smart charging virtual power plant in the UK with 800MW and 125,000 electric vehicles. Kieron is a Fulbright Scholar and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Alexa is the Strategy Lead at Field. Field is a fast growing developer, owner and operator of standalone battery storage sites - with operations in the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany. Field has ~200 MWh of sites that are operational or under construction. Alexa leads strategic topics, focusing on international expansion by assessing the viability of new markets and implementing market set up. Prior to joining Field, Alexa worked in the Climate & Sustainability Practice at The Boston Consulting Group, advising multinationals on reducing emissions and improving sustainability.

Multi-lingual (Chinese, English, French) female leader with ten+ years' international professional experience in Asia, Europe and Middle East related to ESG, Project Management, Energy-sector Planning and Analysis, Liaison and Outreach in both private and public sectors (UNESCO, Deloitte, Jinko Solar, etc.). Lin Sun holds Sciences Po Paris master degree and Fudan Univ. Bachelor degree, known for results-oriented analytical methods that blend in-depth awareness of international affairs, business acumen and industrial sensitivity in renewables. During the journey in Jinko Solar, Lin Sun leads Sustainability Development Department in the headquarter, taking charge of managing and coordinating ESG, GHG-emission, 'Green transition' activities, in close collaboration with divisions in charge of Supply Chain, Operation, IT, Legal affairs as well as bankability such as project financing, scaling-up renewable and energy transition in various regions. Lin Sun had experiences in conducting market and industrial research that contributes to the green transition and sustainable development strategies. Lin Sun also acted as corporate representative to deliver speech and/or to participate in COP27, COP28, IRENA General Assembly, Sofia Economic Forum and other international summits for ESG and sustainability presentation, while as maintaining close relations with key shareholders in international and regional multilateral organizations, multi-development banks (IFC, EBRD, EIB, AfDB, ADB, etc.), research institutions and industry associations. In 2023, Lin Sun participated in EBRD annual meeting as business representative.

Matthias Suttner is the Director of Charging Hardware at The Mobility House, where he spearheads the distribution of charging solutions to electricians and utility companies. With a decade of experience in the electric vehicle charging infrastructure industry, Matthias has established himself as a seasoned professional with a comprehensive understanding of energy management. His expertise spans various facets of the industry, including sales, business development, and product management. Throughout his career, Matthias has played a key role in shepherding diverse e-mobility projects, contributing to the advancement and integration of charging infrastructure for electric cars.

After a BSc in Energy Engineering at University of Bologna and a MSc in Sustainable Energy Technology at TU Delft, specializing on Solar PV & Energy Storage, Michele worked first as a Technical Consultant and Project Manager at DNV, leading technical advisory and certification firm in the Energy space, and since September 2022 as Head of Product Management Floating-PV at BayWa r.e., international developer and IPP with a strong leading position and the highest track record in Europe (300 MWp) for Floating-PV projects. Michele has been working for more than 6 years in the interesting and booming industry segment of Floating-PV, covering key responsibility roles and pushing the international agenda in the field, including managing international projects towards standardization. He is now responsible of supporting BayWa´s strategy, development and expansion in the Floating-PV space.

Susan Taylor is a Senior Research Analyst with the batteries and energy storage team at S&P Global Commodity Insights. She provides research coverage on energy storage markets across Europe and Africa with a particular focus on emerging technologies. Prior to joining S&P Global, she worked as an analyst supporting the policy team at the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) based in Brussels. She has a strong R&D background in battery materials and holds a PhD in chemistry from ETH Zurich.

Stefan Trittler has been active in the off-grid market for 15 years, during which he has held a number of roles including engineering, project management, sales and R&D. Prior to his current position as Head of Innovation / Project Principal at Asantys Systems GmbH, he was employed as Project Principal and Engineering Manager at PowerGen Renewable Energies Ltd, active as mini-grid developer and operator in East and West Africa. Previously, Stefan Trittler was Technical Expert Hybrid Systems at juwi AG, responsible for system design, engineering and project management of various international off-grid systems. Before that, he gained experience in technical sales of off-grid systems at Energiebau Solarstromsysteme GmbH and HAWI Energietechnik AG. In addition to his off-grid experience, he has travelled to numerous countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and has a special focus on rural electrification in these regions.

Dimitrios Tzelepis, with degrees in BEng, MSc, and PhD, is a leading expert in power system control, protection, and automation. As co-founder and CTO of SMPnet, he is committed to digitalizing power grids and leads its technology strategy. His instrumental role in shaping intelligent, software-defined electrical grids has led to the creation of the Omega suite, a state-of-the-art, virtualization-ready grid management platform that provides adaptive optimization and real-time control of power grids. Dimitrios impacts the global energy sector through his involvement in technical committees. He has authored over 70 publications and driven advancements in power grids, including developing Grid Codes in various regions and pioneering projects, patents, and prototypes for the industry.

With relevant experience in the electricity sector, he has dedicated much of its activity to innovation, business development, technology and transformation, while actively contributing to the development of European energy policies and their practical translation into digital and smart grids and their contribution to a consumer and community-centred energy transition. He is currently Director of European Policies and Projects at E-REDES, the DSO in mainland Portugal, responsible for the coordination of European activities and funded projects. He is a board member of the EU DSO Entity, Vice-Chair of ETIP SNET, and an active member, since its foundation, of E.DSO (formerly EDSO for Smart Grids). He also actively participates in European forums and platforms related to the energy sector.

Steven Van Arsdale is the Lead Analyst of PwC Autofacts at PwC in Frankfurt am Main and leads the Autofacts team. He supports teams in Germany and around the world with automotive-specific projects or analyses. He has more than 10 years of professional experience in analysing, consulting and directly at an OEM. Before joining PwC, Steven worked for a leading data forecasting company. His main focus was on powertrain, CO2 and powertrain forecasting. He was also previously Assistant Manager for Powertrain at the European headquarters of a Korean OEM.

Ing. Rick van Beek is Energy Consultant for Dutch DSO's and member of the expert panel of EU DSO Entity - EG Data & Interoperability. He is involved in introducing the energy data exchange framework in the Netherlands and development of EU Implementing Regulations on energy data interoperability and processes. He has extensive experience in development and implementation of energy market processes, with an explicit focus on customer data control.

Daniël Roux van Niekerk has over 10 years' experience in the field of Electrical Engineering. Daniël progressed in his career to become a Protection Coordination and Configuration Specialist on Distribution electrical networks. In 2021 Daniël was appointed as an Electrical Specialist at a Gold Mine in West Africa where he was the Electrical lead on the Installation and Commissioning of HFO plant and BESS as a spinning reserve solution. Currently Daniël is working for Aggreko as Product Engineer for Energy Storage providing technical support for project deployments on a global scale. Daniël has a bachelor's degree in Electric and Electronic Engineering (B.Eng.) and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree from the North-West University (NWU) in South Africa. He holds a Professional Engineer (Pr. Eng.) status at the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), is a member of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE), CIGRE and also a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society.

As Head of Public Affairs of Amarenco, Eva Vandest elaborates and operates an influence strategy to boost Solar Energy deployment, the most sustainable and affordable Energy to date. As chair of the "Agrisolar" now "Land-Use and Permitting" workstream at SolarPower Europe, she promotes synergies between Agricultural and Solar sectors to tackle climate change adaptation. She stands for ecological transition promoting regenerative agriculture solutions combined with Solar Energy production in rural areas. Since 2022 she is also Vice-Chair of Global Solar Council. Before being certified in Public Affairs, Strategy and Influence at Sciences-Po Paris, she completed a Master's degree at Sorbonne Law School. She started to work at Amarenco in 2016 after an internship at French Conseil d'Etat.

Dr Vlachos is a highly seasoned technical expert with more than 15 years of experience in working with large corporations and consulting firms offering his services in more than 30 countries by participating in projects that merge the worlds of energy and information technology. From 2017 he is focusing at the crossroads of blockchain and energy by advising Ministries, National Regulatory Authorities, and Utilities worldwide. Dr Vlachos holds a Bachelor and a PhD on Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He is also a member of the European Technology & Innovation Platform - Smart Networks for Energy Transition, the CEN-CENELEC Focus Group on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology, and the IEEE P2418.5 Standard for Blockchain in Energy Working Group.

Thomas Würz is Head of Wireless Power Transfer at Siemens AG in Munich, Germany. He is responsible for the R&D of the Wireless Power Transfer Products within the Siemens Smart Infrastructure eMobility organization. Thomas has about 32 years of experience in automotive and industrial area. Before Siemens AG, Thomas served as Global R&D Director at Lear Corporation, Managing Director at Brusa GmbH and Senior R&D Director at Qualcomm GmbH working on Wireless Charging IP and product development.

Eva Zimmermann is the lead expert for flexible energy in Auroras team specializing in European power markets. Joining Aurora in 2020, Eva has been leading the modelling and product development for Auroras German, Dutch and Belgian flexible energy offer. Her expertise encompasses long-term granular modelling of ancillary services, Intraday markets and battery investments across these regions.