Salla Saastamoinen is Deputy Director-General in Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (JRC) at the European Commission. The Joint Research Centre is Commission’s science and knowledge service that provides independent, evidence-based knowledge and science, supporting EU policies to positively impact society. In the JRC, Salla Saastamoinen is in charge of the five scientific directorates working in the areas of Fair and sustainable economy; Energy, mobility and climate; Sustainable resources; Space, security and migration; and Health and food.

Salla Saastamoinen has worked in the European Commission since 1996, first in DG Environment and then in several areas in DG Justice and Consumers. In DG Justice, Salla Saastamoinen was lastly the acting Director-General covering policy areas of civil and criminal justice, fundamental rights and rule of law, equality and Union citizenship, and consumers. At the same time, Salla Saastamoinen was Director for civil and commercial justice, and before that, Director in charge of equality and non-discrimination. 

Before joining the Commission, Salla Saastamoinen was a partner in a law office in Helsinki, Finland. She has a licentiate degree in law (post-graduate level) from the University of Helsinki, Finland, and post-graduate studies in law from the universities of Saarbrücken, Germany and Zürich, Switzerland. She is author of several books on environmental law and EU law.

Since 2021, James coordinates global agrivoltaics innovation and projects for the Engie group via their innovation center Laborelec in Belgium, interacting with project developers, engineers, manufacturers, farmers, public authorities, civil associations, researchers, and other stakeholders.  James has worked in the PV industry on 3 continents since 2005, and has recently completed a PhD focused on agrivoltaics, building on other postgrad studies in renewables grid integration and controlled environment agriculture, as well as a graduate diploma in linguistics.

Lucy leads strategy for current and new markets, regulatory policy, government affairs, and marketing. Lucy works closely with advocacy organizations, industry colleagues, legislators, and administration officials across Lightstar markets to advocate for sustainable and equitable solar program policy. Lucy is an expert in and advocate for community solar and agricultural land use issues and has successfully worked to advance solar+agriculture policies across the United States. As Committee Chair for the Coalition for Community Solar Access New Jersey, she leads efforts to inform and realize sustainable and equitable solar program policy across the state. For the last ten years, Lucy has focused on energy, land use, agriculture, and public health policy and has her Masters of Public Administration from Northeastern University.

Yannic Enders is the Country Manager for Germany at Orrön Energy. He holds a Diploma in Physics and a M.Sc. in Energy Science and Engineering.

Orrön Energy is a Swedish independent, publicly listed renewable energy company, with operational assets in the Nordics and greenfield development opportunities across Europe.

With an established team of senior experts in renewable energy, and a strong focus on agrivoltaic solutions, Orrön Energy is in a unique position to support the “Energiewende” in Germany. Developing a growing pipeline of agrivoltaic projects, the team at Orrön is committed to implementing dual land-use solutions and creating win-win situations for farmers and energy security.

Miriam Di Blasi (She) is a Chemical Engineer. She joined Enel in 2006, working as principal investigator on Flue Gas Cleaning Systems for the Thermal Generation Division. She gained her professional experiences thanks to international activities on full-scale fossil fuels power plant of the ENEL’s fleet and working in many EU funding project. From 2013 to 2016 she was the program manager of Advanced Solutions to Emission Control Program.

From 2017 to 2019 she worked in the Digitalization Program for the Internet of Things, in the framework of Industry 4.0, as coordinator of Safety and Robotics area, identifying the best technical solutions available on the market and designing new technologies. In the 2019 she was also Product Owner of the drones’ implementation agile project, aimed at massive adoption of commercial drones in more than 30 plants in 8 different Countries and training more than 80 new drone pilots coming mainly from O&M field.

From 2020 to today she is Head of Environment and Impacts Mitigation Innovation Unit, focused on field demonstrations and testing of innovative methodologies and tools to improve the environmental sustainability and social acceptability of renewable plants, in particular fostering actions to safeguard the biodiversity and improve the ecosystem services.

Khalid Radouane is currently the Vice President of New Technologies at EDF Renouvelables, where he oversees the development and transfer of innovative solutions from the R&D phase to the industrial phase. With a comprehensive background in technology research and development across various fields of renewable energy, including photovoltaic, wind, storage, hydrogen, and digital, he possesses a profound understanding of emerging trends and their potential impact on business operations. Throughout his career, Khalid has played a pivotal role in leading cross-functional teams and spearheading transformative projects.

Master degree in Agriculture and Environment. Specialist in Agrivoltaic project since 6 years. I'm in charge of following and developping Agrinergy in more than 30 projects at Agriterra, the agricultural subsidiary of Akuo Energy in France and overseas. I also support the deployment of agrivoltaic projects in Europe

Ed Baptista / Director, Development & Agrivoltaics

Experienced Professional Executive in Renewable Energies Business Development with Six Sigma and Blockchain Certifications. Specialized in Photovoltaics, Agrivoltaics, Electronic Generation, Backup Power and Green Hydrogen. Certified Professional Photovoltaic Installer with NABCEP Associate Credential. Emphasis in consultative sales, new product and technologies introduction, new markets development and project management. Social Entrepreneur and Businessman, leading developments around 5,000MW in combined Utility Scale Solar Projects in the State of Indiana. Strong market knowledge in Solar Power, alongside an excellent level of relationship with all of the parties involved in the market, going through Government Institutions, to Banks, Investment Funds, Developers, Associations (as founding and board member), Utilities, Manufacturers, Local and International EPC companies and consultants; with an strategic advantage to achieve both personal, international and local companies' business goals. Denoted leader in managing new technology business and selling high quality systems and solutions, exalting service and value; with demonstrated abilities to accomplish B2B and B2C commercialization, focused into building new geographical market territories, develop new potential customers and expanding opportunities within existing client base and controlled distribution channels. Outstanding relationship building, training and presentation skills. Successful career and a strong demonstrated experience -over 25 years- in world-class international companies such as Doral Renewables, Invenergy, SunEdison, 3M Company and Inter*Continental Hotels. Bilingual (Spanish-English) highly motivated to use state of the art technologies and continuous research towards new applications and innovations that maximizes working efficiency, production and effectiveness

Lexie Hain is Director of Agrivoltaics and Land Management at Lightsource bp, Americas.  Lexie holds a MSc from University of Edinburgh (UK) in Environmental Sustainability (2001) and a B.S. from Cornell University, Agriculture and Life Sciences (1999).  A farm owner since 2003, she owned and operated a horticultural plant nursery (2005-2015).  Lexie has raised sheep for solar grazing since 2017, contracting the flocks for vegetation maintenance at in the Northeastern United States.   She co-founded and directed the American Solar Grazing Association (ASGA), from 2018-2022.   During this time, ASGA grew to a membership of 500 subscribers, hosting 50 solar grazing webinars, developing the www.solargrazing.org website and the first agrivoltaics contracts.  ASGA was granted three major research awards during that time.  Awards with NYSERDA, Cornell University, and NREL, to document solar site ecological and economic performance and establish critical data for the emerging solar grazing industry.  Currently Lexie coordinates research projects and partnerships, including the SETO-funded PHASE project at LSbp Bellflower Solar Project.   She looks forward to advancing agrivoltaics at LSbp.

TBA

Since 2019, Eric Tonnaer is the driver behind AgriVoltaics within Vattenfall. Focussing specifically on the concept as a whole, think about designs, business cases of both the farmer and the developer, partnerships with agricultural experts and innovation developments behind the concept. With one single goal: a large scale rollout of an AgriVoltaics concept that makes sense for all actors!

Gianluca Boccanera, Managing Director, Italy, NextEnergy Capital

Gianluca joined NextEnergy Capital in early 2008 and he is currently responsible of the international development platform of the NextEnergy Group (Starlight). Previously he headed NextPower II, a private equity fund which was successfully exited at the end of 2021 after having invested €232 million in operating solar PV assets in Italy. Gianluca has almost 15 years of experience in the renewable energy sector, spread across different areas, from the development to the financing, construction and then technical, administrative, financial, accounting and fiscal management of solar PV assets in various jurisdictions. Previously, he worked in the investment banking industry for 6 years, across different financial institutions (Calyon, Mediobanca, Dresdner Kleinwort and lastly Morgan Stanley) and countries (Italy and UK), gaining an extensive expertise in the energy and infrastructure sector, having worked on several landmark M&A and capital market transactions closed both in Italy and abroad.

Adam is the Senior Business Development Manager for emerging technologies at British Solar Renewables. His remit includes leading the diversification of their renewable energy portfolio including the development of AgriPV. He is currently working with policy makers, trade bodies, and fruit farmers to bring forward megawatt scale trial projects in the UK. BSR have a wealth of experience in the development, construction, operation and asset management of solar and battery storage projects having constructed over 700MW to date including some of the biggest private wire sites in the UK market.

With 20 years’ experience in the environmental sector, Lee is a Chartered Environmentalist and Member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. As an Environmental Impact Manager at NextEnergy Capital, he provides environmental governance across the portfolio, driving forward net positive biodiversity outcomes through nature-based solutions and ecosystem service provision. With expertise in ecological assessment and due diligence, together with significant experience in natural capital management and sustainable development, Lee brings practical experience in delivering multifunctional and climate resilient solutions to the solar investment and development sector

TBA

Dr. Michael Salvador has over 15 years of experience in basic research and R&D and a proven track record in developing solar technologies, with emphasis on thin-film, flexible photovoltaics. Michael is an experienced Chemist and Materials Scientist, recognized for his diverse technological background including polymer semiconductors, polymer stabilization, optics & photonics, and solar reliability testing. Michael holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Cologne. He has contributed to several patents for solar devices including those forming the intellectual property of Mirai Solar. Michael has led Mirai Solar from an R&D project into a full-scale startup with manufacturing capabilities and pilot demonstrations. He has established a strong network with key stakeholders in the Agritech and AgriPV sector and raised more than $2M in funds.

Dr. Eerenstein holds a PhD in Materials Science. Between 2003-2006 she worked as a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK), working on combined electrical and magnetic data storage devices. This work was published in Nature, Science and Nature Materials.

She was program Coordinator Solar Applications at the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (2006-2016), where she worked on new applications of solar panels such as building integration. She is now owner of Renergize Consultancy and offers advice and services to companies working on renewable energy innovations. Renergize Consultancy is overall project coordinator of the Dutch project Sunbiose – www.sunbiose.nl - , a large national project on Agri-PV systems. In this project, the effect of the presence of Agri-PV systems on crops and soil quality is determined, as well as the business case.

David leads Insolight's commercial development. Prior to joining Insolight, David was an associate at McKinsey & Co where he conducted many projects in strategy, operations and transformation management across a variety of industries. He has academic research experience focused on solar energy harvesting and has worked in diplomacy at the Swiss embassy in Venezuela. David holds a MSc. in Physics from EPFL & LBNL. He speaks fluent English, French, Spanish and German

Isabelle holds a doctorate in plant biology and genetics and a professional baccalaureate in farm management. She participated in the development of scientific and ecological projects within an association for two years before joining Tenergie in early 2016. There she secured more than 10 MWc of photovoltaic agricultural sheds and participated in the development of innovative agrivoltaic greenhouses. She joined enoé in 2019 to define the group's agrivoltaic strategy, develop the first innovative projects and structure a team enabling the Group to aim for the development of over 300 MWc per year of agrivoltaic projects

Mo Horowitz is VP of Business Development at SolarGik, where he leads global sales and marketing efforts. He brings 15+ years of international experience driving impact in industries at the intersection of business, technology, and public policy. Prior to SolarGik, Mo was VP of Sales at Challenger, where he built, grew and managed the company’s SMB practice. He previously worked at several Management Consulting firms, including Gartner, CEB and Boston Consulting Group. He has advised numerous government agencies and Fortune 500 clients, with specific experience leading organizational transformations that improve operational performance and increase profitability. Mo holds a BA in International Affairs from Columbia University and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business, majoring in Business and Public Policy. Mo resides in Jerusalem with his wife and three sons and enjoys cycling, rugby and hiking

Sascha Krause-Tünker is responsible for the company business development. He has a strong focus on renewable energy and sustainability.

Previously worked as a Consultant and Interim-Manager focusing on project management, IT und finance. He has broad experience in start-up, small- and medium sized businesses as well as big corporations, intersectoral with experiences in production, logistics, energy and services.

In 2004 he completed Masters in Business Administration at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main in Germany.

Jiří BÍM was born in Mladá Boleslav. He finished FEE CTU with Bc. in 2017 in Electrotechnics, energetics and management study program. In 2020 he finished his Masters degree in the study program Management of energetics. Since 2021 he is PhD. student and researcher at CTU and studying topic Economics aspect of RES. He has focused on agrivoltaics and is also active in establishing legislation for agrivoltaics. From 2022 he is the Head of agrivoltaics section in Czech Solar association. 

Dr. Nabih Cherradi is Desert Technologies’ Chief Technology Officer. Has spent over 34 years building on a long track record of equipment’s/ production lines as well as business development in the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries. Prior to joining Desert Technologies, Nabih is also the CEO of EmpowerSun, a Swiss based photovoltaic energy consultancy, which he founded in 2009. In the meantime, he also co-founded ISWT a French solar developer company. From 2007-2009, as a Vice President/CTO, he accompanied Yingli Green Energy in its fast expansion with responsibility for the technology and manufacturing. He also participated in its IPO in New York (NYSE). As operations & process director at Applied Materials from 1997 to 2007 Nabih was responsible for installing turn-key semiconductor and photovoltaic production lines throughout the world, installing multiple GWs of production capacity across a ten year period. As a scientist, he focused on advance materials for different applications working with different industries (Semiconductor, Photovoltaic and Hard tools). He holds a PhD on materials sciences from the University Henri Poincaré, Nancy as well as an MBA, from the Business School of Nancy, (France)

20 years of relevant experience as engineer and technical director in the RES industry Outstanding experience in development, design and construction of RES plants 2.000 MW of wind, solar and storage project developed and under development 500 MW of wind and solar plants constructed

Agronomist, specialist in Agrivoltaic projects in the past 3 years in Doral Renewable Energy. M.Sc. Student in Horticulture, researching Agrivoltaic themes. Previously a team coordinator in an R&D breeding unit in a seed company.

Currently, responsible for Agri-PV projects adjustments, crop-construction matching, field work management, research programs, client communication, field tours, and delivering professional responses

Noam Schwartz: Noam Shwartz is a member of SolarEdge’s Strategy team, responsible for developing and designing SolarEdge strategy and business development for the Agri-PV market. Noam holds an LLB degree from City, University of London and MBA from Warwick Business School. Prior to SolarEdge, Noam worked as a public attorney at the Israeli Ministry of Justice and as a commercial lawyer at the M&A and High-Tech department of one of the largest law firms in Israel.

Herman Helsen is a fruit scientist and entomologist with more than 35 years of experience in fruit crop research. He works at the fruit research team at Wageningen Plant Research, part of Wageningen University and Research. His main interests are developing, testing and implementing innovative production and crop protection systems, connecting basic research with work at a farm level. Since 2020 he is working on agrivoltaics, with a focus on crop response under changing growing conditions

Cristiano Spillati is Limes Renewable Energy Managing Director. He brings over 24 years of experience in executive leadership roles in consulting, telecoms, and clean energy. For the past 18 years he has been focusing exclusively on the renewable energy sector, as strategy consultant and project developer. Cristiano comes to Limes from having developed solar PV projects globally with SkyPower Global, and having advised leading strategic and financial investors as Managing Partner of Koralion Partners, a boutique consulting company focused on the new energy sector. Since 2004, he was involved in the development of renewable energy projects in 13 countries in the four continents. He managed technical and financial teams throughout the whole project development life-cycle, from initial feasibility studies, to debt and equity sourcing and structuring. Currently based in Barcelona, Spain, Cristiano has lived and worked in three continents. He speaks three languages, being proficient in English, Spanish and Italian, and he is conversational in Portuguese. Cristiano graduated from Bologna University Law School, in Italy, and holds an MSc in Economics from Warwick University (UK)

Rogier Mul is sustainability professional, who was co-initiator and later operations manager & head R&D renewables of agrivoltaics start-up in the south of the Netherlands. After R&D work a research solar park with 16 movable solar arrays was established.

Juan Sacri is an industrial engineer and has been working in the renewable energy sector since 2007.

Among the activities he has developed professionally are engineering and management of wind farms, implementation of energy efficiency projects and teaching in renewable energies.
He is co-founder of Sapiens Energia, a social enterprise pioneer in the creation and dynamization of energy communities. He is a partner of Tranesol and president of the Valencian Association of Energy Communities

Dr Bas  Van Aken received his Ph.D. in solid state chemistry from the University of Groningen, after which he worked as a postdoc at Cambridge University and at the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear and Ultrafast Optics in Berlin. He is currently a researcher at TNO Energy Transition, in the Solar Energy group, where he focusses on the outdoor performance of bifacial and back-contact modules and the integration of solar parks in the (agricultural) landscape, linking module and system design to the ground irradiance, soil quality and photosynthesis. Bas chaired the international bifiPV workshop in 2019 and coordinates the Symbizon project that combines strip cultivation with solar trackers.

Prof. Manuel J. Blanco, has more than thirty-eight years of experience as a solar researcher and engineer, leading research teams around the world. He is an expert on Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Optics, and Modelling of Energy Systems.

He is currently Senior Scientist at the Institute of Solar Research of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Full Professor (part-time) at the Cyprus Institute (CYI), and Senior Technical Advisor at BlueSolar Technologies S.L. He is also Vice-Chair of the EU-SOLARIS European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) -an international organization established at the European level to coordinate the management of the main Concentrating Solar Thermal research infrastructures in Europe.

Former holder of the European Research Area (ERA) Chair in Solar Thermal Technologies for the Eastern Mediterranean at CYI and former Chair and Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of SolarPACES, the Technology Collaboration Program of the International Energy Agency responsible for promoting the development and deployment of solar thermal power technologies and the solar-assisted manufacture of fuels and chemicals.

Earlier he served as Science Leader of the Solar Energy Systems Research Group of CSIRO (Australia’s National Research Agency); Director of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative (ASTRI) -a research program to increase the cost competitiveness of CST technologies, involving the participation of CSIRO, six Australian universities and three US Institutions (NREL, Sandia National Labs and Arizona State University); General Coordinator of the EU-SOLARIS Preparatory Phase project; Director of the Solar Thermal Energy Department of CENER, the National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain; Chair and Full Professor of the Engineering Department of the University of Texas at Brownsville; Director of the Plataforma Solar de Almería of CIEMAT -the largest European solar research infrastructure; and Principal Investigator of the EC SOLGAS and SIREC solar tower technology R&D projects, which paved the way towards PS10, the first commercial solar tower power plant.

He is author of numerous scientific publications, and has participated, in a senior capacity, in many national and international expert groups and committees.

Dr. Djaber Berrian received his Ph.D. degree in photovoltaic engineering in 2020 from the University of Freiburg, Germany. Previously, he worked as a research and development engineer on thin film silicon solar cells at CDER research center, Algeria. In 2017, he joined ISC Konstanz in Germany to work as a Ph.D. student on different research projects about energy yield prediction for bifacial PV systems fixed tilt and tracking. Throughout his career, he participated in different scientific activities in the field of renewable energy. Currently, he is leading system design and innovation projects as well as testing new technologies at Belectric GmbH