3rd Annual AgriVoltaics Europe

Currently, with the position of General Manager at SolarisFloat, Portuguese company (part of jp.group), that with its PROTEVS solution, emerge from the need to create new and innovative technologic solutions for energy purposes, within the Floating Solar Photovoltaic markets.

Additionally, complements with the position of managing the Operations unit at jp.ik, company dedicated to the design and implementation of Large Scale Educational worldwide projects (with a pioneer project with a global reference point for ICT-based education) and MBA invited teacher at ISAG European Business School.

More than 20 years of experience in the Business and Operations Management, Software Development Management and IT industry performing different roles, with an extensive knowledge in Program and Project Management (IT Engineering, Software, Logistics and Operations).

Strong background and experience in client relationship and customer program/project management (Project Life Cycle Management) in national and international large-scale operations.

As Group Head of Public Affairs, Eva Vandest elaborates and operates an influence strategy to highlight and to allow the implementation of Amarenco's unique vision associating regeneration of ecosystems to solar-power infrastructures to all its markets. She also chairs the European Agrisolar workstream of Solar Power Europe.

Graduated in Law from Sorbonne Law school, Eva is specialised in public law and political science. She is also a-Sciences Po Paris certified in Public Affairs, Strategy and Influence.

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

Byron Kominek is the owner and manager of Jack's Solar Garden, our country's largest commercial research site for agrivoltaics. Byron provides consulting services to those wanting to learn more about agrivoltaics and design agrivoltaic solutions to incorporate more community members and to preserve, if not enhance, soils and the local environment. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center that focuses on teaching high school students, community members, and policymakers about agrivoltaics through on-site experiences. ​Byron got into solar development and agrivoltaics as a means to make his family's farm more revenues than selling hay and to be a better contributing member of his community. Prior to Jack's Solar Garden, Byron was a U.S. diplomat with the Agency for International Development serving in Zambia and Mozambique using taxpayer dollars to support forestry and wildlife conservation activities in those countries. From time to time, he consults on USAID environmental projects in Africa. Byron also served with Doctors Without Borders and as a Peace Corps Volunteer more than a decade ago. Byron lives adjacent to Jack's Solar Garden where he is learning more about soils and means by which to enhance the agricultural potential of his family's land. He speaks French and Portuguese, has traveled to over 45 countries, and through-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2016. Byron holds a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from UNC-Chapel Hill and a B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa.

Benhur Possatto is a Senior Solar Performance Engineer at Elera Renováveis. He has more than 500 solar power generation projects in various regions of Brazil, with activities in design, installation, commissioning, and O&M in the areas of distributed and large-scale solar generation. He is a member of several IEC, COPANT and ABNT standards committees

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)

Stacie Peterson is the Energy Program Director at the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). This program includes the AgriSolar Clearinghouse, Energy Efficiency Program, Energy Services, Business Partners, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program (LIHEAP) Clearinghouse, National Energy Assistance Referral (NEAR) Program, Residential Energy, and Energy Codes programs. She holds an undergraduate and graduate degree in environmental engineering and an interdisciplinary doctorate. Her doctoral program integrated environmental science, environmental history, public health, technical communications, literature, and anthropology. She enjoys developing interdisciplinary projects with diverse teams, such as her work connecting the NCAT's Sustainable Energy and Agriculture programs in the AgriSolar Clearinghouse. In her energy conservation work, she's helped save enough energy to go to the moon and back 2,586 times

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.

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.

Co-founder and VP of Business Development at Agri-Light Energy Systems Ltd..
Master's degree in environment and sustainability, with a specialization in renewable energy at Tel Aviv University.
8 years of experience in the solar energy and agriculture market in Israel.

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

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As an experienced Innovation consultant, working 13years at ideo.com, Moja is passionate about “People Centered Innovation” and is bringing in her expertise to Galp Energy where she is the Lead for Design Thinking at the Innovation Department. She is especially inspired to tackle today’s global challenges and to accelerate the energy transition for the company and people. Specifically, she is focussing on the uptake of AgriVoltaics in Iberia through setting up pilots and engaging the ecosystem of farmers, agrifood companies and administration.

Prannay is an electrical engineer working in the energy sector with a special interest in Renewable Energy. During his master's program at Michigan Technological University, he published a paper on "The Agrivoltaic Potential of Grape Farms in India". Prannay considers this conference a perfect opportunity to further that work and expand his study to the European market. He firmly believes that Agrivoltaics will benefit humankind and ensure food and energy security with the ever-growing demand for both.

Roman Karbowy has more than 13 years of professional experience in development of RES projects. Currently holding a position of Business Developer South Asia & Europe at Scatec. Leading the AgriPV workgroup in Polish Photovoltaic Association

Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer and Chief Energy Sales and Services Officer in Amarenco, Bernardo Mota Veiga has 12 years of experience in the solar sector with a strong experience in executive level functions in different master players acting as IPP, Development, EPC & O&M providers and Components distribution.

Physics Engineer, Bernardo complemented his education with a Master in Business and Engineering at Catolica Porto Business School and a post-graduation in Bioethics.

Pedro Alves is an electrical engineer with a MBA, and joined the renewable sector in 2008.

Has a deep knowledge of PV Solar components and technologies.

As purchasing and supply chain manager of Martifer Solar,  he was deeply involved in the negotiation, sourcing and inspection for the major components for the PV Plants and PV modules assembly facility in Oliveira de Frades.

Has a strong background in the distribution sector.

As managing director was responsible for the internationalization of MPrime Solar, one of the major Portuguese Solar Distributors, in the European market, opening the offices of Italy and Germany.

His experience in the solar sector was interrupted to contribute, at Sonae, as Supply Chain Manager in the Sports and Fashion division of the group.

Has a good knowledge of the development/licensing process.

As co-founder of MTX Solar, worked intensively in the last 4 years, in the development of PV projects.

Pedro is in very good position to understand the technology trends and the development and licensing process.

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)

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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

I'm not afraid of new things, of finding ways to make what's new in the market. I call myself a dead end search specialist so that I can then describe where the water flows. Innovation is something that changes the world, but it is necessary to be able to explain everything and patiently build it step by step. I am currently focusing on finding partner solutions to take advantage of mutual synergies and then on the field of modern energy, especially in the field of renewable resources, such as Agrivoltaics

Maria Genovese: Chemical Engineer. She joined Enel in 2007, working as an investigator on Flue Gas Cleaning Systems for the Thermal Generation Division. From 2007 to 2016 she has worked as Project leader on different topics, ranging from flue gas treatment system, including DeNOx, DeSOx systems, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Advanced Process Control for emission reduction. From 2017 to 2019 she worked in the Digitalization Program for the Internet of Things, in the framework of Industry 4.0, as Project leader in projects related to Safety and Robotics area. From 2020 to today she is part of Environment and Impacts Mitigation Innovation Unit, focused on field demonstrations and innovative methodologies definition aimed at utility-scale renewable plants environmental and social impact mitigation, taking into account the biodiversity preservation and ecosystem services conservation. Currently she works at AgroPhotoVoltaic project, managing the execution of different tests on field, in Enel PV plants.

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.

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.

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 100 MWc per year of agrivoltaic projects. At the same time, she is helping to maintain family farms in Auvergne."

P.G. Therond is currently Head of Technologies at EDF Renewable, a green energy  provider.  In this position, he looks to all development with renewable technologies like PV solar, Concentrated Solar Power, marine energies, offshore wind, electrical storage, hydrogen, biomass. His main achievements consisted in positioning EDF Renewable on relevant technologies in an agile incubating mode, through quick prototyping and delivery to the market when relevant.  He is also involved in the digitalization of renewable business through adequate digital platforms permitting to improve asset management and provide additional services. Previously, he was responsible for strategy for New Businesses at EDF SA.

Pierre-Guy Therond spent also 15 years at the R&D division of EDF, where he took various positions, as researcher and manager of research, development and testing services  in the domains of electrical engineering, electrical systems, materials, renewable energy and environment.  His last R&D position was as Director for R&D portfolio on renewable and environment.

Pierre-Guy Therond has been involved into international organizations: he chaired two Task Forces at CIGRE , and used to be the Vice President of RECS International for 4 years.

Pierre-Guy Therond received a PHD in solid state physics in 1986, and is graduate from the French High School for Electricity (Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité) since 1983.

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. 

Rogier Mul is a seasoned sustainability professional with a background in the solar energy sector, sustainability consulting, and impact investing. He currently spearheads relationship management and business development at Intire, a boutique consultancy firm that aids listed companies, large family-owned enterprises, and private equity (PE) in implementing sustainability reporting, integrated reporting, and non-financial reporting (e.g., CSRD, EU Taxonomy, ESG). Additionally, Rogier is currently an MBA candidate at Nyenrode Business University, where he is part of the EMBA Cohort 21 (2023-2025).

With 20-year experience in the energy industry and in the finance sector, Federica is the Italian country head of Cero Genergation, the development platform of Green Investment Group. Currently Federica is managing GIG’s 1GW development platform, supporting local developers and coordinating a team of 10 people. Successfully developed 200MW PV projects. Federica is also directly responsible for the management of “shovel ready” projects from negotiation of acquisition contracts to financial close, including (i) the completion of authorization process for construction and grid connection and the negotiation of the final permits and concessions with the interested public entities, (ii) the negotiation of contracts with local operators (land owners, agricultural companies, service providers and consultants), (iii) the implementation of compliance organizational models and of internal codes of conducts, and (iv) the coordination of other GIG teams dedicated to specific tasks incl. PPA,project financing, EPC, modules supply. Currently involved in the construction of 4 PV projects for a total capacity of 133MW in Sardinia and Lazio Regions and actively supporting the development of additional 320MW projects which are expected to reach ready-to-build by end of 2022/first half of 2023. Previously, Federica was heading the Italian business development team Italy of ContourGlobal and Investment Director at Quercus Investment Partners, responsible for M&A transactions in wind and solar. In 2011, founding member of Antin Solar Investments, the Italian investment platform for renewables of Antin Infrastructure Partners. Before joining Antin Solar Investments, I was part of the Renewable Energy Investment Team within Global Principal Finance at Deutsche Bank, with regional responsibilities in the wind and biomass sectors and supporting the negotiations of the financial structures and financing documentation package for the whole portfolio of renewable power assets.

Lina Dubina, project coordinator for sustainability at SolarPower Europe