Solar PV Digitalization Forum

Cegeon Chan, PhD , Director, Wind and Solar Energy Assessments

Cegeon joined DNV GL in 2016 as a Senior Performance Engineer focused primarily on SCADA data analytics and performance management.  He has 15+ years of experience in the wind, solar and atmospheric science field.  His recent work includes 1) designing and implementing performance improvements across a fleet of turbine technologies, 2) leveraging lidar technologies to assess and improve turbine performance and 3) developing DNV GL’s digital twin, WindGEMINI. Prior to joining DNV GL, Cegeon was the Global Director of Reporting and Performance Analytics for a renewables owner/operator (Sun Edison/First Wind) where he led the integration of the wind and solar analytics group.  Through his performance improvement initiatives, he increased the fleet revenue of operating sites by $10+ million including deploying nacelle mounted lidars to address systematic biases on the yaw alignment.  

He earned his doctorate in atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his graduate work, Cegeon developed and implemented multiple modeling experiments to examine the sensitivity of the strength and location of the mid-latitude jet stream due to climate forcings. 

Constantinos Peonides/Commercial Director/ACTIS ERP

Executive Director of Alectris ( www.alectris.com ) , a global service provider in the renewable energy arena since 2012.  An enthusiastic supporter of digitalization of the renewable energy industry on all levels , has vice-chaired Solar Power Europe’s Quality assurance workstream which is responsible for the development of the O&M , Asset Management and EPC best practices guidelines , and actively participating in the Emerging markets, Digitalization, Finance and Grid workstreams. Additionally, actively participating in the  IRENA Coalition for Action’s working groups - Business and Investors, Community Energy, Decarbonizing end-use sectors and the Towards 100% Renewable Energy. A strong supporter of the European Green deal and a major influencer in policy towards the carbon-zero target globally, promoting electrification through the clever use of renewables, utilizing advanced technologies, best practices and digitalization. A regular speaker at events across Europe, Asia and the US. Alectris is a global service provider in the renewable energy arena   - Services include Operations & Maintenance and Asset Management, offered through its proprietary Monitoring and Asset Management ERP software www.actiserp.com

David Delaire is Managing Director, at MPC Renewable Energies, where he manages fundraising, M&A activities and all asset management activities. He also serves as its Director of Environment and Social Governance (ESG). Additionally, he leads Initial Public Offerings, Rights Issuance and other capital raise activities.

He has extensive experience in the lifecycle of infrastructure assets, and for the past 15 years, he has focused on renewable energies. David also has several years of managing asset portfolios for private equity, infrastructure funds and independent power producers (IPP). He is also currently serving as Director/Managing Director for several renewable energy assets in various parts of the world, including the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and Asia. David is very active in the management activities of various assets and specializes in asset performance optimization.

David holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tuskegee University, United States, and a Master of Business Administration with a focus in Management from Webster University, United States.

As CEO and Technical Director at Eco-Logico, in Italy, on 2006, Antonio had experience in residential and commercial plants, primarily on photovoltaic, but also solar thermal and wind.

From 2009 Antonio worked as Technical Project Manager in Large PV plants at Austrian Enviro Technologies, before in Italy, with a pipeline of 80 MWp and since 2013 in UK.

During his experience in UK, Antonio worked for Renesola UK in London as Operation and Maintenance Manager, in charge to all the ground mounted PV plants built by Renesola since 2015 and more than 1500 residential and commercial PV plants.

Currently Antonio is working as Asset Manager and Developer Manager in Switzerland, at aventron AG. Aventron AG is an established green power producer with wind, solar and hydro power generation assets spread in all Europe, from Norway to Sicily.

During the last years Antonio has been responsible for the maintenance of complex project portfolios, structuring and managing the deal under all the aspects, including the data management and monitoring equipment.

Before to start his career in alternative energy, Antonio graduated from Modena University, with a degree in Industrial Engineering.

Aron P. Dobos, Ph.D., Director, Solar Monitoring & Analytics

Dr. Dobos leads product management for Envision’s advanced asset management software for commercial and industrial (C&I) and utility-scale solar photovoltaic systems. Envision’s flagship Ensight Solar solution combines domain-specific physical models with sophisticated machine learning to detect system underperformance and component health issues. The solution automatically interprets conventional time series SCADA data from operating solar assets, and offers prioritized corrective action recommendations to fleet operators and owners that serve to maximize energy production and revenue, and minimize life cycle operating costs.  He works with Envision’s multinational team of researchers, software engineers, sales leaders, and solution delivery specialists to successfully bring market-leading SaaS software for renewable generation assets to our global customer base.  Before joining Envision in 2017, Dr. Dobos led solar modeling research including the System Advisor Model (SAM) and PVWatts tools at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Tom Tansy is Chairman of the SunSpec Alliance where he leads the distributed energy industry’s efforts to establish data and communication standards that enable seamless integration of solar PV and storage into the Smart Grid. The SunSpec Alliance has more than 100 stakeholders across the globe, including leading fleet operators, component suppliers, software developers, and utilities. Tom previously served as General Manager and Vice President of Business Development for Power-One (now part of ABB) and helped start electric vehicle manufacturer Zero Motorcycles

Aleksandra Radwanska is International Business Development Manager in the business unit VPP Solutions & Services at Next Kraftwerke. She is responsible for the international sales of the VPP as-a-service solution NEMOCS and supports partners in realizing their Virtual Power Plants and business models. To develop suitable concepts, she analyses in depth different electricity markets with focus on North and South America, Australia and Central Europe. Before joining Next Kraftwerke, she worked at InnoEnergy as well as at General Electric. She holds a double degree Master in innovation sciences and sustainable energy technologies from Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and Eindhoven University of Technology.

Emily Hwang leads the applications engineering team and manages a product line at Yaskawa Solectria Solar, a leading solar PV inverter manufacturer based in the USA. She brings over 13 years of experience in the solar industry working as a design engineer, project manager and applications engineer for off-grid to MW grid-connected installations. Emily holds a bachelor's in Electrical Engineering and a master’s degree in Telecommunications & Networking from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional™. Her interest in ensuring that solar is a robust power source paired with her telecommunications background has led to a keen interest in cybersecurity issues and how they may affect the industry. She is a part of the SunSpec Cybersecurity Workgroup and also participates in California’s Smart Inverter Working Group.

INNOSEA is a professional services firm dedicated to provide technical support during the engineering phases of marine renewable energy technologies. As a scientific independent actor, the company delivers innovative solutions for the engineering of offshore technologies and systems for its clients and designers.

Ypatios Moysiadis’ early years spent growing up in an industrial coal mining town in Northwest Greece had a profound effect on his career and helped embed a focus on sustainability in all his future ventures.

He started working in renewables 14 years ago, capitalising on the legislative introduction of renewable energy incentives. Over the years he expanded his scope into the development, construction and operation of renewable energy assets. This work lead to posts at major British and international organisations like Galliford Try Group, Grupotec, Foresight Group, BayWa r.e. and Voltalia Group, working in several spot markets and countries. Ypatios has worked across the value chain on all major renewable technologies, with emphasis on Solar PV.

Today, Ypatios focuses on development of new generation projects and advancement of innovation within the services sector of Renewable Energy. He is a visiting lecturer at Cass Business School, and promotes Renewables through active blogging.

Will Hitchcock is founder and CEO of Above, a pioneer in the use of drones and data analytics within the solar industry. Above operates across six continents and has inspected over 1000 solar PV plants to date. Will is a strong advocate for the adoption of digital technologies to increase efficiency and automation across all stages of the solar asset life cycle.  He is an active contributor to many solar working groups such as ‘Operation & Maintenance Best Practices’ and ‘Asset Management Best Practices’, as well as a panel expert for the SUPERGEN SuperSolar Hub research community. Driven by his passion for renewables Will took the role of programme director at a leading UK EPC, where he led the construction of 150MW of ground-mounted solar. Will has extensive knowledge of the solar industry as well as a keen interest in aviation, holding a bachelor’s degree in Air Transport Engineering and an HND in Mechanical & Production Engineering. Will is also a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv), and in 2011 Will and Simon Gilhooly (Above’s Technical Manager) formed the UK’s first community-owned solar co-operative, Green Energy Nayland, for which he is still a Director

Mr. Sean Ratka is an Associate Programme Officer at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). His scope of work includes the emerging role of power sector digitalisation, and particularly distributed ledger technology, as part of the ongoing sustainable energy transformation. Before joining IRENA, he worked on transboundary power trade with the Energy Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). Before this he worked in solar PV market intelligence for OCI, one of South Korea’s largest private sector energy firms. His background lies at the confluence of international relations and innovative energy technologies and holds a M.A. in International Relations from Korea University Graduate School of International Studies.

20 years of experience in the energy sector

Massimiliano Pili has been working in the energy sector since 2000 with more than 12 years of experience in renewable energy overseeing the construction and operation of solar projects in Italy, Spain, Chile, Japan and Netherlands.

• Currently he is Head of Engineering and Construction in Encavis, leading the construction of 500MWp of solar plants in Spain, after the successful completion of 106MWp in the Netherlands in 2018. He is also managing director of Encavis Technical Services GmbH, the in-house O&M service provider of the Encavis group.
• Previously he was Operations director in Etrion where he implemented a range of operational improvements and cost reductions, led the re-negotiation of O&M and security contracts as well as the negotiation of PPAs and insurance covers. He negotiated EPC and O&M contracts in Japan and set up the operational framework of the team in this country. For a short period he was also Country Manager Italy in Alectris, an international O&M service provider.
• Prior to joining Etrion in 2013, he was the Chief Project Officer for solar assets at Greentech Energy Systems, a Danish IPP with solar and wind assets, managing construction and operations of assets in Italy and Spain.
• Before that, he was Asset Manager for SunPower Corporation, a leading US solar energy company where he was responsible for the operations of solar plants throughout Southern Europe in tight cooperation with the construction team.

- Data modelling and cleansing for reporting (SharePoint, PowerQuery/M, PowerPivot/DAX, PowerBI).
- Technical KPIs analysis supporting decision making.
- Technical and commercial asset management (PV and Wind portfolio).
- Interdepartmental cooperation with IT, Project financing and Corporate finance departments.
- Commercial partnerships development (Security, Energy Trading, Meters controlling, Credit recovery)

Since the early 80s he develops innovative technology. In 1983, a year before his graduation, he founded his first company, "Image Processing Technologies". After his studies of Business Administration in Nuremberg and Computer Science in Atlanta, USA, he devoted himself entirely to the development of new technologies and their market introduction. In 1989 he introduced the first color scanner in the market, launched the first color management system "Color Storm" in 1993, and in 1997 developed the ColorProof Software, the first digital color simulation software. In 1996 he received a rare license from Apple for the production of Apple computers. Since 2002 he is in photovoltaic industry and due to experiences and challenges with own PV plants he developed with SunSniffer the first Operating System for solar modules, which makes them intelligent. He holds several patents in different fields, including photovoltaics

Leader within Power & Utility Sector. Focus on renewable energy driven projects. O&M and Development specializations.

Track record of executing agreements and managing teams within large energy driven projects. BSEE, with MBA credentials

Specialties: Technology, Capital Equipment, QAQC, Procurement Services, Site Optimization, CAPEX risk identification, Wind Energy, Solar, Storage, Hydro, Water, T&D,
Origination, Planning, Finance, Negotiation, Execution 

Pierre Metaut, Global Performance Manager at NovaSource Power Services.

Manages team providing performance engineering support to power plants and commercial systems

Over 10 years of experience in renewable energy industry; previously managed the SunPower’s Utility Power Plant performance for North America and Latin America.

M.S. Industrial Engineering with and B.S.Energy and Industrial Engineering from La Rochelle Engineering University (EIGSI) in France.

Debbie Brodt-Giles is the D.A.T.A. Group Manager in the Strategic Energy Analysis Center. For more than 20 years, Debbie has been leading web-based data management and visualization projects with the goal of making open data accessible and reusable for the benefit of the energy community. Debbie initiated and leads the Open Energy Information platform called OpenEI.org, which is a platform that uses a collaborative approach for linking and sharing energy data with the world. Debbie also leads several projects in DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office including the SunShot Catalyst Program, the Orange Button Data Exchange, and the Solar Data and Tools project, which enables fully-accessible utility rate data and created a Data Ambassador Program that enables innovation for entrepreneurs, developers, and industry at a local-level. NREL’s cloud computing strategy and resources are managed and administered by Debbie’s team, which enables enterprise-level web development and data management/computation support. Debbie also leads the business development efforts for the Strategic Energy Analysis Center by working closely with internal staff and engaging with industry partners on leading-edge research and analysis projects.

Max Methe has joined BayWa r.e. in 2017 as a Transaction Manager in the Corporate Finance department. At the beginning of 2019 he joined the Business Entity Services as Head of Finance and is a Board Member of PowerHub Inc., a Canadian renewable Asset Management Software company.

He is responsible for implementing financial controls to monitor the development of the 16 Service entities, which span across the globe. He has a particular emphasis on improving efficiencies through digitalisation. Previously he worked as a private equity professional, focused on renewable energy, a corporate finance consultant and as a Managing Director, running the North American offices for a German Project Developer.

Max Methe holds an Executive MBA from Edinburgh Business School of Heriot Watt University and a Master of Finance from University of Applied Sciences Flensburg. More info under: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-methe-ba065013/

• Managing five funds with a total NAV of over $2 billion
• Over £11,000,000 extra revenues generated as a result of portfolio overperformance
• NESF fund listed in the FTSE250 generated 9% more revenues than expected 2018/2019
• 5% OPEX reduction on NESF listed fund
• Managing a multicultural team of 50 people across four different countries
• Set up successfully Technical offices in India and the US
• Contract negotiation for 550 MW in India, 47 MWp in the US and 130 MWp in the UK
• Design and deployment O&M tender for 200 MWp in the UK and 50 MWp in Italy
• Structure Design for a Global Shared Services in India
• Managing PMO team (construction support team) to support the construction of 200+MW subsidy-free assets

Talented Digital Transformer/Innovation leader and Cyber Security background, who designs and drives technology strategy and efficiency for global businesses; valuable partner to C-level executives, combining deep technical expertise with strong commercial skills to create global business growth solutions. Holds a Masters degree in Cyber Security.
Fosters sound partnerships throughout the business, across technical and non-technical audiences; a skilled manager of both internal staff and third-party consultants, driving accountability and first-rate service.

Push Energy and PS Renewables have formally merged their UK-facing operations and maintenance (O&M) business units, creating a new joint venture, PSH Operations.

PSH Operations manages over 1.6GW of groundmounted solar in the UK, making it one of the largest managed portfolios in the country.

We have an excellent team of people and use systems efficiently to support our business operations.

We focus on working safely, proactive maintenance, fast response times, and long lasting technical solutions.

Energy professional and Python enthusiast; but not necessarily in that order.
Particular areas of interest include renewable energies, emerging technologies and the applications of data in their development. 

Providing Technical Advisory services for various Renewable Energy industry stakeholders in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Latin America.

Specialisations include project management, due diligence, operations monitoring, performance review and solar energy modelling.

TBA

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As Managing Partner, Aleksis Schäfer is responsible for PV plant monitoring and data analytics services delivered by greentech. He obtained a master’s degree in Engineering Physics and Mathematics from the Helsinki University of Technology in 2005. He has worked for several years at a major international strategy consulting company and has more than 10 years of experience in the PV industry. In 2010 he joined greentech, a B2B service provider specialised on O&M, Technical Advisory, Engineering and Asset Management in the PV sector. Today, greentech group is one of the largest independent O&M and Asset Management providers, being active across Europe and beyond, recognised as one of the leading specialists for PV power plant operation in the PV sector.

Wolfgang Rosenberg, VP Operations and Maintenance TCO Solar SARL, Marseille, France Coordinating operations and maintenance of 15 photovoltaic (PV) power plants in France, Italy, and Germany (60 MWp)