Solarplaza Summit | Baltics

Francisco Estela, an engineer with more than 25 years in the solar industry, has developed his activity in different areas such as R&D for balance of systems, solar cell manufacturing, large grid-connected photovoltaic projects in private investment funds, and self-consumption RCI photovoltaic systems. He joined LONGi Solar in 2020 as Technical Director for the Middle East, and currently is the CTO for Europe II.

Jelena is a Board member of the National Energy Regulatory Council (NERC) as of 2021. The core focus areas of her work concerns renewable energy issues, including permitting and regulation of alternative fuels. Jelena is also currently a Vice-Chair of the Renewable Energy Committee at the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA). Jelena has a Master's degree in Law, and prior to becoming a Board member of NERC, she worked in the Ministry of Economy and Innovation on regulatory improvement and legal analysis.

Rytis Kėvelaitis is a founder and CEO of Energy Unlimited, a renewable energy advisory and development company in the Baltics. Rytis is an entrepreneur with an experience in renewable energy project management and public policy in both private and public sectors. He is a former Vice Minister of Energy of Lithuania for renewable energy & energy efficiency policies.

Expert in energy infrastructure financing and renewable energy financing in the Baltics, having worked with energy projects over 20 years, starting at client side and then for long years at the bank side. Head of project finance, M&A finance, syndicated loans, green loans, SLL-s and ESG advisory in SEB Estonia, leading a small team of dedicated professionals.

Vaidas Žagūnis oversees the development and management of business banking at Citadele in the Baltic region. With over 20 years of experience in the banking sector, he held several leadership roles, focusing primarily on Business clients. In 2016, Vaidas joined the board of SEB Bank in Lithuania, serving as Deputy President and Head of Retail Banking. He joined Citadele in 2020, and since then his daily focus has been to create more opportunities for the Baltic businesses, help them shift to the green economy, and as a result, strengthen the economy of the Baltic region. He holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Kaunas University of Technology and has also pursued studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard business school (HBS) in the USA.

Giedrius is a Loan Officer at European Investment Bank focusing on Project and Structured Finance transactions in geographical area covering Nordic countries, Baltic Sea area, and Central and South Eastern Europe. With more than 10 years’ experience in Project Finance, Giedrius participated in financing of a number of flagship infrastructure PPP projects in Finland, Sweden, Russia and Poland. In his current position, Giedrius is also actively involved in the renewable energy projects in the area, including the leading role in structuring and financing of several solar PV and onshore wind projects in Poland. Prior to joining the EIB, Giedrius worked as a Senior Manager in Project Finance at Nordic Investment Bank in Helsinki.Giedrius holds a Master in Finance and Banking from Vytautas Magnus University.

Louis Rosset is a Junior Analyst at Clean Horizon, where he assesses the financial viability of energy storage projects and provides market insights. He conducts in-depth market analyses and forecasts electricity and ancillary services prices, with a particular focus on the Baltic region. He joined Clean Horizon in 2024 after completing a Bachelor’s degree in Microengineering and a Master’s degree in Energy Science and Technology at EPFL (Switzerland). He also conducted research at UC Berkeley (US), further strengthening his expertise in the energy sector.

Vigars Kaktinieks has an experience of 15 years in the renewable energy area, developing green projects in Latvia and Europe. Vigars is the author and shareholder of PurpleGreen, managing not only company development but all essential technical and legal aspects of the project development process.

Andrius Karazinas has been actively working in the solar industry since 2012 and has deep knowledge of the Lithuanian RES market. He is a president of the Lithuanian Solar Energy Association; which unites almost 100 Lithuanian companies: all scale solar PV EPCs and developers mainly. Andrius is also CEO of the international EPC company “Solet” with its market share in Lithuania, Denmark and Finland.

Andrius is an expert in energy law, regulation, policy, strategy and management. He has practiced in the energy sector since 2005 and specialises in the fields of electricity, gas (including LNG), renewable energy sources, nuclear energy, energy efficiency, energy markets, climate change management and other related areas. Providing wide-ranging services in the energy sector – from law-making to daily business operations – Andrius is always able to offer clients tailor-made, complex and non-standard solutions.

Dr. Johan Lindahl holds a PhD from the Uppsala University and has extensive experience of market and regulatory issues concerning the photovoltaic market, both at national and international level. Partly as Secretary General of the European Solar Manufacturing Council and partly from the work as Swedish representative in the international organization IEA PVPS for the last 13 years, but also from the previous role as the spokesperson of the industry organization Svensk Solenergi.

Forbes Baltics in 2021 named Tadas Navickas as one of the pioneers of wind energy in Lithuania. With over 15 years devoted to transforming Lithuania's energy landscape, Tadas brings a wealth of experience to the table. His portfolio includes managing mergers and acquisitions, development, financing, and successful execution of multiple wind and PV projects in Lithuania and Poland. Notably, he led the 4energia companies in Lithuania until 2018 when it was acquired by Enefit Green, a subsidiary of Eesti Energia. In 2019, Tadas, along with his co-founders, established Sunly, the company swiftly becoming one of the most promising renewable energy startups in the Baltic States and Poland.

Önder Akar is an energy sector professional with 18 years of experience in electricity markets and energy trading software. He is the CEO and co-founder of smartPulse, leading the development of innovative SaaS solutions for energy market participants. Before founding smartPulse in 2018, Önder held key roles at Deloitte and RWE. At Deloitte, he contributed to the development of electricity market software and provided consultancy services to trading and generation companies. Later, as Head of Portfolio Management at RWE, he managed pricing, risk management, and trading operations, optimizing energy portfolios. His deep expertise in energy trading and technology continues to drive the digital transformation of the sector.

Renewable energy consultant and project developer with more than 10 years of experience working with renewables. 100 % renewable future is the goal.

Vytautas Žilys has been actively working in the banking industry for the past 16 years and is experienced in cooperation with corporate customers. He is responsible for renewable energy financing portfolio development at Luminor Bank.

Nerijus Virbickas is a Head of Innovation at Green Genius with over 20 years of extensive experience in the global energy sector. He is also a mastermind behind the InnoSolveGreen project, which has been recognized by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) for its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the transition of European industries towards a carbon-free economy.

Mathilde Ketoff joined RGREEN INVEST in 2019 as Investment Director, after working 12 years at BNP Paribas. Specialized in structured finance, infrastructure and sustainability, she initially advised and financed sponsors, developers and governmental entities for the implementation of renewable energy projects in the EMEA zone. She then provided upstream support to Oil & Gas companies (small- and mid-caps) answering to their financial needs and business development goals (acquisition, development, projects, junior debts…). Since her arrival at RGREEN INVEST, she has taken the helm of the company’s dedicated Debt strategy and overseen the execution of around 30 transactions in Europe, supporting developers in their RE, green mobility and storage projects.

Edvardas Norkeliūnas has accumulated a diverse professional background over the years. He spent two years working as an energy regulator, followed by a decade-long tenure in trading, specializing in financial energy trades, Guarantee of Origins, and energy wholesale trades. Currently, Edvardas has been with Fusebox Energy Software for over a year, focusing on Virtual Power Plants, Flexibility, and Demand Side Response.

Gabriela is part of the Nordics & Baltics team based in Stockholm, providing advisory services and market forecasts for the energy sector. Over the past year, she has conducted approximately 15 battery valuations to support transactions and debt financing across the Nordics and Baltics. With nearly nine years of experience in the energy industry, Gabriela has been with Aurora Energy Research for over a year, focusing primarily on utility-scale batteries and ancillary markets.

Søren Juel Hansen is director for energy storage at Nordic Solar where he is maturing and realizing several BESS across Europe. Nordic Solar owns operational solar PV parks in ten European countries and its current development and EPC pipeline includes a few more EU countries and contains around 2 GW solar PV and 1 GWh BESS. Since joining Nordic Solar in 2021, Søren’s focus has been on solar PV business development and adding energy storage to Nordic Solar’s European solar PV portfolio. Prior to joining Nordic Solar Søren has had roles as head of development, infrastructure, tariffs and preparedness and responsible for energy infrastructure M&A as well as elected member of the board at the Danish electricity and Gas transmission system operator, Energinet, where he developed and realised several infrastructure business and energy market models of which some since has turned into EU regulation and cross-border energy infrastructure. Søren also has a background with Ørsted, global telecom and the EU Commission.

More than 12 years of experience in the energy sector. Since 2012, provides financial advice and project management services to the largest private and public sector electricity and natural gas consumers in Latvia, as well as renewable energy producers. Project evaluation and management, issues relating to the regulation of the circular economy, the development of EU and national policies in the energy sector.

Vagner has more than 30 years of engineering and business development experience in the industry and in the renewable energy sector. Currently, Senior Director of Business Development for Europe at GameChange Solar - Global innovation leader for Trackers, Fixed Tilt and BOS, Vagner focuses on supporting European customers to make feasible their photovoltaic utility scale projects.

Nicola Kopij Zanin is an Independent Consultant at Solarplaza. He covers the role of Chief Financial Officer at Solartech, a Polish-based solar & storage EPC, development & investment company. Nicola holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and Business from LUISS University in Rome, a Master's degree in Finance & Investments from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and has obtained the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level 1 Certificate.