Solarplaza Summit | Energy Storage North America

Carlos is a co-founder and managing partner of VOLA Lithium which is investing in lithium deposits in South America’s Lithium Triangle with a view to become a low-cost producer. His previous professional roles include heading up sales for a Texas-based energy storage system manufacturer for mobility and industrial applications. He is an experienced communicator with a passion for clean energy and sustainability and has spoken at international conferences in over three dozen countries across five continents on these topics. He is a past board member of CleanTX, an Austin-based non-profit that promotes clean energy and sustainability issues across the state. Carlos holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and an undergraduate degree in international economics from DePaul University in Chicago. He is a citizen of the United States and of Argentina.

Bio coming soon...

Patrick brings over 20 years of experience in the construction, telecommunications, sales, and renewable industries, with the last 10 years solely focused on PV and BESS O&M. With the unique experience working in the field, operations center, and management within renewable O&M with ISP, GO and GOP leaders of the industry; Patrick has the experience and vision to understand customer needs and guide them to the best solutions.

Bill Kost is the Energy & Power Advisory Leader at Marsh, based in Houston, Texas, overseeing risk management and insurance solutions for sectors like power generation, renewables, and petrochemicals. With over 19 years of experience in the global energy industry, Bill specializes in complex insurance claims and specialty insurance products such as parametric and weather insurance. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri and a Master’s in Environmental Science and Management from UC Santa Barbara. Bill is an Associate in Enterprise Risk Management (ARM-E) and a Licensed Broker across all 50 U.S. states.

Casey is a founding partner at Caerus Commodities, where she runs the development, assets, and EMA business. She began her career in power trading, later transitioning into portfolio management at Engie for the U.S., Mexican, and Canadian power fleets, where she helped develop, construct, structure, and operate wind, solar, biomass, thermal assets. She later helped found a new business unit in LNG. From there, Casey went to Sumitomo Corporation, a Japanese tradinghouse, where she helped lead the Renewables Division in the Infrastructure Group, focusing on development, operations, origination, strategy, and M+A. In 2018, she started her own company that does origination, offtake sourcing, and capital advisory across biofuels/SAF/RNG, renewables, storage, LNG, thermal, and bitcoin. Virescent became a part of Caerus Commodities where Casey enjoys developing projects for acquisition by other companies, managing the bidding for third party owned assets, and providing origination/offtake solutions.

Since 2014, José María Lujambio has coordinated the energy practice of the law firm of Cacheaux, Cavazos & Newton, and in 2018 he was appointed as a Partner. Based in Austin, his work has included regulatory advice and negotiation of various types of electricity contracts for U.S. companies doing business in Mexico. Clients include utility-scale and onsite power plant developers using solar, wind, and cogeneration technologies; qualified suppliers and traders in the Wholesale Electricity Market, as well as end users from the manufacturing industry. Likewise, he has advised natural gas and oil products’ trading and logistics companies, both in regulatory and transactional aspects. From 2009 to 2012, Lujambio was the General Legal Counsel of the Mexican Energy Regulatory Commission, leading the implementation of the 2008 reforms on renewables and gas. From 2005 to 2009, he worked as attorney at the Legal Counsel’s Office of Mexico’s President. In 2014, José María obtained an LL.M. with energy concentration from UT Austin, and in 2002 a Law degree from ITAM in Mexico City. In 2013 he coordinated the energy agenda of the think tank CIDAC. He has published several articles and often speaks in business and academic forums. He currently serves as Secretary of the Board of Mexico’s major solar association ASOLMEX.

Alison Brown, PE has over 15 years of experience in renewable energy. She has worked with solar, battery, electric vehicle, fuel cell, and smart grid technologies on projects ranging from remote, off-grid cabins to industrial microgrids. Over the last four years she has been the engineer of record on 4 GWh of operating battery energy storage projects with approximately 2 GWh currently in design. She is passionate about making strategic design decisions to eliminate risks early in a project. In 2016, Alison founded Flux Energy Systems to provide cost effective engineering solutions for alternative energy projects. Alison holds a B.A. in Physics from Middlebury College and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She was a recipient of the 2009 Transatlantic Renewable Energy Fellowship. She is an active member of the LA Chapter of WRISE and was the director in 2020.

Cedric is an industry pioneer and authority on renewable asset management and serves as Stem’s Vice President, Product. In this role, Cedric manages Stem’s industry-leading software and services for technical and commercial operation of energy storage and solar assets, including Asset Performance Management (APM), and Optimization & Simulation offerings. Prior to joining Stem, he led Product efforts at Omnidian, a leader in performance assurance for distributed energy assets. Earlier in his career, he helped build SunEdison’s asset management business, and founded SOLICHAMBA to deliver consulting and market intelligence services to a variety of clients including solar project developers, equipment manufacturers, O&M providers, and investors. He also authored the industry’s most trusted market reports in partnership with GTM Research, a Wood MacKenzie business. Born in France, Cedric holds an MS in Engineering from IMT Atlantique and an MBA from the University of Nantes.

Vanessa is a senior analyst with our Energy Transition Practice, covering the U.S. energy storage market with a particular focus on grid-scale battery storage. Before joining Wood Mackenzie in 2021, Vanessa was a battery storage analyst specializing in downstream revenue analytics and long-term price forecasting. Earlier in her career she was an analyst in North American natural gas infrastructure and power markets at Genscape, now a Wood Mackenzie company. Vanessa is also a committee member and mentor with She’s in Power; a Colorado C3E program designed to grow and inspire women to be clean energy leaders. Education: BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder

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Shelby acts as the Government Affairs Manager for the Western United States on behalf of AES Clean Energy. In this role, Shelby monitors, motivates, develops, and defends state public policy that impacts the deployment of utility-scale solar, wind, battery electric storage, and green hydrogen projects for AES. Covering everything from tax policy to decommissioning standards, she works closely with state legislators, regulators, and state agencies to strike the ideal balance between an innovative, business-friendly atmosphere and sufficient industry oversight. Prior to joining AES Clean Energy, Shelby enjoyed roles at the industry trade association Advanced Energy United and the renewable energy advocacy organization Utah Clean Energy. She holds an MS in Environmental Science and a BA in International Studies, both from The Ohio State University.

Andrea Herman is an associate in the Austin office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the firm’s Tax Department. Ms. Herman advises clients on all tax aspects of the development, financing, and acquisition of renewable energy assets. Her clients include project developers, large financial institutions acting as investors and lenders, and private equity and infrastructure funds. She focuses on transactions involving renewable energy assets and the monetization of tax credits and other tax incentives, including project development, tax equity and debt financings, joint venture arrangements, and mergers and acquisitions. Her work involves a particular focus on the prevailing wage and apprenticeship and domestic content tax credit regimes. Ms. Herman also advises corporations, partnerships, REITs, private equity firms and major financial institutions on the tax aspects of public and private mergers and acquisitions, bank financings, and securities offerings.

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Joseph has nine years of experience in Texas' power grid across operations, trading, planning, and strategy, with a total of 14 years of industry experience. Notable employers include EDF Trading, Austin Energy, Avantus, Repsol Trading USA, and Dimensional Fund Advisors. He holds dual Bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Finance, a CFA designation, and is set to complete a Master's in Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M next May. As an ERCOT Real-Time Power Trader at EDF he managed 5,500MW of generation, 400MW of demand response, and had speculative trading target. At Austin Energy, he managed 2,200MW of renewables and hedged congestion risks in the Day-Ahead Market. He is a member of the CFA Society of Austin and Houston as well as the IEEE Power & Energy Society.

Nick Maynard has been with Arevon for nearly four years and has more than 15 years of experience in engineering, construction, and the project management of large commercial and utility-scale photovoltaic & BESS projects in the United States and Guam. His experience in renewable energy includes engineering, finance, and construction support for greenfield development and merger and acquisition projects. Before joining Arevon, Nick led the design, installation, and commissioning of approximately 2.0GWdc of solar PV projects, amounting to approximately $2 billion in capital. Since joining Arevon, Nick has engineered another 1.5GWdc of PV and 760MW of BESS in California, Nevada, and Indiana. As the Senior Director of Engineering, Nick’s responsibilities include executive reporting, the establishment of processes and procedures, fatal flaw analysis, negotiation of EPC technical language, review of QA/QC reports, cold and hot commissioning, and owner engineer’s support. Nick obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

Tao Kong is a seasoned renewable energy executive passionate about driving the transition to a decarbonized future. As Managing Partner of Luminous Energy Renewables, he is dedicated to developing and deploying large-scale renewable energy projects, including Wind, Solar, and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). Tao currently manages a BESS pipeline totaling over 8,000 MWh, which he has successfully developed with his team. This portfolio demonstrates his expertise in project development, market analysis, and strategic partnerships. Prior to joining Luminous Energy Renewables, Tao served as COO of Alcen Inc., a leading renewable energy developer. During his tenure, he successfully oversaw the development and deployment of 2,400 MW of renewable energy assets, demonstrating his strategic acumen and operational excellence. Beyond his professional achievements, Tao is deeply committed to environmental sustainability and social equity. He believes that a future powered by renewable energy is essential to addressing climate change and ensuring a prosperous and equitable world for all. Through his work at Luminous Energy Renewables, Tao is actively working to make this vision a reality.

Chris is the Vice Chairman of Wood Mackenzie’s Power & Renewables division where he is responsible for senior stakeholder engagement, thought leadership and advising on the strategic direction of Wood Mackenzie’s business. Chris travels extensively and regularly presents to senior industry, policy, and financial community stakeholders on Wood Mackenzie’s analysis across the value chain of the power industry. Chris brings to this role 30 years of global power industry experience. The first part of his career he led strategy consulting work for power companies and investors at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (now part of IHS/S&P). He then moved into finance as the Senior Vice President of investment strategy at GE Energy Financial Services (EFS) underwriting debt and equity financing of power related investments and then later managed a portfolio of power plants and a merchant transmission project owned by EFS. He then led the power organization at Genscape where he expanded Genscape’s real-time power markets monitoring business into analytics and software service businesses through both organic growth and acquisitions. Chris came to Wood Mackenzie through its acquisition of Genscape and now works with Wood Mackenzie’s 250 power & renewables researchers across the globe. Chris is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Muhlenberg College with degrees in Russian Studies and Political Science and holds a Master of Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and the Institut Français du Pétrole. He has completed executive leadership development programs at the University of Cambridge and at GE. He is based in Boston and has lived and worked previously in Europe.

Edward May is an experienced energy executive with over 15 years in private equity and investment banking, as well as in project development, plant operations, and management. He possesses significant expertise in renewable energy and has a deep understanding of distributed generation and energy storage, including grid impacts, business models, and technoeconomic modeling. Through his firm, EIP, Edward supports corporates and early-stage companies, while also actively co-developing energy storage projects with partners across the country.

Sandy is an experienced international host and meeting designer who takes an engagement to the next level.

Tiffany Wang is a senior analyst on the Clean Energy Technology team at S&P Global Commodity Insights. She provides strategic market research on both behind the meter and front of the meter energy storage with a focus on the North American market. Tiffany holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Director of Quantitative Trading at esVolta, Taylor has over 12 years of professional expertise in quantitative research and development, software engineering, and artificial intelligence. He currently specializes in optimizing grid-scale energy storage for wholesale electricity markets. Taylor develops algorithmic trading systems, high-accuracy forecasting models, and optimization methods to enhance trading performance and maximize profitability while reducing risk. With a background in high-frequency trading/market-making, Taylor leverages AI, optimization, and high-performance computing to drive innovation across energy and commodities markets.