Solarplaza Summit | PPAs The Netherlands

Jan Knievel is Head of Origination at Sunnic Lighthouse, the trading company for Enerparc AG. After some years in business and energy consulting, he gained experience in trading of renewable Energy at juwi and Centrica Energy Trading. Sunnic lighthouse successfully concluded many PPAs in Germany and Spain.

At Aurora Energy Research, Marise Westbroek is responsible for researching trends in the Dutch electricity market. Recently she has dealt with questions such as: How can the Netherlands become emission neutral by 2050?; What does the future hold for hydrogen in Northwestern Europe?; How is the Dutch market for power purchase agreements (PPAs) developing?Marise holds a PhD in physics from Imperial College London and studied physics and mathematics in Utrecht and Cambridge.

Alexandre has worked in the energy industry for over 15 years’ and is already well-connected in the renewable energy market, with developers, IPPs, investors and lenders alike, as well as with large offtakers. Alexandre holds a PhD in Finance and Law at Goethe University Frankfurt / Université Paris Dauphine.

Chris Pennington is Director of Energy & Sustainability for Iron Mountain Data Centers. His responsibilities include development and execution of Iron Mountain's global sustainability program and identification of opportunities to innovate for a more sustainable digital future. He received the Green Power Leader of the Year award in 2021 from the Center for Resource Solutions and championed Iron Mountain's public commitment to 24/7 carbon free energy that same year. Chris actively participates in the Clean Energy Buyers Alliance as faculty for their energy buyer support programs, as well as Eurelectric's 24/7 carbon free energy hub.

Lianne has 8 years of experience in renewables. She has worked on the contracting side of the innovative offshore wind Two Towers project (19 MW, the Netherlands, 2021) and is currently involved in the contracting and financing of various solar projects (including PPA and storage aspects) in the Netherlands. Before joining Green Giraffe, Lianne worked as a lawyer at Allen & Overy in the Dutch project finance team. Amongst others, she advised on the financing of the Krammer onshore wind farm (100 MW, the Netherlands, 2016) and solar park Sunport Delfzijl (31 MW, the Netherlands, 2016). Lianne holds an LLM in European energy and climate law from the University of Groningen.

Bram Devlies, attorney at law, is an associate of the Energy & Infrastructure practice group in the Loyens&Loeff office in Belgium. Bram’s practice focuses on the energy sector, including renewable energy projects (solar/PV, wind, biomass/biosteam and district heating), energy storage projects, subsidy mechanisms (such as green energy certificates), production and supply licences, district heating and agreements (including corporate power purchase agreements and FIDIC agreements). Bram is the author of several articles and publications about energy law, speaks regularly at conferences on topics such as PPAs and energy storage and is an affiliated researcher at the KULeuven.

Jan Willem has over 20 years of experience in the energy market and worked for some of the larger utilities. Early 2020, Jan Willem sold his previous companies Greenspread and Greencrowd to private equity concern NPM Capital. Since his departure in October 2020, Jan Willem works as an independent consultant at Stratergy. Stratergy advises funds, banks, utilities, and large consumers and producers of energy and specializes in maximizing asset value and minimizing financial risk.

Daniel Peschel is Senior Originator at Ampyr Solar Europe. After studying industrial engineering in Berlin, he has been active in the renewables industry for over 10 years with roles in consulting, trading and origination. Daniel has successfully negotiated PPAs for more than 1 GW of new renewable capacity in several European jurisdictions. In his current role, he heads the PPA origination and route-to-market activities of the ASE group in Germany and the Netherlands

For over 15 years Martijn has combined an action oriented approach with a fascination for the dynamics of the changing energy landscape. At Sunrock Martijn is responsible for the contracting of utilities, storage, flexibility and corporates like the case presented today.

At Green Tower, Fleur van de Wolfshaar focuses on solar pv development projects in the Netherlands. Recently she has worked on project Overbetuwe, an 86 MWp project in Gelderland. Prior to this, she worked as a financial advisor at Green Giraffe. In this role she has worked among others on near shore project Windpark Fryslan, offshore project Veja Mate and onshore project Wieringermeer.

Over the last 12 years, Zishanul Hasan has been associated with Retail industry -Sustainability, Production ,Supply Chain, Buying -innovating, pushing boundaries and delivering decisive competitive advantages to businesses. As a part of his journey, he has managed multi-cultural teams and multi-million Euro P&Ls . Zishanul Hasan has good knowledge of retail value-chain: from sourcing to sales.

Holding a degree in Business Engineering from the TU-Berlin, Julius is a leading expert in energy economics, market design & energy policy, and has been working as an analyst, consultant & senior consultant since 2011 at enervis energy advisors GmbH. Julius has been involved in numerous projects with a focus on large-scale offtake-side PPAs and possesses vast knowledge in Sourcing strategy, procurement & negotiation of buy-side PPAs.

After studying Strategic Management at Tilburg University, I started at Scholt Energy in 2017. For the first 5 years I worked at the energy supply department, advising our largest customers on the purchase of electricity and gas. Since last year I have been active within the Energy Transition Services department as Senior Energy Transition Specialist. Here we guide our customers through the energy transition and everything that comes with it, such as solar panels, asset management, HBE’s, Storage systems and PPA’s. My area of expertise is Corporate PPA’s.

Nicola is the Director of Portfolio and Transactions at Vattenfall, where she oversees the Solar & Battery portfolio. This includes both co-located hybrid and stand-alone systems across several key markets such as the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Her department serves the interface between the renewables development unit, Vattenfall’s trading house, and external M&A partners. In this collaboration, they drive the value optimization for Vattenfall’s solar and battery projects by staying ahead of market trends and adapting to ever-evolving regulatory frameworks. Together with her team, Nicola navigates complex market risks, secures revenues, and drives the portfolio strategy to ensure the long-term profitability of these critical renewable energy assets. Through close collaboration with both internal teams and external stakeholders, they ensure that Vattenfall remains at the forefront of solar and battery value creation, contributing significantly to the company’s transition towards fossil freedom.

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Tim is an investment professional in the renewable energy sector working at Klimaatfonds Nederland. Besides being a key member of the investment team, he is involved in battery storage developments and the sourcing and execution of PPA's to make projects bankable. Over the last years, Klimaatfonds Nederland successfully executed several Corporate PPA's and secured predictable revenue streams for their (solar) projects. Prior to Klimaatfonds Nederland Tim worked in the energy team of PwC’s M&A department. He holds a Masters’ degree in Sustainable Energy Technology from Delft University of Technology.

Gino is an experienced banker that works for more than 8 years for ING. He currently works for ING Wholesale Banking in the Sustainable Structured Finance (SSF) team and has financed all types of solar projects in The Netherlands (ground mounted, rooftop portfolio’s, floating, tracking, carports and landfill). The SSF team is based in Amsterdam and focuses on providing structured finance solutions for client investments in sustainable projects in the EMEA region. These projects typically involve new technologies or business models which are not yet covered by the sector teams. The SSF team has a focus on projects in the area of plastics, sustainable heating, battery storage, on shore wind and solar but is open to discuss any other sustainable project as well.

Edwin founded Solarplaza company in 2004. He is a senior PV expert and started in the photovoltaic solar energy business in 1994. He has experience as a solar energy consultant and project developer in more than 200 PV projects. Edwin holds a Master’s degree in Chemical engineering and previously worked in the Chemical industry before starting his first consultancy company in PV in 1994.

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