Solar & Energy Storage Summit 2025

Zoë Gaston

Principal Analyst, US Distributed Solar

Wood Mackenzie

Zoë Gaston is a principal analyst on the US Distributed Solar team. Her areas of focus include residential solar policy and project finance, and the residential installer and financier competitive landscape. Zoë contributes to the quarterly publication of the Solar Market Insight report in collaboration with the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA). Previously, Zoë worked on the Genscape Energy Management team. She held various roles, including leading the regulatory team. Her team provided a full suite of operational services for retail suppliers and renewable generators, including the management and strategising of energy, capacity and REC offtake. She also wrote weekly analyses on legislation and energy market trends and developed multiple product offerings.

Andre Pujadas

CEO

OnePlanet Solar Recycling

Senior executive with a record of delivering results of consequence to the P&L of some of the largest metals manufacturers in the world. André has led plant startups, operations, and management for heavy industrial production facilities ranging from steel manufacturing to alternative iron processes such as, (direct reduced iron, hot briquetted iron, and iron carbide) to ferrous and non-ferrous scrap recycling along with advanced recovery plants. Across his career, André has been accountable for overall P&L, operations, risk mitigation, safety, and compliance.

Richard Scott

VP Global Development and Construction (Onshore),

Jera NEX

Raja Sundararajan

Executive Vice President – Strategy and Customer Solutions

Alliant Energy

Ingrida Soldatova

Senior Vice President

Prudential Private Capital

Ingrida Soldatova is a Senior Vice President in the Power group, located in Dallas. She leads a team responsible for marketing, originating and managing investments in structured and corporate finance for electric utilities, power cooperatives and power projects based in Eastern US and Canada.

Tony Archibald

Chief Operating Officer

Copia Power

Ryan Coakley

Executive Director of Origination, Distributed Generation

NextEra Energy Resources

Ryan leads sales and origination for NextEra’s Distributed Generation (DG) business. In this role, he directs the team responsible for greenfield distributed energy solutions, including on and offsite solar, community solar, energy storage, onsite gas generation, hydrogen, water reclamation, and other emerging technologies. Ryan previously managed DG origination for SPP, ERCOT, parts of WECC, and most of MISO where he used extensive project development, construction, and market experience to help business, government, and utility customers achieve their renewable-energy and cost-saving goals. Immediately prior to joining NEER in 2016, he attended Stanford University where he received a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Design & Construction. Work experience prior to Stanford included project/construction management and business development roles at Italy’s Gemmo S.p.A as well as Abengoa. While working at these firms, Ryan focused on a broad range of projects in Europe, North Africa, and the U.S. including vertical construction (University, Military, Multi-Family, etc.) as well as sustainable energy projects (solar thermal w/ molten salt storage, cellulosic bioethanol, solar PV, geothermal, etc.). Ryan earned his undergraduate degree in business and economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a project management certification (DPA) at Santa Clara University.

Gigio Sakota

Senior Director, Energy Markets

Avantus

Gigio Sakota is Sr. Director of Energy Markets at Avantus (formerly 8minute Solar Energy), the largest independent solar and solar plus storage power developer in the United States. Gigio is focused on the CAISO, WECC in general, and ERCOT, especially on the evolving role and demands of the utility scale PV and battery energy storage systems in the western markets. Prior to Avantus, Gigio was at Southern California Edison (SCE) where he was responsible for optimization of SCE’s wholesale market energy assets, including one of the nation’s largest renewable and storage portfolios. Over the past 16yrs, Gigio has worked in a range of roles, from long term resource planning to trade floor operations and bidding strategy, including stints in regulatory advocacy, portfolio planning, and resource economics.

Kathleen Himber

US CEO

Akuo Energy

Denise Tait

Chief Investment Officer

Arevon Energy

David Carroll

Chief Renewables Officer & Sr. VP, North America

ENGIE North America

David Carroll is responsible for the Renewables activities that encompass utility scale wind and solar, distributed generation and storage, he is focused on development, engineering, construction, operations, and maintenance – including partnership management. In addition, Dave has oversight of all business support functions for North America. He joined ENGIE North America in August 2020 as Vice President for Grid Scale Renewables. David has more than 15 years of experience leading construction, engineering and program management teams across the renewable energy industry, including wind, solar, bioenergy, and storage technologies, contributing to more than 7 GW of renewable energy globally.

Scott Graybeal

CEO

Caelux

Scott Graybeal is a veteran executive who led the Energy Solutions Segment at Flex Ltd (NASDAQ: FLEX), a $2B division within the company serving the solar, energy storage, and LED lighting markets. Under his leadership, Flex Energy became the third largest producer of PV modules outside of mainland China, and patented several key solar manufacturing innovations. Scott’s career spans several industries from construction tech to solar to semiconductors. Before joining Caelux, Scott was COO of Veev Group & CEO of Veev Build and has held key leadership roles at Intevac, Amonix, Oerlikon Solar, Veeco Instruments, Applied Materials, and General Electric. Scott has guest lectured on renewables and entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon and Georgetown. He served with distinction as a nuclear submarine officer and is a certified nuclear engineering officer by the Departments of the Navy and Energy. Scott earned his MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and his BS in Chemistry from UC San Diego.

Leni John

Senior Vice President of Business Operations and Chief Procurement Officer

Strata Clean Energy

Leni John has over 23 years of experience developing procurement strategies and managing supply chain operations in various industries. The past 16 years of his career has been with top renewable energy firms, where he led the procurement and subcontracting activities for the construction of over 2 gigawatts (GWs) of utility-scale wind and solar power plants as well as battery energy storage systems. He has also championed the service and spare parts needs to support the operation and maintenance of over 5 GWs of clean energy power plants. Leni is currently the Senior Vice President of Business Operations and Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) at Strata Clean Energy leading various core functions including strategic sourcing, supply chain, information technology, business systems, commissioning and technical services.

Hanna Nuttall

U.S. Distributed Storage Research Analyst

Wood Mackenzie

Nina Rangel

Senior Research Analyst

Wood Mackenzie

Sylvia Leyva-Martinez

Principal Analyst, North America Utility-Scale Solar

Wood Mackenzie

As a principal analyst on our Power and Renewables team, Sylvia researches market dynamics, business models, market developments and financial strategies of utility-scale solar PV projects in the US and Canada. Previously a senior consultant for the Power and Renewables team, she brings six years of experience in power markets, the energy transition, renewables and ESG. Before Wood Mackenzie, Sylvia worked for Accenture Strategy Energy, where she supported cost and portfolio optimisation and talent management for NOCs in Latin America. She also worked in solar project development for SPIE Sud-Est in France.

Sandhya Ganapathy

Chief Executive Officer

EDP Renewables North America

Sandhya Ganapathy is the Chief Executive Officer for EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA) and a member of the Management Team of EDP Renewables (EDPR), the fourth largest renewable energy producer in the world. Sandhya joined EDPR in 2012 as Head of Investments and M&A North America. From 2017 to her CEO appointment in early 2022, she served as Global Head of Investments and M&A, responsible for M&A, investment and capital allocation decisions, and asset rotation for EDPR across all of its geographies. She was also a member of EDPR’s investment committee. Sandhya has extensive experience in renewable energy evaluations as well as leading acquisitions and evaluation of investments enabling geographical and asset class diversification. She ran EDPR’s asset rotation or self-financing strategy, thereby being at the helm of one of the company’s core income generators and critical enablers of future growth. Prior to joining EDPR, Sandhya worked as an investment banker for more than a decade with regional and global banks across multiple geographies. She holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon and is a Chartered Accountant from India. EDP Renewables North America LLC (EDPR NA), its affiliates, and its subsidiaries develop, construct, own, and operate wind farms and solar parks throughout North America. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, with 58 wind farms, nine solar parks, and eight regional offices across North America, EDPR NA has developed more than 8,800 megawatts (MW) and operates more than 8,200 MW of onshore utility-scale renewable energy projects. With more than 950 employees, EDPR NA’s highly qualified team has a proven capacity to execute projects across the continent.

Elissa Pierce

Research Associate, Solar Module Technology and Markets

Wood Mackenzie

Elissa is an analyst in Wood Mackenzie’s power & renewables practice. Her research coverage includes solar module markets, technologies and supply chains across the globe. Before joining Wood Mackenzie, Elissa was a solar design engineer and worked on rooftop and ground-mount residential solar PV and battery storage projects.

Chris Seiple

Vice Chairman, Energy Transition and Power & Renewables

Wood Mackenzie

Chris is the Vice Chairman of Wood Mackenzie’s Power & Renewables group. He is responsible for ensuring thought leadership, advising on the strategic direction of the business, and senior stakeholder engagement and relationship management. Chris brings 30 years of global power industry experience to this role. His career has spanned strategy consulting work for power companies and banks at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (now part of IHS/S&P), debt and equity financing of power-related investments at GE Energy Financial Service and managing a portfolio of power plants owned by EFS. He also led the power organisation at Genscape, where he expanded its 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 our 250 researchers across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

King Look

Director of Research and Development

Con Edison

Mr. Look is currently the Director of Research and Development (R&D) at Con Edison, responsible for the Company’s R&D programs and initiatives. He is leading and coordinating Con Edison’s R&D efforts into the investigation and development of new low carbon resources, including overseeing Con Edison’s anchor sponsorship of the EPRI / GTI Energy Low Carbon Resources Initiative. He is a member of EPRI’s Technology Innovation Committee and, also the Chair of the New York Joint Utilities’ Advanced Technology Working Group. Prior to his current role in R&D, Mr. Look held the position of Director of Electricity Supply where he was responsible for managing a portfolio of electric supply contracts, generating assets and financial hedges to supply retail customers who chose to remain with Con Edison as the provider of their electricity supply. And prior to his Electricity Supply position, he was the Director of Resource Planning, responsible for developing the electric, gas and steam demand forecasts for capital planning and, also responsible for economic and reliability assessments of new resources, such as offshore wind and new transmission lines. He joined Con Edison as a management intern in 1983. Mr. Look also received the Outstanding 50 Asian American Business Award in 2015. Mr. Look graduated summa cum laude from Cooper Union with Bachelor and Master of Engineering degrees in Chemical Engineering; from Manhattan College with Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering; and from Baruch College with an MBA in Computer Information Systems.

Nicholas Gladd

Senior Counsel, Energy and Climate Solutions

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Nic Gladd is senior counsel in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s energy and climate solutions practice. Nic’s practice spans the transactional, regulatory, and litigation realms. He advises independent power producers, clean energy project developers, data center developers, technology companies, and investors in complex transactions. He regularly represents clients in proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, and state public utility commissions. And he provides counsel and strategic business advice to entities seeking to interconnect with and participate in the markets administered by PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE, CAISO, SPP, MISO, and ERCOT. He is experienced in helping clients both navigate and shape regulatory frameworks at the federal and state levels, counseling on power market design, and structuring and negotiating commercial agreements for clean energy generation and energy storage projects and operating assets. Before entering private practice, Nic held several high-level positions at FERC, including as legal advisor to both FERC Chairman Kevin J. McIntyre and Commissioner Tony Clark and as an appellate litigator in the FERC Solicitor’s Office.

Catherine Griffin

Vice President, Investments

Soltage

Catherine Griffin is a Vice President of Investments at Soltage. Catherine has over ten years of experience in the energy industry, beginning her career in power and gas and before transitioning to renewables. Prior to joining Soltage, Catherine worked at DSD Renewables and led the project valuations for M&A activity across various markets. Catherine holds a B.A in Economics from Union College and M.B.A from Columbia Business School.

Meghan Semiao

Director of Asset Management and O&M

Copia Power

Meghan is the Director of Asset Management and Operations at Copia Power, a Carlyle Portfolio Company, headquartered in Dana Point, CA. Her team oversees the operations of both BESS and Solar assets, mostly centralized in Arizona. Meghan is active as a Board Member for both Clean Energy NH and the South Dakota Wind Energy Association. She also leads various committees for American Clean Power. Prior to Copia, Meghan worked for three other Renewable Independent Power Producers. Meghan holds a B.A. degree in Political Science and Business Economics from the University of Maine. In addition, she has her JD and MBA from Suffolk University. Meghan and her husband, Nathan, and their daughter, Rose, reside in New Hampshire.

Nicole Steele

Director of Climate Partnerships Banking

Amalgamated Bank

Nicole Steele is a nationally recognized leader and expert with over 20 years’ experience in clean energy, focusing on equitable deployment and workforce development. She recently joined Amalgamated Bank as the Director of Climate Policy where she will lead the bank’s efforts to ensure U.S. climate policy is supportive of private capital markets in executing the clean energy transition. Prior to joining Amalgamated, she was instrumental in the development of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) programs including the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF), Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA), and Solar for All (SFA) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and worked in partnership with the U.S. Treasury on the Inflation Reduction Act’s solar tax credits including the Low-Income Communities Bonus Tax Credit. She was also the Program Manager of the Workforce and Equitable Access Team in the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the head of the National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP) that created the Community Power Accelerator and many other initiatives that developed solutions for the rapid deployment of clean energy with true meaningful benefits. Prior to joining the federal government, she was the founding executive director of GRID Alternatives Mid-Atlantic, policy director at the Alliance to Save Energy, and ran the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program for Loudoun County Virginia. She started her career in affordable housing, community and land-use planning, and grassroots advocacy. She is an AmeriCorps alumni and passionate supporter of community service.

Emily Backus

Sustainability Director

Vantage Data Centers

Kasim Khan

Senior Research Analyst, Storage,

Wood Mackenzie

Caitlin Connelly

Senior Research Analyst, Distributed Solar

Wood Mackenzie

Annie Lappé

Vice President, Strategy and Impact

Pivot Energy

Annie spearheads the company’s social impact strategy. She directs community engagement, community investment, and corporate social impact work. Annie has over 20 years of experience managing exceptional teams and driving progress on solar energy and energy justice advocacy campaigns. She loves to build systems, programs, and practices that deliver social impact, help people thrive, and support teams to effectively achieve their missions. She spent the majority of her career at Vote Solar, a national clean energy and energy justice advocacy organization. At Vote Solar, Annie sat on the executive leadership team and was responsible for managing the programmatic team to deliver wins to move the U.S. to a 100% renewable energy electricity system. Earlier in her career, Annie ran clean energy policy campaigns in Western states and at the Federal level for Vote Solar, SunEdison and the Alliance to Save Energy. She holds an MA in Environmental Policy from Oxford University and a BA in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and their two girls. They power their house with solar and love to cruise around as a family on their electric cargo bikes.

Becca Jones-Albertus

Director, Solar Technologies Office

US Department of Energy

Dr. Becca Jones-Albertus is the Director of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Energy in the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. SETO has an annual budget of over $300 million to advance solar technology and support an equitable transition to a decarbonized energy system. This includes innovative research on photovoltaic and concentrating solar-thermal power technologies, grid integration, and analysis and technical assistance to reduce soft costs and increase access to affordable solar energy. Dr. Jones-Albertus also works with DOE leadership and interagency partners on key issues such as supply chains, grid modernization, and workforce training. Dr. Jones-Albertus has spent her career advancing solar technology and working to reduce regulatory barriers to solar deployment. Prior to joining the Energy Department, Dr. Jones-Albertus worked in the private sector, where she led efforts to develop solar cells that twice achieved world-record efficiencies. Dr. Jones-Albertus graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She has more than 10 patents and 40 technical publications.

Allison Weis

Global Head of Storage

Wood Mackenzie

Allison leads our global research into energy storage. She joined Wood Mackenzie in 2023 from Ascend Analytics, where she was VP of Battery Solutions. In that role she built out a storage valuation product and consulting practice as well as operational platform optimising storage, hybrid and renewable bids into day-ahead and real-time power markets. Earlier in her career, Allison was an engineer at Tesla, focused on modelling stationary energy storage for large-scale renewables integration and analysis of revenue and battery degradation in different wholesale power markets.

Nick Perugini

Chief Executive Officer

Solaris Energy

Nick specializes in non-residential project sourcing, analysis, development, and structured finance, while building strategic partnership alliances. He contributes a diverse background and passion for solar and energy efficiency (since 2008) built upon a lengthy business to business professional career. He has lead efforts on hundreds of successfully operational solar projects across the nation. Nick is the former Board Chair of the Colorado Solar and Storage Association (COSSA), the solar and storage trade organization in Colorado. He is also the former president of New Energy Colorado (NECO) an educational non-profit that manages the Metro Denver Green Homes Tour and Solar CitiSuns.

Xizhou Zhou

Executive Vice President, Head of Power & Renewables

Wood Mackenzie

Xizhou Zhou oversees Wood Mackenzie’s Power and Renewables’ function. He's responsible for the content development and commercial growth of the business line, ranging from new product development to regional expansion.  His expertise is in electric power and clean energy market analysis and forecasting, power market design and policy analysis, renewable energy business models, and company strategies. Prior to Xizhou joining Wood Mackenzie in 2024, he was vice president leading S&P Global Commodity Insight’s power and renewables practice globally. In his capacity as Head of the Power, Gas, Coal, and Renewables division in the Asia Pacific region for IHS Markit before its merger with S&P Global, Xizhou played a pivotal role in the substantial expansion of the firm's reach by establishing new research and consulting teams in key locations including Beijing, Singapore, Penang, Delhi, Seoul, Tokyo, and Brisbane, fostering the growth of the company's energy business in the region. Before starting his career at S&P Global through one of its predecessor companies, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), he worked as a consultant on regulatory economics for Industrial Economics, Inc. in Boston and as a research analyst at the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C. Xizhou holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Environmental Management, both from Yale University. He is based in Washington, D.C.

Sagar Chopra

Senior Research Analyst, Solar

Wood Mackenzie

Sagar is a senior research analyst on our Power & Renewables team, focused on PV system pricing for US and LATAM regions. He also supports research on global system pricing, and covers floating solar market research. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie in 2021, Sagar worked as an electrical engineer, designing and commissioning utility-scale PV projects in the New England and New York region.

Martin Pochtaruk

President

Heliene Inc.

Martin Pochtaruk has 35 years of experience managing manufacturing and innovation businesses across Europe and the Americas. He founded Heliene, a technology leading high quality solar PV manufacturer in 2010, the company is challenging the solar industry status quo by putting customers first. It’s doing so as well by manufacturing high quality, competitively priced solar PV modules made to order in North America. By supporting customers with its in-house logistics team and just in time supply chain solutions. And by being remarkably responsive. Prior to founding Heliene in February 2010, he was the VP of Business development at Algoma Steel Inc., a Canadian Public Company, where he was responsible for driving the company’s value-chain integration strategy, creating and increasing value to shareholders (Dec 2004 to June 2009). Before Algoma Steel, Pochtaruk spent over fifteen years at Tenaris (NYSE: TS) in Argentina, Italy, the USA and Canada, on positions ranging from applied research (1990), product development for stringent applications (1991-1994), marketing (1995-1996), M&A (1997-1999) and supply chain management (2000 to November 2004). Relevant experience to project execution: • 1996 to 1998 – Take over and turn around of Dalmine, Italy (Tenaris) • 2000 – start up of the idled Sault Ste Marie pipe factory for Tenaris, • 2010 – start up of Heliene in Sault Ste Marie, • 2018 – replacement of the Mountain Iron, Minnesota manufacturing facility for Heliene. • 2022 – investment and start up of Mountain Iron line 2 for Heliene, • 2023 – raised USD$ 170 million to accelerate the growth of Heliene. In 1989 Martin graduated in Physics from University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Martin is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and English.

Emilie Wangerman

Head of the USA and COO USA

Lightsource bp

Emilie is Lightsource bp’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the U.S. She leads the strategic direction for the region, overseeing key operational functions, and collaborating closely within the executive team to continue advancing Lightsource bp’s growth across the United States. Emilie has been an integral part of Lightsource bp since joining in late 2017 to significantly accelerate expansion into the U.S. market. Since then, the U.S. team has developed more than 3.4GW of projects, raised nearly $5 billion in project financing, executed more than 4GW of power contracts acquired over 15GW of projects to support the pipeline, and built a strong pipeline of over 30GW. Emilie brings a broad spectrum of experience and disciplines to this role, developed over her 20-year career, with more than 13 years working in the energy industry – from energy procurement to customer programs, operations, power marketing, acquisitions, and growth strategy. Prior to Lightsource bp, Emilie held leadership positions at Pacific Gas and Electric (“PG&E”) and Intel Corporation. Emilie has a Bachelor of Science in both Chemical Engineering and Psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well as a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University.

Colleen Christmas-Garner

Director of Development

RES

Max Issokson

Research Analyst, US Distributed Solar

Wood Mackenzie

Max Issokson is a research analyst on our Power and Renewables team. He supports research and data collection for the US Distributed Solar practice. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie in October 2022, Max worked at National Grid where he held positions in distributed generation and pricing and regulatory.