Program Committee 2023

Ronald Knoche

Ronald has over 35 years in the field of energy & 25 years entrepreneurship, mainly as EPC contractor as well as owner of a utility company. As EPC contractor, he has built worldwide many large projects in the field of energy, environment, oil & gas, metallurgy. He has also introduced several patents in the field of energy and environment. Then cofounder and CEO of Eco Delta, a French renewable utility company, he has developed over 300 MW wind and solar projects. Many of those projects were financed, owned and operated by Eco Delta before they get sold to a fund.

Besides bringing his large expertise in the field of renewable energy technology to the benefit of REM Tec, he is acting as business angel as well as mentor for several start up companies mostly in the field of the 4.0 industry of the future.

Alain Kerboriou

Alessandra Scognamiglio

Licensed architect, PhD in Technologies for Architecture and Environment. Since 2000 she works as researcher at ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development), Photovoltaic Technologies Area. Her main interest is working on the hybrid border between scientific research and design, to create a domain of common understanding and possibilities for experimentations in the real living environment. Her main topics are: the use of photovoltaics in buildings (BIPV), and landscapes, with focus on trans-disciplinary perspectives and innovative cognitive frameworks for sustaining new design visions. Since 2008 topic organizer of the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (EUPVSEC), on the use of photovoltaics in buildings and nature; idea person and chairperson of the event “Photovoltaics, Forms, Landscapes. Beauty and power of designed photovoltaics” (www.pv-landscapes.com); Italian alternate ExCo IEA SHC; member of ETIP PV, Integrated PV;  Coordinator of the task force ENEA “Sustainable Agrivoltaics”.

Christian Dupraz 

Christian Dupraz is involved in agrivoltaics research since 2009, when he designed the first crop / photovoltaic panels dual system prototype in Europe and named it as "agrivoltaics". He chaired the first Agrivoltaics Conference in 2020. He is Director of Research at INRAE, the French National Institute for Agronomical and Environmental Research, and is based at Montpellier University. He is currently the Editor in Chief of the “Agroforestry Systems” Journal. As an agronomist, Christian is focussing on the resilience of agricultural systems facing climate change, and both agroforestry and agrivoltaics are part of the solution. Christian was the founding President of the European Agroforestry Federation (EURAF) and of the International Union of Agroforestry (IUAF).

Delphine Petri 

Delphine participates in the international expert group "Subtask Agrivoltaics" of the Task 13 Programme of the IEA.

Lina Dubina

Lina Dubina works as a Policy Advisor for Sustainability at SolarPower Europe, the European Solar Association representing companies and organizations active along the whole solar value chain. As part of the Land Use and Permitting Workstream, Lina coordinates work on agrivoltaics and floating PV and oversees several environment-related projects.

Max Trommsdorff

Max Trommsdorff is heading the Group Agrivoltaics at Fraunhofer ISE and works in the field of dual land use for agriculture and photovoltaic power generation since 2014.  

Since then, he worked in more than 30 agrivoltaics projects with a focus on economic feasibility, technology transfer and institutional designs. With over 50 employees of different disciplines, the Group Agrivoltaics at Fraunhofer ISE encompasses all relevant facets of agrivoltaic technology like PV technology, agricultural and environmental sciences, hydrology, geology, as well as economic and political sciences.
Max chaired the AgriVoltaics2021 and is currently leading the international expert group "Subtask Agrivoltaics" of the Task 13 Programme of the IEA and the Working Group on Scientific Accompanying Research on Agrivoltaics of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in Germany. 

As the founder of the AgriVoltaics conference and member of the conference's Management Board , Max is convinced that a well-working international exchange is a solid base to spread the concept of agrivoltaics.

Miriam Di Blasi

Miriam Di Blasi (she/her) is a Chemical Engineer. She joined Enel in 2006, working as a principal investigator on Flue Gas Cleaning Systems for the Thermal Generation Division. She gained her professional experience thanks to international activities on full-scale fossil fuels power plant of the ENEL’s fleet, and working in many EU funding projects. From 2013 to 2016, she was the program manager of Advanced Solutions to Emission Control Program. Since 2020, Miriam is Head of Environment and Impacts Mitigation Innovation Unit at ENEL, focused on field demonstrations and testing of innovative technologies, methodologies and, tools to improve the environmental sustainability and social acceptability of renewable plants via holistic approach, fostering actions to preserve biodiversity and reversing route of climate changes. Massive demo-program are designed and launched across different Countries as that in the agrivoltaic framework, which is involving Spain, Greece, Italy, US and Australia.

Nathanaël Kasriel

Nathanaël Kasriel is deputy director of Sun’Agri, in charge of R&D and agronomic services. Sun’Agri is a pioneer in agrivoltaics, developing smart sunlight control systems for agriculture since 2009. In particular, Sun’Agri built agrivoltaic projects on vineyard, arboriculture and market gardening, and has presence in France, Israel and Italy.

Prior to joining Sun’Agri, Nathanaël Kasriel worked as a strategy consultant in McKinsey & Company, and in nuclear energy at EDF. He graduated from Mines ParisTech and HEC Paris, and holds a Master of Research from Ecole Polytechnique.

Sascha Krause-Tünker

Stephan Schindele

Stephan Schindele, Head of Product Management Agri-PV at BayWa r.e. AG. Stephan is r.e. sponsible for enabling BayWa r.e. PV projects on agricultural land in harmony with the farming and nature conservation sectors. In his function he leverages synergies of the Food-Energy-Water-Biodiversity Teams within the BayWa Group. He supports our global Agri-PV greenfield development by optimizing the tangible and intangible aspects of Agri-PV. Before joining BayWa r.e. in 2020, he was employed as a PhD candidate and Agri-PV project manager at Fraunhofer ISE. There he built up the new business field of Agri-PV, wrote numerous publications on the topic and received several awards for his work (2012-2020).

Theresa Kärtner

Theresa Kärtner has been with the German Farmers' Association since 2021. As a policy officer for renewable energies and social policy, she works on the expansion of renewable energies with a focus on photovoltaics. She previously studied agricultural sciences and agricultural management at the Technical University of Munich and gained further practical experience in agriculture as a sales representative until summer 2021.

Thierry Vergnaud

A microbiology engineer, Thierry Vergnaud has been Managing Director Onshore at Iberdrola France since January 2023. He joined the Iberdrola group in August 2020, where he was successively Head of Onshore Business Development France and then Country Manager Iberdrola Renouvelables France, with responsibility for onshore wind power and photovoltaics.

Over the last 15 years, he has held a variety of positions in the environment and renewable energy sectors in different groups: Managing Director GPE Environment (2003-2004), Deputy Managing Director Theolia (2004-2005), Managing Director Enertrag France (2011-2015). He is also active in the France Agrivoltaïsme trade associations. Thierry Vergnaud holds a master's degree in biochemistry from the Université de Provence Aix-Marseille 1 (1978-1982).