Global Solar Market Outlook: What is Powering Sustained Solar Growth Around the World?

Michael is Executive Advisor to the CEO and a member of the leadership team. Alongside his business development work, Michael heads SolarPower Europe's award-winning market intelligence team. He is lead author of the annually published Global Market Outlook and EU Market Outlook, and works closely with Policy Analyst Raffaele operating the Solar & Storage workstream. Michael has been working in solar for over 20 years. After co-founding Photon-Magazine in 1996, he served in various positions within the Photon group, primarily as Editor-in-Chief of Photon International. In 2014, Michael started MISCHCO, a company offering strategy consulting and communication services to solar companies. In 2016, TaiyangNews, a digital news platform for the solar industry that Michael founded, went online. Michael studied Geology/Palaeontology at Bonn University, Geology at RWTH Aachen, and Mineralogy at Frankfurt University. He speaks German and English.

Walburga Hemetsberger is the CEO of SolarPower Europe since 2019. She has over 20 years of professional experience in Brussels, working for a utility, trade association, the European Parliament and the European Commission. Walburga spent most of her career in the energy sector, covering in particular renewable energies and hydrogen.

Sonia Dunlop is CEO of the Global Solar Council, the world solar PV trade association, which represents the whole value chain and every region and market segment in the world. She previously worked for Solar Power Europe, Solar Energy UK and the RE-Source Platform. For five years she was part of the Senior Management Team of global climate politics think tank Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G) and worked for the COP26 Glasgow organising team in the UK government. She also spent five years in the European Parliament in Brussels working on renewables. She has expertise in solar PV, development finance, renewables policy, digitalisation of energy, Multilateral Development Banks climate finance and corporate Power Purchase Agreements. Sonia speaks fluent English, French and Italian as well as basic Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese, has two children and is based in London.

Stacy Ettinger is the Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Trade at the Solar Energy Industries Association. Stacy leads SEIA's legal and policy work on supply chain, trade, and sustainability issues. She has over 25 years of experience advising U.S. and foreign companies on international trade and investment matters. Prior to joining SEIA, Stacy was a partner in the global law firm K&L Gates, leading the firm's international trade policy practice. She also served as a senior legal and policy advisor to United States Senator Chuck Schumer, and as a trade negotiator and WTO litigator with the United States Department of Commerce.

Dr. Rodrigo Lopes Sauaia is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association (ABSOLAR), an entity that brings together and represents companies and professionals in the photovoltaic solar sector in Brazil. He is also a co-founder, member of the Board of Directors, and current Chair (2025-2026) of the Global Solar Council (GSC), an organization that brings together the leading national and regional solar energy associations worldwide and acts as the international representative of the sector. Has a Ph.D. with honours in Engineering and Materials Technology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), with international collaboration at the Fraunhofer Institut für Solare Energiesysteme (Fraunhofer ISE, Germany), M.Sc. with honours in Renewable Energy from the EUREC Master Program, with international collaboration at the ETH Zürich (Switzerland), and B.Sc. with honours in Chemistry from the University of São Paulo (Brazil).