Off-Grid: Digitalization to Speed Up Off-Grid Projects

Veit Goehringer is the advisor and thematic focal lead for electrification at Energising Development (EnDev), a global multi-donor program. Previously, he served as an advisor for rural electrification with mini-grids for GIZ in Uganda. Before his tenure in Uganda, he was a senior lecturer in automotive engineering in Botswana. Veit Goehringer holds a PhD in mechanical engineering, specializing in energy systems and automotive engineering.

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Noara Kebir is Co-Founder and CEO of the MicroEnergy International Group (MEI). Her professional background is in mechanics, energy and process engineering. Noara started her professional career at Siemens Corporation, after which she co-founded the MEI Group in 2001. MEI Group's core mission is conceptualizing, developing and implementing technical and socioeconomic strategies for a Bottom-Up Energy Transformation, through different vehicles: the academic think-tank Microenergy Research Systems is leading the scientific discourse with academic institutions across the world; MicroEnergy Consult consists of a multi- and trans-disciplinary team of experts specialized in assessing market potential, leading feasibility studies and supporting different stakeholders in linking financial inclusion with energy inclusion for the ultimate achievement of SDG 7. In the innovation lab ME SOLdesign, engineers design open source soft- and hardware for a Global Energy Transformation, which are then incubated into business models in the ME Venture Builder. Visit ME SOLshare's website to learn more about how this looks in practice! ME SOLshare was recently awarded UN DESA's Powering the Future We Want Award, Elsevier's Renewable Transformation Challenge, the Start Up Energy Transition Award and the Momentum of Change Award at COP22 in Marakesh. MicroEnergy International and its microfinance partners in Ethiopia recently won the Energy Globe Award Ethiopia and the Best Climate Practice Award. In February 2018, MicroEnergy International received the IKU Innovation Award. Noara is involved in several projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia focusing on the sustainable management of used lead-acid and li-Ion batteries.

Justin is an experienced distributed renewable energy (DRE) professional with more than 12 years of experience in business development across Africa. Before joining Odyssey, Justin built a cutting-edge distributor of solar equipment in Nigeria and launched a solar installation company in South Africa. Justin was a senior consultant for Huawei's digital power division and helped plot the department's expansion across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Prior to these roles, Justin served in various business and project development capacities across SSA. He holds an M.A. from Boston University and a B.A. from Michigan State University.

Josef Hermann (M.Sc.) is an industrial engineer of Renewable Energies and a professional consultant on a variety of energy-related topics. He worked on numerous rural electrification projects in Ethiopia, Germany, Nepal, Autonomous Palestinian Territories, and Peru. He has diverse expertise in the field of governmental and non-governmental development cooperation. For the last 2 years he was working on a Baseline Study and the Development of a Sustainability Framework as well as Capacity Development Interventions on Solar PV Electrification of public institutions in Ethiopia.

Philipp is an international expert in island energy supply and rural electrification. He conducted a PhD in engineering about 'Barriers to implementing renewable energies on Caribbean islands' at the TU Berlin. In 2011, he joined the Reiner Lemoine Institut and he started to develop the Off-Grid Systems Research Unit, which he is currently heading. Within the Unit, he develops and manages projects and strategic processes. In 2019 Philipp was appointed Visiting Scholar in the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) of the University of California, Berkeley as part of the C-BEAR+ project and he is a selected member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Since 2020 he is also leading the RLS-Graduate School on Energy System Transition with currently 6 PhD students.