Solar Power Plants and Storage II: Ensuring Performance - Quality, Reliability and Bankability of Modules and BOS Components in a Competitive Environment

Sishir Garemella is head of international business development at Kiwa PVEL, the leading independent lab of the downstream solar market. Sishir leads Kiwa PVEL's international expansion in strategic markets. He has over 15 years of experience, primarily in the downstream, both as a financier and as an operator. Prior to solar, he has worked in investment banking in the UK and the automotive industry in Canada. He holds a Masters in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics in the UK and a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Windsor in Canada.

Julia works as Product Lead Photovoltaics in Munich Re´s Green Tech Solutions team. She has built up the PV Warranty Partner program (www.munichre.com/PVWarrantyPartner) which enables project developers and investors to find suppliers entitled to sell warranty-insured PV modules, thereby turning their solar projects into safe, long-term investments. Julia holds a M.A. International Cultural and Business Studies from the Universities of Passau, Limerick (Ireland) and Granada (Spain) and an Executive Master of Insurance from the University of Munich.

Niki is a Project Officer at SolarPower Europe in the Research & Innovation team. She coordinates multiple research and industry expert groups and leads the Lifecycle Quality Workstream, fostering collaboration between research and industry to advance the development of utility-scale PV projects.

Dipl.-Ing. Jörg Althaus is segment manager for PV power plant services at TÜV Rheinland. As long-time expert in the field of solar energy he represents TÜV Rheinland in various industry associations, presents at expert forums and has contributed to many international industry standards. Based in Cologne for 20 years he has international responsibility and seen many PV installations or factories around the globe. Meeting all sorts of different cultures and people in business or private travel is something he misses most when stationary for too long. As a scuba diver he enjoys entering the fascination of the underwater world to relax from the buzz of the ever accelerating world.

George Touloupas is Vice President, ESG and New Services in CEA. Since 2010 George has been active in technical consulting for PV and energy storage projects, as well as in PV manufacturing, EPC and project development. He joined CEA in 2015 and has previously led the technology and quality team for solar and energy storage. Prior to CEA, he held positions as Chief Operating & Technical Officer at Philadelphia Solar in Jordan, as Technical Operations Director at Recom and as an EPC and project developer in Greece.

Magnus Herz holds a degree in Renewable Energies and has been a member of TÜV Rheinland's Solar Team since 2010, serving as a Senior Expert, Researcher, and Developer. His expertise spans consulting for international photovoltaic (PV) projects and contributing to numerous research and development (R&D) initiatives. Magnus focuses on developing AI-driven strategies to enhance quality assurance and mitigate risks in the solar energy sector. His work emphasizes the standardization of failure categories and the advancement of AI-based analysis techniques to drive innovation and reliability in PV systems.