Opening

Dr. Florian Wessendorf is Managing Director of Solar Promotion GmbH and Solar Promotion International GmbH. He is responsible for the global conference program and exhibitions in North America, South America and India. He has deep expertise in the solar industry, and formerly served as Managing Director of Photovoltaic Equipment at VDMA, where he was responsible for strategic development, market research and technology scouting, advocacy and policy advice, events, PR and marketing.

Markus Vlasits started as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in Germany and has been active in the solar PV industry for 17 years in several executive positions. In 2007-2009, he was Production Manager of crystallization and wafering at Q.Cells SE, Thalheim, Germany, where he reached a vice-presidential role in Sales Operations. Moving to Brazil in 2013, he started as CEO of Yingli Green Energy do Brasil. He teamed up with fellow executives to open Faro Energy, an investment company focusing on PV generation projects for commercial concerns, and was its Sales Director until 2018. In 2019, he was an independent consultant and helped start ABSOLAR's Energy Storage Workgroup. In 2020, founded NewCharge, an engineering company focused on energy storage projects for commercial clients in Brazil. He is also active as acts as a technical consultant and advisor for projects related to energy storage. In August 2023, he was elected president of board of directors of the Brazilian Association for Energy Storage Solutions (ABSAE). Markus also organizes energy storage events and conferences, and recently co-organized an energy storage conference panel for Intersolar South America 2021 in partnership with Solar Promotion.

Celso L P Mendes - Consultant, he was general manager of Klöckner-Moeller for South America and general manager of Siemens in the area of Industrial Electrical Energy Systems. For more than 30 years, he has worked in Brazil and Germany on equipment and installations for the basic and manufacturing industries. A member of the NBR 5410 EC since 1990, he has published several works on the standard. He is a Life Senior Member of the IEEE, a senior member of the VDE, and a member of the IAFSS - International Association for Fire Safety Science, London. He is a consultant on Modern Electricity and PhotoVolt, and senior advisor to the Intersolar South America congress.

Rodrigo Lopes Sauaia is co-founder and CEO of ABSOLAR (Brazilian Solar Photovoltaic Energy Association), the national association representing Brazilian solar PV companies and professionals. He is co-founder and a governing board member of the GSC (Global Solar Council), a non-profit body representing regional and national solar associations on international issues. Rodrigo holds a PhD in Materials Engineering and Technology from PUC-RS (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul), a Master's degree in Renewable Energies from Loughborough University (UK), a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from USP (São Paulo University), and has collaborated with the Fraunhofer Institut für Solare Energiesysteme (Germany) and with ETH Zürich (Switzerland).