Manufacturing Renewable Energy Products/ Advanced Technology Development

Dr Radovan Kopecek received his diploma in physics from the University of Stuttgart in 1998 and studied as well at Portland State University (Oregon, USA), where he obtained a Master of Science degree already in 1995. In 2002, he completed his doctoral thesis in Konstanz in the field of crystalline thin-film photovoltaics. Until the end of 2006, he was group leader for n-type cell technology at the University of Konstanz. As one of the founders of ISC Konstanz, Dr Kopecek has been a full-time manager and researcher at the institute since 2007 and was managing director, CTO and head of the Advanced Solar Cells department until June 2023 and head of the Strategy and Education department since July 2023. He is the author of several books and more than 200 articles and holds several patents for the production of n-type PV technologies. He is the organizer of several workshops that he started in Konstanz, such as nPV, bifiPV, tandemPV and BCworkshop. Dr Kopecek was on the board of EUREC (Association of EU's R&D centers involved in renewables) from 2016 to 2021. In 2018, he co-founded ATAMOSTEC - a research and development center for desert modules and systems in Chile and has been on the board since 2022. In 2022, Dr Kopecek was also elected to the board of the ESMC (European Solar Manufacturing Council). Since May 2023, he has been one of the spokespersons for the PV Production Working Group of the BMWK (Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection).

Dr. Lili Wang is Senior Director-Renewable Energy Materials of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Research Centre of Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi. She received her bachelor's degree on Materials Chemistry in Fudan University in 2005 and was awarded Ph.D. on Materials Chemistry and Physics in Chinese Academy of Science in 2010. Before joining TII, she worked as Director of Process Technology and served as Member of Patent Review Committee in Solaria, a solar module manufacturer based in the US, California, a pioneer developing high-density shingle module technology (acquired by Maxeon in 2023). During 2018-2019, she led the development of upscaling process of perovskite thin film PV technology in Energy Everywhere Inc., a startup company in Berkeley, California. Prior to starting her journey in the US solar industry, she worked on perovskite solar cell development as a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Postdoctoral Fellow at Michigan State University and a visiting researcher at Case Western Reserve University respectively. Her research at TII is focused on materials and process development for advanced solar PV (cell and module) technology including emerging thin film PV and c-Si.

Hans Jürgen Sauter brings over 14 years of expertise in planning and constructing large-scale solar projects, following key management roles in globally renowned companies such as BASF, ATOS, and ABB, predominantly in Supply Chain Management and Steel Optimization. Leveraging his mechanical engineering background and extensive managerial experience from steel mills across the globe, he has focused on optimizing and implementing racking and tracking solutions, particularly in Europe, Africa, and the Gulf region. Throughout his various roles as CEO, VP MENA, and CSO in the renewable energy sector, he oversaw the deployment of racking and tracking solutions exceeding 5 GW. As the founder of spma GmbH and HJS Consulting LLC in Dubai, he has been instrumental in shaping the industry. Currently, he serves as an advisor to the board of IDEEMATEC.

Dr. Puzant Baliozian is the VDMA PV Equipment Group's project manager since September of this year. He is involved in techno-economic studies for manufacturing capacity of PV along the value chain and represents the interests of European PV equipment manufacturers internationally. The PV Sector Group at VDMA also publishes the yearly international technology roadmap for photovoltaics (ITRPV) showing highly relevant technology projections and trends. Dr. Baliozian studied physics at the American University of Beirut (BSc., 2014) and has a specialization in renewable energy (MSc. 2016) from the university of Freiburg. From 2016 until recently, he worked at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg in the field of photovoltaic production technologies where he also did his PhD. He is best known for developing the passivated edge technology for separated industrial solar cell concepts, to boost cell and module efficiencies.