Opening with MENA PV Market Outlook

Sohan is a research analyst on Wood Mackenzie's Power and Renewables team and leads the coverage of solar PV and onshore wind markets in Africa and the Middle East. He forecasts renewable installations in the region and provides insights on the latest policy and regulatory developments. He is currently based in London. Sohan has previously been a member of Wood Mackenzie's European long-term power team, where his primary focus was on power purchase agreement (PPA) and guarantee of origin (GoO) trends. Earlier in his career, Sohan lived in Nigeria, where he gained experience collaborating with a local power solutions provider on a project to install off-grid residential PV systems in rural areas of the country. Sohan graduated from Imperial College London with a first-class master's degree in Chemical Engineering.

Denisa Fainis is a Senior Account Manager at Huawei Digital Power, specializing in the solar PV utility-scale sector in Dubai. She also serves as the Secretary General of the Middle East Solar Industry Association. Her role at Huawei involves managing key accounts for utility-scale solar PV developers, fostering stakeholder relationships, analyzing market trends, understanding local regulations, assessing lender interest for specific projects and regions, and performing due diligence. With over 18 years of international experience, Denisa has a diverse background in business development across sectors such as military contracting, diesel power generation, and solar energy.

Dipak Sakaria is the Energy Transition Expert at Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure UAE with the current responsibility of developing UAE's National Hydrogen Strategy. Prior to joining the Ministry of Energy, Dipak worked in the Upstream Strategy, Portfolio Management and EPC Project Management at several companies, including ADNOC, Qatar Petroleum and BP Norway. Notable is his 30 years with his last post as Vice President Upstream Strategy & Portfolio Management for ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), UAE.

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.