Women in Renewables with...Diana Yoeung

Diana works within the Asset Management department at Greensolver and is based in our Paris office. She ensures wind assets are monitored on a daily basis and that compliances, supervisions and asset performance are optimum,

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1. When did you join Greensolver and what does your role involve?

I joined Greensolver in September 2019. My role as Technical Asset Manager consists of monitoring wind assets on a daily basis, ensuring the compliances are met, supervising the operations, optimizing the assets’ performances and providing regular reports to our clients.

2. How long have you worked in the renewable energy industry and what were your roles leading up to now?

I’ve been working in the renewables for about a year now, after graduating with an engineering degree in the field of Energy and Management of the Environment.

3. So what was it about the renewable energy industry that you liked?

After my bachelor’s degree, I became interested in renewables. Taking into consideration the big issues that the world faces, I wanted to work somewhere that I believed would be beneficial and meaningful. So, I was excited to come across the opportunity of joining Greensolver.

4. Do you think the industry could do more to promote female diversity?

When I started at Greensolver, I was glad but also quite surprised to note a really good gender balance in the office, across any position or department. For a while, we even had more women than men in our technical team! Generally speaking, the renewable energy industry is more male-dominated, as in many other engineering industries. Still, we are gradually improving gender equality at school and in higher education, including engineering schools. This will undoubtedly help the renewables industry transition towards more gender balance.

5. What advice would you give to someone wanting to join the renewable energy industry?

I would say that it’s a significantly growing industry, so anyone motivated to join could find their place. It’s a promising, exciting, but also stable industry to be a part of.

6. What’s your favourite part of your role?

Within the Asset Management team at Greensolver, I enjoy communicating with different stakeholders. On a daily basis, this is very stimulating. I also like the idea of doing our best to optimize the assets, and to ensure that we take full advantage of existing installations. A wind farm requires resources to be built, and the asset management plays an important role in making the assets economically profitable but also energy efficient.

7. What would you say is the most challenging part of your role?

I think the diversity of stakeholders and tasks are the most challenging part, although it’s also what makes the job really interesting. We need good planning to keep everything going, despite the possibility a contingency.

8. Where do you see the future of renewable energy going in the next few years?

In France we have what we call the PPE, the Multi-annual Energy Programming, that outlines the strategic planning of the national energy mix over the next few decades. The goals for 2050 are really ambitious, especially for solar and wind. I believe that if we keep working hard to achieve those goals, the future of renewables will be bright (in France at least!).

There is also a growing debate with regards to nuclear energy. Currently, it makes about 70% of the total electricity produced in France. The drawbacks of nuclear are the questionable management of radioactive waste, the radioactive risks during the operational phase and the limited uranium resources. However, nuclear energy is a carbon free energy source and despite its drawbacks, can also help sustain the current rates of energy consumptions whilst avoiding carbon emissions. It will be interesting to follow this debate and see where it will lead in the next few years. In France especially, nuclear energy is still the main electricity source of production.

Interested in a career in renewables? Learn more about Greensolver career opportunities here.