Agnès leads our Advisory & Consultancy division and is based in our Greensolver Paris office. She has been in the renewable energy industry for over 15 years’, with roles varying from project management to site engineer.
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1. When did you join Greensolver and what does your role involve?
I joined Greensolver in November 2019 and I am leading the Advisory Services team, being in charge of due diligence for wind farms and photovoltaic plants. I also help clients with their projects, providing various services such as contracts negotiation, and so on.
2. Have you worked in the renewable energy industry before, for how long and what were your roles leading up to now?
The final year of my Master’s degree was all about renewable energy. After that, in 2005, I started working in the industry as a Project Engineer for Parsons Brinckerhoff, a consultancy company. In addition to that, I worked for a project developer in Australia, as a Project Manager, for the consultancy company Wind Prospect. I’ve also worked for the wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas, as a Wind and Site Engineer before joining the Advisory & Consultancy team at Greensolver. So yes – I’ve been in the industry for quite some years now!
3. Do you think the industry could do more to promote female diversity?
Good question. I think, in general, there are fewer female engineers than male engineers, but I think the renewables sector is doing better than other engineering industries on this matter. I think being a female engineer can be intimidating, since there are more men than women. However, in Australia, I have noticed a number of events organised specifically for female engineers and I found them to be a good initiative to promote networking and support. Here in Europe I haven’t heard of many and I think it’s a pity.
4. What advice would you give to someone wanting to join the renewable energy industry?
I would say they’ll have to expect a lot of changes, mainly because it’s a relatively young sector, with numerous innovations. It’s good to keep an eye out for anything new that’s happening. There are different technologies emerging (like storage and hydrogen) and it’s important to be up to date with that and everything else that takes place in the world. So, if you join the renewable energy industry, you basically have to like change.
5. What would you say is your favourite part of your role?
Working together with the other team members and progressing, learning, and striving for projects’ successful completion.
6. What would you say is the most challenging thing about your role?
I believe that government decisions play a big role in this industry. It’s what we’ve seen in France, when the government decided to change the decision they took years ago regarding the FiT of photovoltaic projects. Also, in Australia, after the change of government, there was a switch in preference from renewables to coal. This caused a big decrease in investment in renewable energy projects. So I would say that we are, in a way, at the mercy of government decisions and that the renewable energy industry can be badly impacted by such decisions.
7. What would you say that you most enjoy about working for Greensolver specifically?
Because we are quite a small company, everything is quite dynamic and fast paced. There are a lot of new exciting projects!
8. Where do you see the future of renewable energy going?
I’d say it will continue to grow, especially with the addition of new technologies like storage and hydrogen, with a lot of discussion around that. While wind and solar are the major sources at the moment, I think we’ll see some new sectors emerging. At present, we’ve done some due diligence work for storage facilities, and it is a new area that we’d like to develop more within Greensolver.
In France, there is a French hydrogen association that’s pushing for more development in the hydrogen industry, so we’ll see how that will evolve in the future.
The renewable energy industry is still quite small, but has the advantage of being a global one. It’s growing, especially with the current push that governments seem keen to give it considering the COVID-19 pandemic, so we can expect more exchanges between countries and an increasing interest in the sector.
Read more about Greensolver ‘s Advisory & Consultancy services here.
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