Association Webinars: Hydrogen and Renewables: Drivers of Mediterranean Energy Market Integration Post COVID



  

The COVID-19 crisis and the EU Green Deal and Recovery Plan are creating huge opportunities for increased trade of green electrons and green molecules across the Mediterranean. The webinar will examine how the green stimulus packages could accelerate the switch to renewable energy in Europe and renewable energy investment and employment around the Mediterranean, why green hydrogen could be a very important complement to renewable-based electricity, what opportunities emerge for the southern shore of the Mediterranean to develop its huge renewable energy potential, whether water stress is a constraint, and what the implications are for Mediterranean energy trade.

Moderator:

Jonathan Walters is a former Director in the World Bank's MENA department, and has twenty-five years' experience in the energy sector. He has worked on all the countries of MENA, most of the countries of Asia, many of the countries of the former Soviet Union and of Africa, and on the EU energy market. His work has involved him in almost all segments of the energy supply chain, from upstream oil and gas through to renewable electricity. He is currently very focused on global issues of electricity sector reform and on the emerging impact of disruptive electricity technologies, such as solar energy and energy storage. Jonathan has an MA in Politics and Philosophy from St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford, and an MSc (with Distinction) in Economics from Queen Mary's College, University of London. He has researched and published on such topics as solar energy market integration between North Africa and Europe, energy transitions in Central Asia, electricity privatization in the Caucasus, and political risk mitigation for hydrocarbons development in the Caspian region.

Speakers:

Dr Silvia Pariente-David is a senior advisor and energy consultant on energy and climate change issues to several international financial institutions, governments, think-tanks, international organizations and energy companies. . Previously, she was a Senior Energy Specialist at the World Bank, where she led the team arranging the financing of the Morocco Ouarzazate solar power plant. Much of her work focuses on optimization of renewable energy integration into the power systems. She also has a keen interest in the creation of an integrated Mediterranean energy market and contributes regularly to analysis of interconnector projects to improve regional electricity market integration.

Frank Wouters has been leading renewable energy projects, transactions, and technology development for 30 years. He has played a lead role in development of renewable generation projects valued at over $5 billion. As Deputy Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) he managed a US$350 million IRENA/Abu Dhabi Fund for Development project facility. Frank has served on the board of energy companies in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA. He currently serves as Director of the EU GCC Clean Energy Technology Network, Global Lead Low Carbon Hydrogen at Worley, he is Fellow, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines and he is interim Board Chairman of Gore Street Capital, London and Board Advisor Vast Solar, Australia. He recently co-founded the MENA Hydrogen Alliance. Frank has authored several books on renewable energy.

Dr Badr Ikken received an engineer degree in mechanical engineering and industrial production & solar systems from the Berlin Institute of Technology. He wrote a thesis on production technologies of hard materials.

During 8 years, he worked in the Department for Machining Technology of the Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management (IWF) in Berlin, first as a research associate, then as a project manager. In the Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (Fraunhofer IPK), he served as leader for several industrial projects involving companies such as Siemens Power Generation, INA Schaeffler, Saint-Gobain Diamantwerkzeuge, SGL Carbon,.. Between 2008 and 2010, Badr Ikken served as CTO of the multinational company Lunos-Raumluftsysteme. During this period, he developed and launched two new production lines in Germany. He also expanded the production in China.

In September 2010, he joined the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN) as Director of Integrated Development, in charge of Industrial Integration and R&D. He co-founded the Moroccan-based National Institute IRESEN (Institute of Research in Solar Energy and New Energies). He is the Director General of IRESEN since July 2011 and established 2016 the largest solar research platform in Africa, the Green Energy Park and he is currently building a network of applied research centers (Green Energy Park, Green & Smart Building Park, Green H2A,..)

Badr Ikken is Vice-President of the green economy commission of the Moroccan Confederation of Enterprises (CGEM), member of the board of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRST) and represents Morocco in different international commissions.

 

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