Successful Implementation of Renewables Energies Projects in Kuwait, GCC and the EU

PhDr. Irina Gusačenko, Political Officer, EU Delegation to the State of Kuwait and the State of Qatar.
Mrs. Irina Gusačenko has been working in the field of diplomacy for over 13 year. She held various positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, where she was in charge of diverse portfolios ranging from promoting relations of the Czech Republic with the EU and the Middle East to Russia and Belarus. She represented the Czech Republic abroad, first as the Political Officer at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Moscow and then as a Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Czech Republic to the State of Kuwait and the State of Qatar. While working at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague, Irina was involved in academia as an external lecturer of  EU related studies at the Metropolitan University Prague. Irina has also published  academic papers on EU related matters. In 2019, she joined the team of the newly opened EU Delegation to the State of Kuwait and the State of Qatar as a Political Officer, where she works, among others, on promoting EU-Kuwait relations in the field of green and digital transformation. Qualified with a Master of European Studies from College of Europe in Bruges and Philosophiae Doctor in European Studies from Charles University in Prague, she is fluent in Czech, English, French and Russian.

Dr. Mohammad Alhayan The Dean of College of Technological Studies , PAAET, State of Kuwait

Frank Wouters, Director, EU-GCC Clean Energy Technology Network
Mr. Frank Wouters has been leading renewable energy projects, transactions, and technology development for over 25 years. He has played a lead role in development of renewable generation projects valued at over $4.5 billion. These range from small scale PV solar electrification in Uganda to the 100MW Shams I Concentrated Solar Plant (CSP) in the UAE, and strategic equity investment in the London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind project. His transactions have received multiple project finance “Deal of the Year” awards. As Deputy Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the first global intergovernmental organisation dedicated to all renewables, he managed a US$350 million IRENA/Abu Dhabi Fund for Development project facility for RE. He appraised over 80 projects a year and recommended projects for funding, including solar PV projects in Africa. Furthermore, he coordinated with government ministers and other stakeholders to promote private sector investment for RE projects as part of the Africa Clean Energy Corridor Initiative. Mr. Wouters has served on the board of several energy companies, including Torresol Energy (Spain and USA), WinWind (Finland and India), Masdar cvua (Netherlands), NICE (Netherlands and The Gambia) and Gorestreet Capital (UK). Qualified with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University, he is fluent in English, German and Dutch.

​Dr. Mustapha Taoumi,  EU-GCC Clean Energy Technology Network
Dr. Taoumi has been leading Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency projects and technology deployment for over 30 years. He has worked with US AID, GIZ (Germany), JICA (Japan) and EU (DGXII) as Project and Programme Manager. He has conducted numerous feasibility and planning studies, building programs and has implemented projects on the ground. He assisted local institutions to develop strategic plans in sustainable energy. He managed numerous seminars and training workshops concerning the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Dr. Taoumi was also involved in several initiatives and projects with a regional scope particularly in MENA and Mediterranean regions including the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP). As a Regional Programme Officer for North Africa and the Middle East region (MENA) within the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the first global intergovernmental organisation dedicated to all renewables, Dr. Taoumi managed several projects and initiatives across MENA region including Renewables Readiness Assessment (RRA), assessment of local manufacturing potential in the Arab region and recently the Pan Arab Clean Energy initiative (PACE). Dr. Taoumi held several key positions including Secretary General and Interim Executive Director within the National Renewable Energy Centre (CDER) in Morocco - now transformed on a National dedicated Agency (ADEREE) as well as Executive Secretary of the Mediterranean Association of the National Agencies for Energy Conservation (MEDENER- Network). Before joining IRENA in 2010, he was nominated by the Ministry of Energy in Morocco as IRENA’s focal point and member of the IRENA’s Headquarters Selection Committee. Among other positions, Dr. Taoumi is an active member on several organisations, conferences and networks around the world including the MENAREC Conference International Steering Committee. ​Dr. Taoumi holds a PhD in Electrochemistry from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG) in France and master's degrees in Electrochemical Engineering and Management Science, he is fluent in English, French, Spanish as well as Arabic.

Ahmed Samir Elbermbali, Managing Director, CEBC
Ahmed Samir Elbermbali is currently acting as the Managing Director of the MENA Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC). Prior to that he was Strategy and Operations Manager at CEBC for 1.5 years. The CEBC is a membership non-profit organization. CEBC is the pre-eminent NGO representing the private sector involved in the clean energy & clean tech sector across the MENA region. At the CEBC, Ahmed is responsible for handling the day-to-day operations including the members communications, meetings, organizing events and conferences, etc. Ahmed holds MBA in Sustainable Mobility management from the Technical University of Berlin and a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering from the University of Science and Technology at Zewail City, Egypt’s national project for scientific renaissance.

Eng. Salem Alajmi, Certified Renewable Energy Expert by EEC, and Trainer at the college of Technological Studies, PAAET, Kuwait.

Enrique González, Photovoltaic Solar Energy Strategy & Business Development Manager, CENER
Industrial Engineer by the University of Navarre (Spain). Enrique started his professional career at the Spanish automotive industry, where he held different positions during 7 years. In 2007 Enrique joined CENER, starting his career in the international renewable energy sector. He is devoted to the development of business strategies, cooperating both with public and private sector in order to boost renewable energies in the Middle East Region and also in some Latin-American and Caribbean countries. Enrique is also skilled in technology, regulation and financing of renewable energy projects, which gives him an overall and practical knowledge of the renewables sector. Moreover Enrique is responsible for the promotion, negotiation and sales of PV, Energy Storage and Smart Grids high added value services.

Perihan Gurbas, Regional Renewables Lead - MEA at UL
Perihan Gurbas is UL’s Renewables lead for the Middle East and Africa. With over ten years’ experience in various aspects of renewable energy, including consulting, project development, business development and project execution, Perihan leads the renewable energy business across wind, solar and storage in the region and has been involved in delivering over 5GW of renewable energy projects.

Ms. Rita Allan, Senior Associate – Finance & Projects at Pinsent Masons
Rita is a senior construction and projects lawyer specialising in large scale international construction, infrastructure and energy projects in a wide range of sectors including energy, renewables, petrochemicals, water, transportation, healthcare and education. Rita has assisted clients with the entire tendering process, contract negotiations and project financing, along with post completion issues such as variations, refinancing and disputes.

Prof Khaled Elnaggar, College of Technological Studies, PAAET

Dr. Florian Klump, EU-GCC Clean Energy Technology Network Senior Expert & Fichtner, Germany
Dr. Florian Klumpp is senior consultant and project manager for Fichtner in the field of power economy, power plant technology, renewable energies, energy storage and hydrogen technologies. Projects of Dr. Klumpp involve topics such as Market studies: Analysis of the power and energy market (national and international), Market modeling: future market price for energy, control energy, operation of generation assets etc., Storage technologies (feasibility studies, design, demand, economic evaluation etc.), Consultancy of utilities (power economy, power plant technology), Utilization and integration of renewable energies (capacity credit, effective load carrying capacity, loss of load expectation etc.), Hydrogen technologies: optimization of hydrogen and P2X systems, dimensioning of main components (such as electrolyzer, H₂-storage etc.), calculation of levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) and techno-economic evaluation of the entire H₂ value chain, use cases and business models. Prior to his career at Fichtner, Dr. Klumpp accumulated around eight years of professional experience in a major German energy supply utility. ​Being a graduate engineer, his core qualifications comprise a solid technical foundation in conventional power plant and storage technologies as well as in renewable energies and hydrogen technologies.

Jorge J. Pérez, Shagaya CSP, TSK, Kuwait
Plant General Manager Shagaya Concentrated Solar Power Plant and Head of Country in Kuwait for TSK. Working in Renewable Power Plants since 2008 and in Power Industry since 2003.

Dr. Nabil Ahmed-  Associate Professor, College of Technological Studies, PAAET
Dr. Nabil Ahmed received the B.Sc. and M.Sc degrees in Electrical Eng. from the Elec. and Electronics Eng. Department, Assiut University, Egypt and the Ph.D. degree in Elec. Eng. from the University of Toyama, Japan in 1989, 1994 and 2000, respectively. Since 1989, he has been with Assiut University, where he is currently a professor since 2011. He was a Post-Doctoral fellow at the Elec. Eng. Saving Research Center, Kyungnam University, Korea from October 2004 to April 2005 and a JSPS post doctorate fellow at Sophia University, Japan from July 2005 to September 2006. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the Elec. Eng. Department, College of Technological Studies, Public Authority of applied Education and Training, Kuwait; on leave from Assiut University. His research interests are in the area of Power Electronics Applications, Variable Speed Drives, Soft Switching Converters, Renewable Energy Systems and its integration to electric power grid. He is the recipient of Egypt State Encouraging of Research Prize 2005, Japan Monbusho Scholarship 1996-2000, JSPS Fellowship 2005-2007, Best Paper Awards from ICEMS’05 and IATC’06 conferences and best presentation award from ICEMS’04 conference. He listed in Marque’s Who is Who in the World since 2009. Prof. Ahmed is a member of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.

Dr. Najib Dendachi, EU-GCC Clean Energy Technology Network Senior Expert & CEO Al Usul, UAE
Dr. Najib is a recognized technical and business Executive in the field of utility strategic and master planning, asset management and capital investment. Through Al Usul, Dr. Dandachi is actively engaged in offering consultancy services to power & water utilities, regulators and governmental departments across the GCC. He has 30 years of international experience gained in England and the GCC and is a thought leader on Energy and Water systems and its transformation through privatization, liberalization and regulation. He occupied a number of executive roles in Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority over 18 years. In this role, Dr. Najib worked closely with Board of Directors and Governmental Authorities to set and direct company strategy and business plans. He has led a business transformation process which led to achieving the ISO 55000 asset management accreditations. In the UAE, he chaired strategic and technical committees and provided expert advice under Governmental forums on energy and water strategy. He led the UAE Team that played a key role in the GCC Interconnection Authority, which connected the GCC Power Grid. He was, for a number of years the GCC convener of the EU–GCC Clean Energy Network on “Electricity Interconnections and Market”. ​He is regular speaker at the International Water Summit in UAE and has published more than 30 technical papers. Dr. Dandachi chaired International symposia, meetings and presented technical talks covering subjects such as “Impact of privatization, economic modelling, the commercial environment” and “Water Systems, Renewable Energy, and the Smart Grid”.