Samantha Nicol
Samantha is a strategy consultant with over 20 years of experience. She currently works with local governments, energy retailers, and cleantech startups advising on decarbonisation and energy strategies. Throughout her career, she has supported blue chip companies across a range of industries develop new growth strategies, propositions, and pilot programmes. Samantha is also currently a trustee at One Home, a charity that helps UK households to adapt to a low cost, low carbon lifestyle and extreme weather. Samantha holds a B.Com from Queens University (Canada) and an MBA from Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
Barney Rhys Jones
Barney is the Asset Management Director for Octopus Renewables’ 1GW sSolar portfolio, having spent nearly 14 years in the clean tech sector. He previously worked as Portfolio Director at Oxford Capital, overseeing £350M of investments in solar, anaerobic digestion and grid response. Barney also worked in Telecoms before moving into the renewables sector with Low Carbon Investors and subsequently as Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer at Good Energy PLC, the UK’s first dedicated 100% renewable electricity supplier.
Matt Harnack
Matt provides strategic and operational management support to solar farm owners, asset managers and O&M providers through his business Harness Energy Consulting. His clients own, operate and develop around 5000MW of solar farms and battery storage facilities. Prior to consulting Matt was O&M Director at British Solar Renewables, held Interim Director positions within rooftop solar O&M and battery manufacture, has run Good Energy’s Feed-in Tariff payment business and was Associate Director at Ofgem where he ran the Renewables Obligation and set up the Feed-in Tariff scheme.
Dr Dan Davies
Dan has worked in the renewable energy sector for over 30 years. After completing his PhD in wind and solar technology he joined Halcrow’s energy team before helping to co-found Solarcentury where he was Chief Technology Officer. He set up Solarcentury Africa and built a team which delivered on grid and off grid hybrid power projects across the continent, and worked for SolarAid – a development charity supported by Solarcentury and other solar companies – helping them with product specifications and working with manufacturing partners in China.
Louise Daniels
Louise is Head of Communications and Marketing at Thrive Renewables, a renewable energy investment company which owns and operates a portfolio of onshore wind, hydro and battery storage projects across the UK. She is responsible for the company’s reputation and leads on communications with all stakeholders. Louise has been managing communications activity in renewables and not for profit sectors for more than ten years, including managing PR for Good Energy plc, the UK’s first dedicated 100% renewable electricity supply company.
Pete Capener
Peter is co-founder and Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy, Deputy Chair of Community Energy England and a trustee of the Centre for Sustainable Energy. He is co-chair of the BEIS ministerial advisory group on community energy.
Peter has worked in the sustainable energy field and on community energy for over 35 years, having led the early development of the Centre for Sustainable Energy as Chief Executive, where he originally started in the mid eighties working with schools and communities. Since resigning from CSE in 2002 due to family illness, Peter has worked as an independent advisor on a range of energy efficiency, renewable energy and fuel poverty projects for various government, private and voluntary sector clients, with a strong focus on community action.
He has an MSc in Energy Resource Management.
Chris Crookall-Fallon
Chris is presently Head of Climate Action at a district council in Gloucestershire. Previously he’s worked for a specialist co-operatives and social enterprise business consultancy, run his own renewable energy consultancy business, and for many years worked in Corsham for a specialist climate, energy and sustainability consultancy which he helped to transfer into employee ownership. Chris was a member-elected director of BWCE early in the Society’s life
Sonya Bedford
Sonya is a Partner with Spencer West solicitors; a non-executive director at Regen; a director at Exeter Community Energy and South Dartmoor Community Energy and vice chair of Green Wedmore with 20 years’ experience of energy issues. Her strengths lie in dealing with all aspects of renewables development from feasibility through to construction and funding. Sonya has a particular expertise in accessing grid, development of alternative connections and licensed and local supply.
Rupert Atkinson
Rupert is a finance professional and private investor in startup / scale-up technology companies – many of which are pioneering examples of the positive environmental change being initiated by the private sector. Rupert complements his investing activities with support for a number of university enterprise / entrepreneurship initiatives, including the Launch Lab of City University (Mentor, and member of the Advisory Board) and SETsquared Bath (Mentor)