Best Practices: PV Quality, Safety, Training and Standards

Dr. Florian Wessendorf is Managing Director of Solar Promotion GmbH and Solar Promotion International GmbH. He is responsible for the global conference program and exhibitions in North America, South America and India. He has deep expertise in the solar industry, and formerly served as Managing Director of Photovoltaic Equipment at VDMA, where he was responsible for strategic development, market research and technology scouting, advocacy and policy advice, events, PR and marketing.

Bárbara Rubim currently heads Bright Strategies, a consulting firm advising renewable energy businesses on their legal and regulatory structure. In that capacity, she has helped develop more than 230 MW in energy projects in the last three years alone, and more than 2,200 people have completed her in-company training or her Masterclass on Regulation and Business Models in Distributed Generation. In her career in the energy sector, she has acted in public administration as a consultant to the Brazilian Congress, and has worked in the third sector as a coordinator of Greenpeace's Renewable Energy campaign in Brazil, and in the private sector. In addition, she also serves as the current Vice-President of the Managing Board of ABSOLAR (Brazilian Solar Photovoltaic Energy Association) and is the Director of Energy at FIESP's Infrastructure Department. Bárbara is a lawyer with an MBA in Finance and Business Strategies from the Federal University of Uberlândia. She specializes in the regulation of the electricity sector.

He has a degree in Electrical Engineering from UFU and a master's degree in Electronic Engineering from ITA. He founded Mi Omega in October 1993 and has been at the forefront of the company's technical solutions ever since. He has been a member of the ABNT commission responsible for revising standard NBR 5410 - Low-voltage electrical installations since 1993, coordinator of the ABNT commission responsible for revising standard NBR 14039 - Medium-voltage electrical installations since 2003, member of the NBR 16384 - Safety in Electricity commission in 2020, member of the NBR 16690 - Electrical Installations of Photovoltaic Arrangements commission since its inception and member of NBR 15751 - Substation Grounding Systems - Requirements. Currently, as well as heading up Mi Omega, he also teaches courses at the Mi Omega Institute and has over 40 years' experience in the electrical sector.

Formed by the interaction of lessons from family, friends and the academic world, be it a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of São Paulo - USP, a Master's in Civil Engineering in Housing: Planning and Technology from IPT, a postgraduate degree in Occupational Safety from FAAP, a degree in Electrical Engineering from FEI (Fundação Educacional Inaciana Padre Saboia de Medeiros), as well as a period as a researcher at the Technological Research Institute of the State of São Paulo - IPT. He works in the field of Fire Safety - SCI, with an emphasis on forensics involving fire and explosion issues in all their diversity. Never forgetting that my professional career began at Metrô-SP, where I was taught the Code of Conduct: Safety, Speed and Comfort.

Leandro Michels is associate professor at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), where he researches in the fields of PV systems and power electronics. Throughout his career, he actively contributed to consolidating the dissemination of photovoltaic energy in Brazil, providing a technical foundation related to inverter technology and grid connection of DG for several regulatory agents, sector associations and companies. He also collaborates with standardization, acting as coordinator of the Brazilian commission of the IEC PV Systems Technical Committee, and as rapporteur for the ABNT CEE 253 commission that develops Brazilian standards for connecting PV systems to the grid. He is coordinator of the Embrapii Unit in Mobility Energy, and of the PV systems testing laboratory at INRI / UFSM, accredited by INMETRO for testing PV inverters.