The Ivey Energy Policy and Management Centre will be hosting the Agrivoltaics conference on Thursday, December 8th, 2022 in London.
Date: Thursday, December 8th, 2022
Time: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Location: Spencer Leadership Centre, 551 Windermere Road, London
Conference Theme: Agrivoltaics Canada: Enhancing Food, Energy, and Financial Security
To keep Canada’s farmers farming, agrivoltaics (the symbiotic combinations of agricultural and solar photovoltaics) provides an opportunity to add a reliable revenue stream while even increasing crop yields. Agrivoltaics has enormous promise in Canada. Unfortunately, agrivoltaics is in its infancy in Canada. To help this approach Agrivoltaics Canada has partnered with the Ivey Business School for this invitation-only 1-day conference.
REGISTRATION CLOSED
Current Agenda:
| Time | Function | Speaker |
| 8:30 a.m. | Registration & Breakfast | |
| 9 a.m. | Welcome | |
| 9:15 a.m. | What are AgriVoltaics in Canada? |
Moderator: Speaker(s): |
| 10 a.m. | Intersection of Energy and Agriculture |
Moderator: Speaker(s): |
| 11 a.m. | Agrivoltaic Research Panel - Environmental, Enhanced Crop Performance, Latest Yields, Types, Locations, WIRED |
Moderator: Speaker(s): |
| 12 p.m. | Lunch | |
| 1 p.m. | Agrivoltaics, Farming, and Food Systems |
Moderator: Speaker(s): Koami Hayibo, University of Western Ontario |
| 2 p.m. | Sustainability - Small Farming Sustainability & Transport |
Moderator: Speaker(s): Matt Stevens, Geotab |
| 3 p.m. | Agrivoltaics and Energy Policy Changes |
Moderator: Speaker(s): Uzair Jamil, The Hub Power Company Ltd |
| 4 p.m. | Equipment Suppliers and Agrivoltaics |
Moderator: Speaker(s): Martin Pochtaruk, Heliene Sougata Pahari, Korechi |
| 5 p.m. |
Conclusion |
Speakers and Moderators:
|
Brandon Schaufele |
Brandon Schaufele is the Director of the Ivey Energy Policy and Management Centre and an Associate Professor of Business, Economics, and Public Policy at the Ivey Business School. Prior to coming to Ivey, Brandon was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Ottawa, as well as Research Director of the university’s Institute of the Environment. Brandon’s areas of expertise are regulation and energy and environmental economics. He has published in range of leading academic journals including, among others: the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Journal of Regulatory Economics and Energy Economics. Brandon served as Research Director of a national environmental policy think-tank and was Chair of the Canadian Resource and Environmental Economics Association. He is currently Treasurer and an Officer of the Canadian Economics Association. Brandon has testified before provincial and federal governments, participated in hearings on major energy projects, consulted for a wide array of companies and law firms on a range of policy topics and is host of the podcast Ergs and Equilibrium. |
|
Claude Mindorff |
Based in RosemaryAlberta Claude brings 30 years of energy and construction expertise and has been active in the renewable energy industry for 22 years. Claude has led the creation of four clean energy development companies that have built portfolios in Ontario, Alberta, and Illinois totalling over 1.5+GW, Claude has also held senior positions in global Independent Power Producers including Brookfield Renewables and Mainstream Renewable Power. Claude has been advocating the increased use of renewable energy in Agriculture for a number of years and currently developing best practices for Agrivoltaics incorporation in 3 utility scale solar projects now under construction in Alberta by Canadian Developer PACE Canada LP. Currently Claude is Director of Development, Canada for PACE Canada LP. |
|
Mike Carter |
Mike has been involved with the renewable energy industry for most of his life. He has led teams to develop and operate utility-scale solar, energy storage and hydroelectric projects throughout Canada and the US. Under First Green Energy, Mike has returned to his roots and has redoubled his attention to the acceleration of the electrification transition in Canada bringing his personal background in farming and applying his professional experience towards expanding agrivoltaics into Canada. Mike founded First Green Energy in 2007 as a renewable energy development consultancy after growing up supporting his family’s hydroelectric business endeavours. Mike has held many roles concurrent to his renewable experience including mining, manufacturing, agriculture, and automotive sectors. For the past 20 years, Mike has also managed his family’s farm operations, where he was named Entrepreneur of the Year for Halton Hills in 2013. Through his farming efforts Mike led various endeavours seeking added value from a difficult to resolve agricultural reality for many of today’s family farms. These efforts included organic strawberry growing , on-farm market development, traditional cash cropping, and market gardening. Throughall ofhis experiences in energy, farming and elsewhere, Mike has continually developed strong business relationships with ever diverse parties to contemplate, realize and deliver innovative business outcomes. The opportunity he sees in agrivoltaics threads his collective experience and fuels his ambition to be a change maker and accelerator of the energy transition through an agricultural lens. |
|
Patrick Gossage |
Patrick has international experience working on a variety of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. From 2012 – 2018 Patrick ran a renewable energy and energy efficiency company he founded in South Africa developing energy solutions for the built environment. Patrick moved back to Canada in 2018 to head up Heliene Solar’s Product Innovation department. He was responsible for the roll out of their Greenhouse Integrated Solar module and developed the business case for their off-grid EV charge stations. He subsequently led the multi-Residential team for Efficiency Capital’s innovative off-balance sheet financing solution to encourage greater uptake of energy efficiency initiatives in the built environment. Most recently joined First Green Energy as a partner on a mission to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy. Patrick completed his M.B.A. at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business and undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from Queens University. He has considerable consulting, business development and fundraising experience in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and impact investing. |
|
Jeremy Dresner |
Jeremy is originally from the UK where he spent 12 years working on energy efficiency, solar farm and battery storage projects. Working for a developer, Jeremy developed some of the largest operational battery storage projects in the country. Jeremy moved to British Columbia in 2017 and set up Energy Redesign after working for FortisBC. Energy Redesign has acted as a design consultant for numerous rooftop solar projects in Vancouver. Currently, Jeremy is working to develop agrivoltaics on 17 acres in the Okanagan. Working with his First Nation’s partner and a landowner from the Osoyoos Band, Jeremy is developing a site to include a solar farm, an agrivoltaic research facility, and a solar training centre. Jeremy lives in Summerland, BC with his wife and daughter. |
|
Rob Sinclair |
Rob is President of EnerStrat Canada, an advisory firm focused on DER Integration, Smart EV Charging and Agrivoltaics. Rob has more than 10 years experience providing advice and leading strategic initiatives for private clients, utilities, the IESO and government. He helped develop Canada’s first distribution Non-Wires Alternative capacity market pilot, is working on solar/storage/EV integration projects and supports clients in strategically developing and optimizing the value of their DER assets. Prior to establishing EnerStrat, Rob led the IESO’s System and Sector Development group. |
|
Joshua Pearce |
Joshua Pearce is the John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation at theThompson Centre for Engineering Leadership & Innovation. He holds appointments at Ivey Business School and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. His research spans areas of solar photovoltaic technology, open hardware, distributed recycling and additive manufacturing, policy and economics. Joshua runs theFree Appropriate Sustainability Technology(FAST) research group. He has worked with, consulted for, and been funded by dozens of renewable energy and additive manufacturing companies as well as the US Government and the UN. His research was the first to show that levelized cost of solar photovoltaic electricity was economically competitive in North America, the first to demonstrate that open hardware can save scientists 90-99% on research costs, and the first to show that household level distributed recycling and manufacturing were technically feasible, less environmentally harmful and profitable for consumers. His research is regularly covered by the international and national press and it is continually ranked in the top 0.1% onAcademia.edu. He is the editor-in-chief ofHardwareX, the first journal dedicated to open source scientific hardware and the author of theOpen-Source Lab:How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs,Create, Share, and Save Money Using Open-Source Projects, andTo Catch the Sun, an open source book on how to harness solar energy. |
|
Uzair Jamil |
Uzair Jamil is a mechanical engineer at The Hub Power Company Ltd, the largest independent power producer in Pakistan. Jamil completed his bachelors in mechanical engineering in 2016 and completed his Masters of Engineering specializing in energy systems both at NED Univeristy of Engineering & Technology, Pakistan. |
|
Nima Asgari |
Nima is doing his PhD in Electrical Engineering as a member of the FAST Group at Western University. His specialty is thermal designing and optimization of renewable energy systems. Right now, while doing his internship in Heliolytics, as one of the most experienced global providers of PV aerial infrared inspections and advanced site data analytics services for the industry, Nima has focused on heating PV-based greenhouses utilizing waste heat sources and sustainable energy provision systems. As his MSc thesis, Nima has conducted a thermodynamic and thermo-economic study on a solid waste-fueled trigeneration system to motivate local decision-makers to establish a renewable-based power plant for the first time in the city under study. In addition to the optimization of a marine cogeneration system for his BSc project and his internship experience in Tabriz Thermal Power Plant, he has accomplished the thermal design and analysis of various renewable-based and sustainable power/energy supply systems, e.g., solar desalination system, biogas-fueled power plants, biomass-based hydrogen production system, abandoned geothermal wells, heat pumps, refrigeration cycles, fruits cold storage, etc., which have made him well-experienced in finding deficiencies of energy and power systems to optimize their performance and capacities. |
|
Koami Hayibo |
Koami Soulemane Hayibo, MSc, is a Togolese national who is pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Western Ontario. His area of focus is renewable energy sources with a particular interest in solar PV systems. At Western, Koami has participated in several research projects including the design of wood-racking for solar PV on agrivoltaic farms, a wood-based solar carport, and the use of PV to make cryptocurrencies a sustainable banking endeavor. Koami has a good understanding of solar PV system design and installation and is focusing his Ph.D. on bringing to light the additional services provided by solar PV. Before joining Western, Koami obtained his Master’s degree at Michigan Tech where he conducted research on the pricing of solar energy in the U.S. and investigated how solar panels can be used to save water in arid regions. He previously used to train solar panels installers and counsel young innovators that have local solutions for energy access challenges in Africa. Koami is a Fulbright Fellow Alumni and is involved in community service at Western University. He gives some of his free time to volunteer at the International and Exchange Student Center where he facilitates the transition of international students into a new culture. |
|
Brenda Hsueh |
Brenda Hsueh is a Chinese Canadian woman farmer, who has been farming Black Sheep Farm in Grey County since 2009. She first came to farming single, and jaded from years of working a desk job in the financial industry in Toronto. Now she farms with her partner Skyler, and their daughter Emma, often tired and pessimistic about the state of the world, but ever hopeful, watching nature's regenerative cycles in action. They produce organic vegetables on a no-till 1 acre garden for CSA members, and raise sheep for their regenerative grazing to combat the climate crisis, while producing meat for food, fibre for clothing, fertilizer and mulch, and compost for fertility for the vegetable garden. |
|
Bissan Ghaddar |
Bissan Ghaddar is an Associate Professor of Management Science at the Ivey Business School working on problems at the intersection of smart cities, IoT, and optimization models. Prior to joining Ivey Business School, she was an Assistant Professor in Data Analytics at the Department of Management Sciences at the University of Waterloo. She has also worked on energy, water, and transportation network optimization at IBM Research and on inventory management problems at the Centre for Operational Research and Analysis, Department of National Defence Canada. Dr. Ghaddar holds a PhD in operations research from the University of Waterloo, Canada. Her work has been published in prestigious journals such as Mathematical Programming, SIAM Journal on Optimization, Transportation Research, among others. Her research has been supported by national and international scholarships including NSERC, Cisco, H2020, and FP7 IIF European Union Grant. |
|
Christopher Baldus-Jeursen |
Dr. Christopher Baldus-Jeursen obtained his undergraduate degree from Queen’s University in the Engineering Physics department. He did his Master’s in the EUREC Renewable Energy Master’s Program with a one-year internship at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Waterloo in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering on the topic of heterojunction photovoltaic devices. Since 2017, he has worked for Natural Resources Canada at Canmet Energy, a federal renewable energy research and deployment centre near Montreal. Christopher’s work focuses on PV system monitoring and performance quantification, the effects of snow on array energy output, and module characterization in the laboratory. He is a contributor to the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems (IEA PVPS) Task 13 group which aims to improve the reliability and performance of PV components and systems. He is also a member of IEA PVPS Task 1 which disseminates information on technical, economic, and social aspects of PV in the form of annual National Survey Reports from participating countries. |
|
Matt Stevens |
Matt Stevens brings to Geotab more than a decade of experience as a technical expert, product manager and serial entrepreneur in the electric vehicle (EV) and sustainability space. His strength lies in his technical engineering training along with a deep understanding of how customers use products. In his current role as Advisor, Matt is the executive sponsor for Geotab’s sustainability-related products and initiatives. In his previous role, from 2018 to 2021, Matt was Vice President, Electric Vehicles where he led all aspects of Geotab’s EV fleet products. He was responsible for the development of products that enable organizations to successfully integrate, operate and scale electric vehicles in their fleets. Matt established and operates a small research orchard that includes over 100 cultivars of fruits, berries, and nuts. Various soil and foliar microbiological approaches are under evaluation at the orchard. Matt holds a BASc and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. |
|
Peter Love |
Peter Love provides strategic and policy advice and serves on several corporate and non-profit boards including Efficiency Capital, International Solar Solutions, Lightspark, Carbon Management Canada and Toronto 2030 District. He is also a Professor at Yorkville University where he teaches courses on energy efficiency and sustainability and has written a free on-line text book on energy efficiency policy and programs. Previous roles have included Chief Energy Conservation Officer of Ontario and member of the team at Pollution Probe in the 70’s that developed the 3 R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle. |
|
Ian Spence |
Ian supports development and promotion of clean-tech innovation in Ontario. The energy sector is changing. With intentional building and property design, Ian is razor focused on exposing advanced, forward-looking infrastructure such as solar canopies, agrivoltaics, Solar 2.0, and commercial electric vehicle equipment today, for tomorrow. As a proponent to the electrification movement, Ian dedicates his day-to-day time on energy education, energy projects and interdisciplinary project engineering. Prior to joining VCT Group, Ian worked at North, a local augmented reality start-up (acquired by Google in 2020) in product marketing. Prior to this he worked in technical support and sales for Apple Canada. Ian earned his degree in Biology and Geography at Wilfrid Laurier University, focusing on plant biology and hydrology. Outsideof work Ian spends his time outdoors with his family hiking, mountain biking, skiing, and cooking.www.vctgroup.com |
|
Kees Van Beek |
Kees is a leader in subsurface drip irrigation and delivers solutions for horticultural and agricultural markets across Canada. Climate change and increasing water scarcity are creating a growing need and value proposition for high efficiency water management through subsurface irrigation networks. Kees background in horticultural and ecological management and experience in North America and Europe puts him at the forefront of innovation in agricultural and horticultural practices. The emergence of agrivoltaics and the opportunity to serve in-field electrical loads with on-field solar has become an area of focus for Kees and Southern Irrigation in driving sustainability and profitability for operators. |
|
Martin Pochtaruk |
Martin Pochtaruk has over 30 years of experience managing manufacturing and innovation businesses across Europe and the Americas. He founded Heliene, a technology leading high quality solar PV module manufacturer in 2010, the company is challenging the solar industry status quo by putting customers first. It’s doing so as well by manufacturing high quality, competitively priced solar PV modules made to order in North America. By supporting customers with its in-house logistics team and just in time supply chain solutions. And by being remarkably responsive. Prior to founding Heliene, he was the VP of Business development at Algoma Steel Inc., a Canadian Public Company, where he was responsible for driving the company’s value-chain integration strategy, creating and increasing value to shareholders. Before Algoma Steel, Pochtaruk spent over fifteen years at Tenaris (NYSE: TS) in Argentina, Italy, the USA and Canada, on positions ranging from applied research, product development for stringent applications, marketing, M&A and supply chain management. Martin holds a graduate degree (Licenciatura) in Physics from University of Buenos Aires. |
|
Sougata Pahari |
Sougata Pahari is the founder and CEO of Korechi Innovations Inc., an Ontario-based agriculture robotics company which was established in 2016. Sougata has obtained a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from India, followed by a Master's degree in Materials engineering in Italy followed by several years of work experience in the electronics sector in Italy and USA. As a child Sougata grew up on small farms in India and Nigeria and began studying the machinery being used at the vineyards and orchards in Italy. In 2016 Sougata migrated to Canada and founded Korechi at the McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton, before moving to Oshawa in 2018. |
