Why Saudi Arabia’s Ambitious Solar Plans Have Wavered

Peter Terium is leading the Energy, Water and Food sector of NEOM, one of the Gigaprojects of Saudi Arabia under the Vision 2030. In NEOM he is building an Energy System 100 % based on Renewable Energy and a sustainable water and food system. The production and export of green hydrogen will become one of the core activities for NEON’s energy sector.

As CEO of innogy SE from 2016 till 2017, Peter embodied the transition of the energy industry. A Dutch top executive with a strong pan-European background transforming the German DAX listed company RWE (50 BB Euro turnover, > 60.000 employees). Moving away from its business model of capital intensive energy generation by creating a new company, innogy, operating in the as yet unknown world of energy management.

When innogy was founded it immediately became Germany’s most valuable energy Company. It is an innovative and excellent branded company which is well prepared for the challenges of the decentralized and digitized modern energy market.

He was CEO of RWE AG from 2012 to 2016 and from 2009 to 2011, he was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Essent, the leading Dutch energy utility acquired by RWE in 2009.

His career spans 15 years of experience in the energy industry.

Petra has long-standing experience in managing international technical cooperation programmes and networks for inclusive and sustainable industrial development. Her technical expertise covers a wide range of environment and energy related topics, including, green hydrogen, renewable energy, bioenergy, resource efficiency, circular economy and green chemistry. She has worked with governments, private sector, NGOs and academia in more than 40 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe.

In her current position at UNIDO, she heads the development and negotiations of innovative climate and technology partnerships and related technical cooperation programme. She designed and manages UNIDO’s Global Programme for Green Hydrogen in Industry.

She studied economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and environmental management at the University of London.

Thorsten Herdan holds a German degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has been appointed CEO of HIF EMEA in May 2022; the world’s leading producer of electricity-based renewable fuels, with the goal of becoming the first international industrial-scale eFuels provider for transportation, aviation, marine, off-road applications and the chemical industry.

Previously, he was Director General for energy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Between June 2017 and June 2022, he concurrently served as Chairman of the supervisory board of the state asset management fund for financing nuclear waste management.

Before, he held the positions of Managing Director in the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Managing Director of the Research Association for Combustion Engines (FVV), Secretary General of the International Council of Combustion Engines (CIMAC) as well as Secretary General of the European Turbine Manufacturers Association (EU Turbines) and Managing Director of the German Engineering Federations’ Energy Forum, which is in charge of developing the association’s energy policy.

Furthermore, Thorsten Herdan served on the Board of the European Association of Internal Combustion Engine Manufacturers (EUROMOT), on the Board and the Supervisory Board of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) as Vice-President of the Offshore Wind Energy Foundation, as well as he served on the Supervisory Board of 50 Hertz and on the Supervisory Board of the German company for plant- and reactor safety (GRS).

Thomas Altmann is the EVP for Innovation and New Technology at ACWA Power. He is a leading expert in Energy and Desalination, having worked in technical and managerial roles in this field for over 30 years. As a global specialist, Thomas held EVP and MD positions at ILF Consulting in Germany with responsibility for Energy & Desalination across international markets. He also served as VP at Bechtel in the Power Generation business unit with global responsibility for Desalination out of their UK and US offices.

Thomas has also served as elected Director on the board of the International Desalination Association (IDA) and the European Desalination Society (EDS). He is also a member of the IDA Global R+D Committee and MIT Technology Review Global Panel. Thomas holds a degree in chemical engineering and was granted patents in the field of desalination and brine mining.

Senior expert on energy transition and innovation in power systems.

Recent fields of activities: Sector Coupling, Hydrogen and EV impact on power grids, Electrification of Industrial processes and Built Environment, Interconnections and Global Grids, Flexibility & Resilience studies, Energy Scenarios and Projects’ Economic Assessments, European Innovation Roadmaps.

Engagement in Terna Group: International Operations within Strategy, Planning and Despatching Dept; previously in international business development, interconnection projects, investment planning, technical innovation deployment, electricity market set-up and evolution.

Previously engaged 10 years in ENI, Italian major in Oil & Gas sector, engaged in strategic development, investment appraisal, international operations, merging&acquisitions.

Currently roles in International Organisations: CIGRE, Dii Desert Energy, IEC, IEA, WEF, ENTSO-E, MedTSO, ETIP SNET, ISGAN.

A global industrialist and business strategist, Hussain Al Nowais has over 35 years of experience in investing, developing and managing businesses in the Middle East, Africa and Asia across multiple sectors including banking, finance, heavy industries, chemicals, energy, infrastructure, hospitality and real estate.
Hussain Al Nowais is the Chairman of AlNowais Investments where he spearheads the firm’s strategy of global expansion, investment, and strategic project development across the firm’s target sectors.

He is also the Chairman of AMEA Power, a developer, owner, and operator of renewable power projects in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, he is also the Vice Chairman of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), UAE’s leading domestic bank. In addition, Hussain Al Nowais is a Board Member in Rotana Hotels & Real Estate Investments; He is also a member of the Family Business Council-Gulf, Asia Business Council, World Economic Forum in Davos. Additionally, he is a member of Al Fanar philanthropy impact investment and acts as a board trustee. He was one of the founding members of Sandooq Al Watan, a national philanthropist and Investment organization that provides Emiratis with guidance and funding for social impact project with focus on technology and health care.

Until recently, and for the last 14 years, he was the Chairman of Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, a non-profit social impact fund. He spent over 12 years as the Chairman of Waha Capital, a publicly listed investment company on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, He also spent 10 years as a Chairman of SENAAT, an Industrial holding company. In addition, he was the Chairman of MENA Infrastructure Fund, the National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), and National Petroleum Services (NPS).

He served as a Board Member of the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development for three years; he was also on the board of Abu Dhabi Aviation, Abu Dhabi Ports Company, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, Al Dhafra Insurance Company and was an advisory board member of the Khalifa University for Science & Technology.

A UAE national and born in Abu Dhabi, Hussain Al Nowais holds a B.S. in Business finance from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon in June 1979, and has attended various Executive Management programs at INSEAD in France and at London Business School.

Dr Malcolm Cook holds a degree and doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. He was then awarded a 2 year NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship for fundamental research in catalysts at the Technical University of Munich, Germany.

After joining industry, Malcolm lead the research & development for coatings for ChlorAlkali & water electrolysis before moving into technical service, commissioning, sales and business development.

He now heads up the Business Development and Sales team for thyssenkrupp Uhde & nucera across all of their technologies in the Middle East & Turkey and has been in the GCC for the past 14 years.

Dan Feldman is a partner at King & Spalding. His practice focuses on energy across the value chain, including low-carbon energy (renewables, hydrogen and its derivatives, carbon capture and storage, battery systems and green industry), oil and gas (upstream, midstream and downstream) power, infrastructure and mining megaprojects around the world. In the hydrogen sector Dan has represented many key corporations, government entities and institutions globally, including NEOM, JERA, Chevron, Woodside, EverWind, ADNOC, Fortescue Future Industries, Uniper, Globeleq and more. He has been recognized by Chambers Global, Legal500, Who’s Who Legal and Law360 as a leading lawyer. Most recently, Dan was named a Law360 2022 MVP for Project Finance (one of five in the world) and advised on Project Finance International’s “Green Deal of the Year” in 2022 and IJGlobal’s “Deal of the Year” in 2021.

Frank Wouters has been leading renewable energy projects, transactions, and technology development for more than 30 years and played a lead role in the development of renewable energy projects all over the world.

He served as Deputy Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) from 2012 to 2014.

Mr. Wouters has served on the board of energy companies in Europe, Asia, the US and Africa and currently serves as:

• Senior Vice President New Energy at Reliance Industries
• Co-President of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council
• Fellow, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines
• Chairman of the MENA Hydrogen Alliance
• Chairman of the Dii Advisory Board
• Executive Committee Member of the Ammonia Energy Association
• Non-Executive Board Director of Gore Street Capital, London, and
• Non-Executive Board Director of Vast Solar in Australia.

Frank has authored several books on renewable energy and green hydrogen and lives in Abu Dhabi. He has a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University.

Ad van Wijk is part-time Professor Future Energy Systems at TU Delft, the Netherlands. He is guest professor at KWR Water Research Institute to develop and implement the research program Energy and Water. He is special advisor to Hydrogen Europe, representing European industry, national associations and research centers to develop European hydrogen policies with the EU commission. And he holds several advisory and supervisory board positions.

Van Wijk has studied physics and did his Ph-D on Wind Energy and Electricity Production at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He worked as an Researcher and Associate Professor, between 1983 and 1997 in the Department of Science, Technology and Society at Utrecht University

In 1984, van Wijk founded the company Ecofys, which eventually grew into Econcern. Econcern developed many new sustainable energy products, services and projects. Examples include the 120 MW offshore wind farm Princess Amalia in the North Sea, several multi-MW solar farms in Spain, a solar cell manufacturing plant Solland and a bio-methanol plant in the Netherlands.

Since 2011 van Wijk is appointed as professor Future Energy Systems at TU Delft. His research focus on the energy systems of the future. Especially he will do research on hydrogen energy systems and fuel cell cars and has realized ‘‘the Green Village’’ at the TU Delft campus.

Van Wijk achieved many important prizes for excellent entrepreneurship. Amongst others he was Dutch entrepreneur of the year in 2007 and Dutch top-executive in 2008. Van Wijk was honored by KWR, by appointing him Honorary Fellow in 2018. In 2022 van Wijk received the EM Innovation Award from the NWBA, Dutch Hydrogen and Fuel Celll Association. And in 2023 he got a life time achievement award from the International Cleantech Business Club. World Lifetime Achievements Award for Prof.Dr. Ad van Wijk

Van Wijk has published many books, scientific articles and reports that can be downloaded from his website A sustainable energy supply for everyone – Blog of Prof. dr. Ad van Wijk (TUDelft) Hydrogen related books and articles are depicted below. Follow Ad van Wijk at twitter @advanwijk or via his website.

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis has been working at Hydrogen Europe since 2016. He currently holds the position of CEO of the association. He previously covered roles in the planning department of the Foreign Office of Germany, at Infineon Technologies and was Member of the European Parliament (2004-2014) inter alia in the ITRE Committee (Industry, Technology, Research and Energy) where he could contribute to lay the cornerstone for the first and the second Joint Undertaking on hydrogen and fuel cells. He was awarded Hydrogen Person of the Year at the World Hydrogen Awards 2022, “as a major player promoting hydrogen in Europe and world-wide, accelerating collaboration and industry development”.

Jorgo was born in Duisburg, Germany. He holds German and Greek nationality, and a degree in political science from the University of Bonn.

Harry Boyd-Carpenter is the Managing Director, Climate Strategy and Delivery at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He took up this role in April 2021.

Mr Boyd-Carpenter is responsible for coordinating the EBRD’s work across the green economy and climate agendas, with the overall goal of meeting the Bank’s commitment to achieve a green finance ratio of over 50 per cent of annual investments by 2025. He leads a team that drives climate and green financing, policy and analysis across all economic sectors and financing instruments, as well as representing the EBRD in climate forums.

Mr Boyd-Carpenter is a British national and joined the EBRD in 2005 in the Office of the General Counsel. In 2008 he transferred to the then Power and Energy Utilities team in Banking, before becoming Director, Head of Energy EMEA in 2017 where he led the Bank’s investment activities in the energy sector in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Before joining the EBRD Mr Boyd-Carpenter was an Associate in the project finance team at Allen and Overy LLP and also worked for the European Agency for Reconstruction in Pristina. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford.

Prof. Dr. Christopher Hebling studied Physics and worked for like ten years in the field of Silicon Photovoltaics before he became Director of the Hydrogen Technologies Division at ISE with a staff of about 150 scientists, engineers, and students today. Among his manyfold affiliations he is the spokesperson of the Fraunhofer Hydrogen Network (36 institutes) and Board Member of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence ‘Integrated Energy Systems’. Next to his close involvement in national hydrogen strategy developments he is member of the Expert committee for the Transformation of the Automobile Industry of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. Furthermore, he is the Co-Chair of the German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, and he is involved in international stakeholder processes and advisory boards of international hydrogen and fuel cell conferences. He published more than 150 journal and conference papers and is Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. The Hydrogen Technologies Division conducts research in low temperature polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis and fuel cell systems, as well as in thermochemical catalysis and process developments of hydrogen to synthetic fuels and chemicals (PtX).

• Extensive record in international business development in renewable energy: Solar, Wind, Hydrogen. Technology – Economics – People
• International experience: worked in energy projects in more than 20 countries in Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia
• Expert at the Gas Industry Advisory Committee, East Mediterranean Gas Forum
• Steering Committee Chairman of the 25 GW Green Hydrogen Project GEO, Oman
• Advisory Board Member of the MENA-Fuels Project for the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Germany, analysing Middle East and North Africa for the supply of green hydrogen based synthetic fuels up to the year 2050.
• Co-Author of the publication “How to make Green Hydrogen economic?” (Hermes, Witte et. al., Sep. 2020)
• 2014-2021, Vattenfall: Project Governance Officer for renewable energy; steering investment decisions and project developments. Responsible for the policy and decision frame-work for all renewable projects, wind, solar, hydrogen.
• 2011-2013, Head of Business Development, Biomass, Vattenfall
• 2007-2010, Head of the “Vattenfall Carbon Fund”, financing renewable energy projects for emissions reduction in Asia, East Europe, and Latin America.
• 2000-2007, Head of Energy Economics, Tractebel Engineering (Lahmeyer International GmbH), responsible for the management and financial turnaround of two energy & water companies, financed by World Bank.
• PhD in energy economics (Dr.-Ing.), MSc (Dipl.-Ing.) in mechanical engineering
• Business fluent in English, native language: German, fluent in French and Spanish

Vatche Kourkejian is a Senior Partner in Roland Berger’s Middle East office. He leads the firm’s regional Energy practice and advises government and private sector clients in topics related to the energy transition, including clean energies integration, hydrogen economy, manufacturing localization and human capability buildup.

Since joining the firm in 2007, he has primarily worked with clients in the Middle Eastern energy and energy-intensive industrial sectors. He has been advising regional governments and state institutions on enabling and expanding the industrial base, as well as large corporations on adjusting their business model to changing market conditions due the ongoing energy transition and digital disruptions.

Naheed Memon is the CEO of Oracle Power, an energy developer listed on the London stock market, active in multiple jurisdictions across the world.

Naheed also serves as an Advisor to the President of Suriname, for investments and special projects. She also advises a Toronto listed blue carbon vehicle, working on mangrove projects globally. She has worked in Merrill Lynch in London for clients in MENA region. Naheed sits on the board of public companies in London in the oil and gas sector as well as in Pakistan as an independent director. She is also a director in her family-owned businesses ranging from textiles to construction.

Naheed served as Chairman of the Board of Investment as State Minister for Government of Sindh for a number of years. She is an adjunct faculty of Economics at Pakistan’s largest business school, IBA for the last two decades.

Naheed holds an MBA from Imperial College, London, a degree in Computer Science from University of Karachi, and an MSc in Economics from Birkbeck College, London.

Naveed Tariq is Chief Executive Officer of World Climate Central Limited. With over 20 years of experience across more than 15 countries, Naveed has consistently delivered value to his customers. Having worked in diverse technology and service sectors, including IT, communication, satellite, and energy industries, Naveed brings a unique perspective in executing growth, creating sustainable business models, and scaling businesses. He is skilled in infrastructure deployment, product lifecycle management, and business development. Before Naveed became the CEO of World Climate Central, he has worked as Vice President for Corporate Strategy & Innovation Operations and Managing Director of E.ON Israel. He balances creative and conventional approaches, enabling organizations to respond to various opportunities and challenges in an agile manner. He holds an MBA in Finance and has a keen interest in forming new paths.

Nadim Chaudhry founded Green Power Global in 2003 to address the climate emergency by creating commercially focused events aimed at accelerating the climate tech markets. Over 2 decades the self-funded business has addressed multiple markets from Carbon Markets, Biofuels, Biogas, Solar, Wind, Offshore Wind, Geothermal and now Clean Hydrogen.

The Green Power team are proud to have brought together over 60,000 thought leaders, governments, financiers and solution providers to connect, exchange, spread best practice and get clean infrastructure built at over 500 events in 40+ countries.When not working Nadim is found vociferously supporting the English rugby team and trying to keep his wine habit under control in North West Italy.

Pascal Baylocq, 55, has a PhD in Mechanics and a bachelor degree in Economics. He started his career at Total in 1994 where he worked in the Exploration & Production Division (as Reservoir Engineer, Drilling Engineer, Internal Auditor and Offshore Installation Manager). He joined GEOSTOCK in 2007 as Deputy CEO and was appointed CEO in 2017.

Dr. Jauad El Kharraz is the Executive Director of the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE), an intergovernmental organization with diplomatic status based in Cairo with 17 Arab countries onboard. Dr. El Kharraz took his office on October 2021 bringing over 20 years of experience in various sustainable energy fields including energy policies, wind and solar technologies, and green hydrogen in addition to water management, desalination, water-energy-food-climate nexus, climate change, and environment.

As the Executive Director, Dr. El Kharraz undertakes the strategic management of RCREEE. He leads RCREEE Secretariat in implementing its strategy aiming to enable and increase the adoption of renewable energies and energy efficiency practices in RCREEE 17 member states. With the region’s great potential, rapid sustainable energy market changes, Dr. El Kharraz is entrusted with tailoring innovative initiatives to deepen Arab-Arab cooperation in sustainable energy fields & to boost our member states’ efforts towards energy transition.

Prior to joining RCREEE, Dr. El Kharraz held the position of Director of Research at the Middle East Desalination Research Center in Oman (2015-2020). Previously, he served as a senior expert, advisor, and evaluator for several international institutions (e.g., European Commission, UN-ESCWA, PRIMA Foundation, EU-GCC Clean Energy Technology Network, KAS-REMENA, Ocean Oasis, COMSTECH Scientific Advisory Council, ENSUS/UM6P University, EMME-CCI Task Force/Cyprus Institute, “French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation”) and member of board of the European Desalination Society, AgreeMed and WEFE4Med Nexus projects and Jovesolides Association (Spain). He is also member of the International Desalination Association, the Mediterranean Water Institute, and Oman Energy Majlis.

He brings over 20 years of experience in various sustainability fields including energy and water policies, desalination, water-energy-food nexus, green hydrogen, climate change. Dr. El Kharraz sustainability career officially started in 1998 as a researcher at the Global Change Unit -University of Valencia. Through his journey, he coordinated, prepared, and contributed to an important portfolio of international programs/projects of millions of euros such as FP5-FP7, H2020, ENPI CBC Med, INCO MED, INCO NGOs, SMAP, LIFE, PRIMA. He carried out projects for national and international donors such as GIZ, SIDA, IsDB, TRC/Oman and USAID apart from private sector companies.

Dr. El Kharraz is a founding member of Nice hub (France) – Global Shapers Community (World Economic Forum), aiming to push young talents from Nice city to develop projects of development for their local community.

He chaired and contributed to the development of an important number of scientific papers, policy briefs, policies, training & mentorship activities, lectures, awards ceremonies, and events (e.g., World Economic Forum, World Water Forum, World Science Forum, World Urban Forum, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, MENA Europe Future Energy Dialogue, World Hydrogen Summit, Planetary Security Initiative, Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue Conference, International Higher Education Conference, COP26, COP27, etc.) in more than 55 countries.

Dr. El Kharraz is a national of Morocco and France, and a graduate of the University of Abdelmalek Essaadi. Dr. El Kharraz obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in Physics from the Department of Earth Physics and Thermodynamics, University of Valencia, Spain, and a diploma in enterprises management and strategies from SKEMA Business School, France. He is a fluent French, Arabic, Spanish and English speaker.

Jan Haizmann started his career at a law firm, specializing on European competition law and industry regulation in telecoms and energy. In 1999, Jan Haizmann moved to London working as regulatory manager for US American trading houses focusing on industry regulation applicable to the power and gas trading sector Dr Haizmann was involved in major competition and antitrust. Subsequently, Jan Haizmann gained commercial experience as gas origination manager (trader) at Glencore Energy in London from 2002 to 2005.

Since January 2005, Dr. Haizmann has been an independent consultant to the energy trading industry. He has been advising Tier-One clients on legal and regulatory aspects of energy trading as managing director of Correggio Consulting. Dr. Haizmann was appointed expert in several arbitration proceedings helping dispute resolution in complex gas and power transactions. He has been managing gas business set ups for new entrants into the European wholesale markets for multiple years.

In 2017, Dr Haizmann conceptually invented CorreggioNET, an interactive compliance platform for physical power and gas trading participants. CorreggioNET enables wholesale market traders to monitor and manage regulatory change applicable to physical trading across multiple geographies. Since its launch in 2018, CorreggioNET service has become a unique industry solution for regulatory change management.

The European Commission entrusted Jan Haizmann with technical assistance project management in the field of preparing natural gas trading in Turkey (2014/16) and enabling commodity markets in Ukraine (since 20187ongoing).

In parallel to his consulting activities, Mr. Haizmann had different executive functions within the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) until 2023. Until his exit in April 2023, Jan Haizmann was member of the EFET Board of Directors, managed the Legal Committee, and had various executive functions over his 19 years tenure.

In 2019, Resource Platform appointed Dr Haizmann to manage the standardisation of PPA-contracts enabling the uptake of RES generation. Dr Haizmann co-ordinated the work for a first pan-European PPA contract launched by Resource and EFET.

In April 2023, Jan Haizmann accepted the role as CEO, managing ZETA (“Zero Emissions Trading Alliance”), a new industry initiative looking at creating liquid markets for zero emission products and respective certificates, enabling the creating of a liquid wholesale market in the MENA-region, and beyond. MENA is aiming at creating the right market conditions for low emissions commodities such as green H2, green fuels and green certificates in the MENA-region.

Mr Haizmann graduated in law with honours at the universities in Freiburg (Germany), London (UK) and Brussels (Belgium). He resides in Brussels and Dubai.

Contact: j.haizmann@correggio-consulting.eu

Paul Baan started in 2021 as CEO of Proton Ventures. Paul has proven to be a visionary executive within the energy sector through his longstanding career with several leadership positions amongst others at Ørsted and EON. Paul has an entrepreneurial mindset and a proven track record in growing, transforming and leading businesses in the energy transition related industries

Frank Yu is Global Vice President of Power to X business of Envision Group. He is responsible for Envision’s zero carbon gas and hydrogen energy business. Prior to Envision，Mr. Yu worked for Air Products in China as VP and General Manager of Hydrogen Energy Business. Mr Yu has a bachelor degree of Chemical Equipment and Machinery from Nanjing Chemical University and MBA from Maastricht School of Management and Nanjing University.