All-Energy 2005

Biographies

SEBASTIAN BERRY - has nearly twenty years public affairs experience including work for MPs on both sides of the House of Commons. A former speech writer to two Secretary-Generals of the United Nations, he returned to the UK in 1997 to take up a senior position at Shell UK. In 2000, he became a self employed consultant principally to the energy sector, and has been working directly with the solar PV and micro renewables industry ever since.

Seb led the successful industry lobbying campaigns in Autumn 2003 and Summer 2004 to leverage additional sums for the DTIs solar PV Major Demonstration Programme and the Clearskies programme. He also played a pivotal role in the campaign to overturn ODPMs initial opposition to the important precedents of Merton Borough Council's and the GLAs pro-renewables planning policies. He is currently working closely with the DTI, Ofgem and others to ensure that the Government’s acceptance of the principle of ROC allocations to small and micro generators becomes a reality.

Seb represents the RPA on the London Energy Partnership Steering Group, the London Renewables Group Steering Group, the DTI RAB planning working group, and the Distributed Generation Working Group working party on micro generation. He also represented the RPA on the ODPM Part L review zero and low carbon working party earlier this year. He is a regular speaker at conferences and has published recently on micro-renewables issues in Green Futures, Sustain, Planning and Town and Country Planning magazines.

He works closely with other organisations and NGOs and was for example a contributor to the Green Alliance’s recent micro-generation manifesto and the TCPA/WWF “Building Sustainably” report in October 2003.

Seb has a PhD in politics from Birkbeck College, University of London and is a Fellow of the RSA.

MARI MARTISKAINEN - Holding a BA in Communication Studies with Social Sciences from Helsinki University and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, Mari is the Programme Officer at the British Wind Energy Association.  Mari's responsibilities at BWEA include small wind energy systems, research and publications.  Before her Masters course at Imperial, during which she concentrated on energy policy and small scale renewables, Mari worked as an Editor for Petromedia Ltd.

JOHNNIE ANDRINGA - studied mechanical engineering in Netherlands. Founded design consultancy Mecal in 1989 ran company for 12 years. Mecal specialised in mechanical design of components of large wind turbines and worked for almost all major large wind turbine manufacturers. In 2001 Mecal employed over 50, Johnnie sold majority in company and went travelling.

In 2002-2003 he studied management at London Business School. In 2004 he started working as business development manager at Proven Energy in Scotland, believing that with his extensive experience in large scale wind and in startups, he could make a contribution to the fast growth of this company designing, manufacturing and marketing small wind turbines.

ALEX VOWLES - works in the commercial Team at Good Energy, managing trading and procurement activities related to renewable energy.

Her interest in renewable power and the renewable industry stem from a passion for protecting the Earth and its environment, developed further during a degree in Earth Sciences at the University of Leeds.

Alex will be talking about micro-generation and the opportunities for micro-generators to receive a payback for their renewable generation via Good Energy’s Home Generation scheme.