The REM Podcast - Renewable Energy Movement

Say Yes and Move: A Throwback ft. Natalia Paraskevopoulou and Filippo Ricci

Two careers built by saying yes when most people said no. Natalia Paraskevopoulou, Head of Wind Business Development for EMEA at LightSource BP, discovered renewables in a classroom in Athens in 2004. She went on to move to Johannesburg as a 20-something woman in a field dominated by men, earn respect on construction sites by physically doing the job, and build a career that now spans Greece, South Africa and the UK. Filippo Ricci, General Manager and Country Lead for Italy at Recurrent Energy, fell into renewables through a friend asking for help in Bologna. He ended up developing markets in Chile, Egypt, Jordan and Cameroon before he was thirty. Two different paths with the same lesson at the end of both of them. In this throwback episode Tom revisits two of the most popular conversations from the REM archive and brings them together for the first time. What they cover together: 1. Why the best careers in this industry are rarely planned 2. What working across radically different cultures actually teaches you 3. Why saying yes to the uncomfortable thing is the common thread in almost every success story 4. What the Italian and European renewable markets look like heading into the next phase of execution 5. And why the energy transition only wins if it saves people money Leadership, people, and why community inside a team matters more than most leaders admit The Renewable Energy Movement Podcast is powered by Kigyo.

Read the Instructions First: Maria del Puy on Spain’s Energy Future

Maria del Puy Ayerra started her career in 2001 at GAMESA, developing wind farms in Spain when "renewable energy" was barely a household term. Over the last two decades, her career has spanned Spain, the UK, and the United States, navigating every market cycle thrown at developers, investors, and consultants. In this conversation with Tom Essex, Maria provides an insider’s view of the Spanish energy evolution; from the early feed-in tariff boom to the grid saturation crisis of today. They discuss the ground-level reality of the 2025 blackout, the necessity of storage, and what the next two years leading up to 2028 actually look like for those moving capital into the region. In this episode, we cover: * The Early Days: Joining GAMESA in 2001 and the internal reality of Spain’s first wind energy boom. * Resilience Through Crashes: Surviving the 2008–2013 market collapse and the five-year wait for real momentum to return. * Global Perspectives: Moving across the UK and US markets, overcoming language barriers, and avoiding "cultural ego traps" when entering new territories. * A Milestone Moment: What it felt like to see Spain run on 100% renewable energy for a full day after starting when it was just a dream. * The Grid Crisis: An honest look at the April 2025 blackout and the reality of 83% grid node saturation. * The Storage Mandate: Why storage is no longer optional and how creative PPA structures are reshaping the market. * Strategic Acquisitions: Why this is an opportunistic moment for investors and how to navigate the current regulatory landscape. * Future Frontiers: Maria’s current work advising on the intersection of data centers, EVs, and total energy solutions. Connect with the Movement: * Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-del-puy-ayerra/ * Host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomessex/ Subscribe to the Renewable Energy Movement Podcast to stay updated on the people and technology driving the global energy transition. Powered by: Kigyo

Ksenia Balanda: Building Italy’s Floating Offshore Wind Future

There Is No Going Back: Ksenia Balanda on Floating Offshore Wind in Italy! Ksenia has spent nearly 20 years at the absolute edge of the energy business. She started with building a 45-person team in nine months in Russia to mastering Italian in "survival mode," her career has been defined by rapid scale and frontier markets. Now, as the Head of Offshore Wind Italy for Nadara, Ksenia is leading one of the most ambitious energy projects in the Mediterranean: the development of six floating offshore wind farms across Southern Italy and Sardinia, representing a massive 5 GW of capacity. In this conversation with Tom Essex, Ksenia breaks down what floating offshore wind actually requires to succeed, why Italy’s regulatory environment is currently the biggest bottleneck, and how the country’s ports and supply chains are quietly preparing for a generational industrial shift. IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER: * The "Generalist" Advantage: How starting in economics led Ksenia to lead billion-euro energy projects. * Rapid Scale: The reality of building a 45-person renewable energy team from scratch in just nine months. * The Mediterranean Opportunity: Why floating wind in Italy is a global game-changer and a gateway for the region. * The "Three Projects in Parallel" Strategy: Understanding the unique complexity of developing floating technology. * Regulatory Bottlenecks: Navigating Italy’s policy gaps and what needs to change to unlock construction. * The Talent Shift: Upskilling workers from legacy coal and naval industries for the offshore future. * Frontier Leadership: The art of hiring talent and then getting out of their way. * WindEurope Insights: Key takeaways from Madrid regarding the future of wind in Italy, Portugal, and Greece. CONNECT WITH THE MOVEMENT: * Guest: Ksenia Balanda (Head of Offshore Wind Italy, Nadara) * Host: Tom Essex Subscribe to the Renewable Energy Movement Podcast to stay updated on the people and technology driving the global energy transition. Powered by: Kigyo

Build the Relationship First: Stefano Girolami on Solar, Leadership and Scale

Stefano Girolami arrived in London from Naples nearly 15 years ago planning to stay six months. He stayed for over a decade, built a career across five countries, and eventually joined a six-person startup that has since scaled to over a hundred people across Europe. He is now the Group CTO of Innovo Renewables. But this isn’t just a conversation about technology todays episode taps into a masterclass in leadership, resilience, and why your professional relationships are your most valuable currency. As Stefano sits down with Tom Essex to discuss the "scars" of the feed-in tariff crash, the reality of managing teams more senior than yourself at 25, and why he chose the chaos of a startup over the security of a global utility, they discuss the following: * The Pivot: From Naples to London and finding a footing in the UK solar market. * The Market Crash: Surviving the feed-in tariff collapse and being made redundant twice before age 30. * The "Young Leader" Challenge: Managing peers and senior experts as a first-time manager. * Scaling a Giant: Navigating the Solar Century acquisition by Statkraft and the transition to corporate life. * Startup DNA: Joining Innovo at the ground floor and building a team of 100+ from scratch. * Hiring Strategy: Why he prioritizes junior talent and "proceduralized" workflows. * The Horizon: Future predictions for the Italian and European solar markets over the next 24 months. CONNECT WITH THE MOVEMENT: * Guest: Stefano Girolami (Group CTO, Innovo Renewables) * Host: Tom Essex Subscribe to The Renewable Energy Movement Podcast to never miss an episode on the people and technology driving the global energy transition. Powered by: Kigyo

$20B of Projects: Alexis Gonzalez on Infrastructure Leadership

Alexis Gonzalez graduated as a mechanical engineer in Venezuela in 2001 and walked straight into one of the biggest petrochemical projects in the country’s history. That early exposure to scale and complexity shaped everything that followed. Over the next 25 years he worked his way through oil and gas, biofuel, offshore wind, hydro and now data center infrastructure. He has managed over $20 billion worth of projects, led teams spread across nine different countries and built a career defined by one consistent belief: that nothing is impossible if you have the right team. He is now Director of Project Controls at Andritz in Montreal, working on the refurbishment of hydro power facilities across North America that were built 50 to 100 years ago and now need a new generation of turbines. In this conversation with Tom Essex, Alexis reflects on everything the journey has taught him, and shares a candid read on where the data center and energy industries are heading, he talks about: ∙ Starting in Venezuela’s oil and gas mega projects and what that teaches you about scale ∙ A biofuel project in Canada that turned garbage into ethanol ∙ Supporting Horn Sea 2 for Ørsted, one of the world’s biggest offshore wind farms ∙ What Nordic work culture gets right that North America does not ∙ The transformer lead time problem quietly threatening the data center boom ∙ Why some hyperscaler projects will not survive to the end of the decade ∙ China’s nuclear and hydro infrastructure play and what the US might learn from it ∙ Why retention is always a byproduct of culture and not of salary The Renewable Energy Movement Podcast is powered by Kigyo.