Teams were judged by a panel of wind industry experts, and each team’s presentation time included a virtual networking session during which students could ask the panel for insights and advice on finding careers in the wind and renewable energy industry.
The panel included:
Santiago Bermudez, Renewable Energies, Invenergy LLC
Santiago Bermudez is a Project Manager, Renewable Energies for Invenergy LLC, North America’s largest independent, privately held renewable energy provider. As a Project Manager, Santiago is responsible for the successful execution of wind energy projects, from advanced development through construction and commercial operations. Santiago prepares, negotiates, and manages EPC Contracts, and supports construction related activities and challenges, including permitting support, engineering development and coordination, interconnection support, project financing and accounting, amongst others.
Prior to joining Invenergy, Santiago worked as a project manager and project engineer for Mortenson Construction, a leading contractor in the renewable energies sector. As an onsite project manager, Santiago was responsible for all of the coordination, logistics and financials related to the successful and on-time delivery of a Balance of Plant contract. Santiago has been in the renewable energy sector since 2013, and previously worked as a civil engineer in the residential and commercial sectors.
Santiago holds a Bachelors and Master’s degree in Civil Engineering.
Alex Byrne, DNV GL
Alex Byrne has worked in the energy industry for almost 20 years and the wind industry for 14 years. Her areas of expertise include data analytics for operating wind farms, environmental loading, turbine controls, performance upgrades, and failure analysis. In her current role as Principal Engineer at DNV GL, she provides independent analyses to help owners, operators, and technology providers achieve operational excellence. She has master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering.
Drew Eisenberg, Siemens Games Renewable Energy
Drew Eisenberg has worked for Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy for 10 years focusing on the design of offshore wind turbine blades. As a principal engineer of blade design, he has expertise on turbine loads, blade structure, controllers, leading edge erosion, and business case development of new technologies and platform sizing. He is an expert at power curve creation and validation and develops tools for determining wind turbine platform configurations and cost modeling. Drew now advises on technology and innovation development within blade design. He has a Bachelor of Science in meteorology and a Master of Engineering in Aerospace from Cornell University.
Connor Kobeski, Invenergy LLC
Connor Kobeski leads the International Renewable Engineering team for Invenergy LLC, North America’s largest independent, privately held renewable energy provider. Kobeski has worked in the Invenergy project engineering group since 2014. In his current role, Kobeski manages a team of engineers invested in the day-to-day development of utility-scale wind farms with focus on resource assessment, technology selection, turbine siting, and facility design. This involves implementing meteorological data collection campaigns; analyzing and forecasting long-term wind resource regimes; assessing noise and shadow flicker; mitigating turbine impacts to wildlife, radar, and aviation; performing geotechnical investigations; and evaluating wind turbine specifications to lower the cost of energy. Invenergy’s team works on the development of advanced-stage projects in Canada, Europe, Latin America, Japan, and across the United States.
David Magnuson, GE Renewable Energy
David has worked in renewable energy for General Electric since 2007, where he has developed test facilities and new testing methods, managed the U.S. Validation Team, and served as a Principal Engineer. For the last three years, he has been the Technical Training Leader for Renewable Energy Edison program, an entry-level program for top engineering talent coming out of college. He has an Aerospace Engineering degree from North Carolina State University and holds five U.S. Patents.
Kate Vann, Borrego Solar
Kate Vann is a Project Finance Associate at Borrego Solar Systems, Inc., where she leads project diligence and sales of distributed solar projects. Previously, Kate worked for Renewable Energy Systems Americas where she led the financial analysis, economic evaluation and risk analysis of utility-scale wind and solar projects. Kate started her career at Cypress Creek Renewables developing and financing utility-scale and distributed solar projects. Kate holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder.