Announced speakers

Henrik Dam
Policy Officer at European Commission, DG Energy
Renewables in the context of the Recovery Package and the European Green Deal
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Henrik Dam graduated in 1990 as M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Aalborg University, Denmark. He has worked with the European Commission since 2003 on the areas Renewable Energy, smartgrids, active demand, electric vehicles, energy storage technologies, innovation, and SMEs. He is currently policy officer in DG ENERGY in the unit Renewables and CCS policy. He deals with both the current and the upcoming EC directive on Renewables with particular focus on wind energy, guarantees of origin and Member State achievement of RES targets.

Panu Maijala
Responsible Leader of the VN TEAS Project
Infrasound does not explain symptoms related to wind turbines
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During his 25-year career as a scientist, Dr. Panu Maijala has acquired diverse expertise in many areas of industrial acoustics and noise engineering, management of innovation process, and project management.
He was the responsible leader for the study, which targeted to adverse health effects of wind turbine infrasound. The project was funded by the Finnish Government’s Analysis, Assessment and Research Activities (VN TEAS).
Dr. Maijala is the president of the Acoustical Society of Finland and a member of many scientific boards, coordinating committees, and expert groups. He has been rewarded several times for his leadership roles in positions of trust.

Riku Huttunen
Director General of the Energy Department at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland
Pathway to Climate Neutrality
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Riku Huttunen is the Director General of the Energy Department at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland since 2015. The department is in charge of national and EU energy policy issues as well as coordination of national climate policy measures. Riku Huttunen has previously served as the Director General of the Finnish Energy Authority and before that in several positions at the Ministry’s Energy Department. He has also worked as Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU in Brussels.
Riku Huttunen (born 1966) holds a Master’s degree (M. Pol. Sc.) in Economics from the University of Helsinki.

Valtteri Hongisto
Research group leader at Turku University of Applied Sciences
Health effects of wind turbine and road traffic noise on people living near wind turbines
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Dr. Valtteri Hongisto is a research group leader at Turku University of Applied Sciences in Turku, Finland. The research group focuses on both laboratory and field studies. The activities are scientific research, consultation services, and teaching. His main fields of expertise are acoustic engineering and effects of noise on humans. He is also an adjunct professor (docent) at Aalto University (Espoo, Finland) and University of Turku in the fields of noise control and environmental psychology, respectively. During 2016-2019 he was running a major national public-funded research project, Anojanssi, which involved, among others, many studies related to wind turbine noise. Those were, e.g. long-term measurements of wind turbine noise, annoyance of amplitude-modulated sound, sound insulation of building façade at low frequencies, hearing threshold and annoyance of infrasound, factors associated with annoyance of wind turbine noise in residential areas, and health status of residents living close to wind turbines.

Anni Mikkonen
CEO of Finnish Wind Power Association
On the growth path – an overview of Finnish Wind Power
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Anni Mikkonen is the CEO of the Finnish Wind Power Association since 2009. During her time the association and the importance of wind power in the Finnish energy sector have increased significantly. Anni is leading wind power experts in Finland. She holds a master’s decrees in Environmental Sciences (MSc) and in Corporate Environmental Management (M. Econ).

Jari Ihonen
Principal Scientist in Fuel cells and hydrogen team at VTT
Can the production of green hydrogen in Finland accelerate wind power investments?
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Jari Ihonen has over 22 years of experience in fuel cell and hydrogen R&D, mostly with polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFC) including component, stack and system development. He is currently Principal Scientist in Fuel cells and hydrogen team at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. In the last years the major topic of interest for him has been hydrogen quality issues and use of hydrogen fuel cells in maritime applications as well as green hydrogen production for industry. Jari Ihonen has also been a member of the board Finnish wind power association and was chairman of the board for the association in 2007-2009.

Karoliina Joensuu
Senior Vice President responsible for Energy, Water & Environment business in FCG Finnish Consulting Group
Advancing wind power construction in Finland – review of the on-going government funded study
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Karoliina Joensuu, M.Sc. (tech.), has been working with wind power in Finland for more than 10 years. During this time she has been responsible for numerous engineering and consulting assignments for wind power projects, both projects in development and in operation, and more broadly in relation to wind power generation in Finland. Her strongest areas of expertise are the development and permitting process of wind power projects and the role of wind power in the electricity market. She has possessed various positions in line management and currently works as Senior Vice President responsible for Energy, Water & Environment business in FCG Finnish Consulting Group

Santtu Karhinen
Researcher in the Finnish Environment Institute
Balancing the variation of wind with hydropower
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M. Sc. (Economics) has 7 years of research experience and currently works as a researcher in the Finnish Environment Institute. His research focuses on integration of variable renewable energy sources into power systems in cost efficient ways. He has published multiple scientific articles in which power system’s flexibility is improved by means of electricity demand response, pricing, storage and hydro power optimization. During the past years he has worked in various scientific projects funded by the Academy of Finland and Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland. He is currently finalizing his doctoral thesis on the economics of power market flexibility.

Petteri Mäkelä
Environmental Engineer at Suomen Hyötytuuli Oy
Bird radar project in Tahkoluoto offshore windfarm – lessons learned and preliminary results
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Environmental Engineer working in the renewables and environment industry since 2015. Prior to this, working with EIA and field surveys since 2005. Skilled in environmental consulting, environmental management systems. Strong engineering professional with a Bachelor´s Degree of Applied Science (BASc) focused in Environmental Engineering Technology/Environmental Technology from Satakunta University of Applied Sciences-SAMK (2015). His current responsibilities at Suomen Hyötytuuli consist of wide range of environmental aspects including EIA, pre- and post-construction environmental monitoring and surveys and Avian radar project in Tahkoluoto offshore wind farm.

Jon O’Sullivan
Manager Innovation at EirGrid Group
Lessons from Wind Integration in Ireland and Northern Ireland
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Jonathan O’Sullivan has spent over 20 years working in the electricity industry in the planning, operation and markets design. In this time he has developed an acknowledged expertise in the theoretical modelling of the system, the necessary practical operation practices and the requirements for a well-designed and functional market. In recent years Jonathan has been central to the implementation of the first electricity market in Ireland in 2000, the first all island market in 2007, the development of the “Delivering a Secure sustainable power system” (DS3) programme which will deliver the secure and reliable operation of the Ireland and Northern Ireland power system with unprecedented levels of wind electricity by 2020.
His current role in EirGrid, the transmission system operator in Ireland and Northern Ireland, is Manager Innovation. Through this Jonathan drives general innovation in the group as well as specific technology strategies which include DS3, distributed power flow control devices, solar and storage. To do this Jonathan’s team need to consider the future needs of the power system and envisage how these multiple technology strategies may interact at scale. These considerations require technical, economic and government policy considerations.
Jonathan is an active member of ENTSO-E, the European association of TSO, where he contributes to working groups and committees on innovation, research, markets and renewables, long term market design and TSO-DSO interaction.

Helen Jameson
Senior Project Manager at Vattenfall
Kriegers Flak Offshore Wind Farm – A case study in flexible grid solutions
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Helen Jameson is a Senior Project Manager at Vattenfall, with 8 years’ experience in development of UK offshore wind projects from the early design stages to construction handover. Areas of expertise are strategy and business case development, programme and financial management of large scale infrastructure projects. Helen has a great deal of experience in engaging regulatory, statutory and public stakeholders and has a particular interest in the onshore elements of offshore wind farms which are, in countries such as the UK, arguably more complex and controversial than the offshore wind farm itself. She is eager to see what the future holds for offshore wind in Finland…

Markus Herranen
Analyst at Gasum Portfolio Services Oy
Wind power production outlook in Finland – How much wind power production will increase and how much it can be increased in Finland?
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Markus Herranen (M.Sc, Tech.) is working as an analyst at Gasum Portfolio Services Oy. He has been working in Nordic power market since 2012. He analyses the power market, does market reporting and makes consultancy projects.

Fergus Costello
Head of Strategy and Market Intelligence Offshore at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
SGRE
View on the future of offshore wind
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Fergus joined SGRE/Siemens Offshore in 2013. Since then he has been responsible for the global offshore market intelligence team. During this period he has witnessed first hand the development of offshore wind from a high cost niche electricity source in Northern Europe to today being a key requirement for the energy transition globally and at a cost highly acceptable to consumer. Fergus is involved daily in the promotion of offshore wind both internally in SGRE and externally towards various stakeholders including policy makers.