TAKE THE TECHIES GO GREEN
SMARTER
ENERGY
CHALLENGE
CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Mike Berners-Lee
World renowned consultant, author, climate systems thinker, and sustainability strategist
Mike Berners-Lee is the founder of Small World Consulting , an associate company of Lancaster University, which is a world leader in the field of supply chain carbon metrics and management. Mike is a professor at Lancaster University, where his research includes sustainable food systems and carbon metrics. He has made numerous speaking, radio and television broadcast appearances to promote public awareness of sustainability and climate change issues, and most notably appeared in Climate Change: The Facts alongside Sir David Attenborough. He is the author of three acclaimed books - There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years , How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything, and The Burning Question.
Prof. Fabiano Pallonetto
Professor in Management Information Systems, Maynooth University
Prof Fabiano Pallonetto has wide experience in the energy, IT and transport sectors working as an entrepreneur, data scientist and researcher across different industries and disciplines. His academic background in Computer Science and Engineering and his industry experience in Energy, Sustainable Mobility, Data Analytics, Control Algorithms and Optimisation makes him a pivotal asset for research based and commercial data centric projects. His goal is bridging academic research to industrial needs applying my multidisciplinary industry and entrepreneurship experience to build solutions and solve technical challenges for the deployment and integration of the smart grid and its associated carbon footprint reduction and promoting Sustainable Development Goals.
Prof. Sarah McCormack
Professor In Sustainable Energy, Trinity College Dublin
Professor Sarah McCormack is the Head of Department and a Professor in Sustainable Energy, Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). She is an internationally recognised expert in renewable energy, specifically focusing on solar energy systems, building-integrated technologies, and energy storage. Her research areas are sustainable energy, particularly solar energy and energy storage and has published over 100 papers, with over 5000 citations. She has co-organised several international conferences and workshops in the sustainable energy areas. Her current research projects focus on Luminescent Solar Devices enabling collection of diffuse solar radiation of higher latitude climates (ERC funded) and in a 14-partner IDEAS project (H2020 funded) her team have developed novel luminescent CPC systems for solar efficiency enhancement.
Peter Lantry
Managing Director, Equinix Ireland
Peter Lantry leads Equinix’s business in Ireland and is responsible for driving the company’s growth as Ireland’s digital economy expands in tandem with data volumes. Equinix manages a footprint of eight operational data centres in the Dublin metro area. With a passion for sustainability, Peter is also responsible for delivering environmental and community engagement initiatives crucial to the sustainable goals of Equinix. Peter also previously held the position of Head of Interconnection at EirGrid, which included working as senior project manager on the award-winning East-West Interconnector, which connects the Irish and British electricity markets. More recently Peter was Country Managing Director and Global Data Centre Lead for Hitachi Energy where he was focused on developing sustainable energy solutions for the industry.
Prof. Aoife Foley
Chair in Net Zero Infrastructure, The University Of Manchester
Professor Aoife Foley is Chair in Net Zero Infrastructure at The University of Manchester’s School of Engineering, bringing over 15 years of academic expertise in energy and sustainability and nearly 15 years of global engineering experience across energy, pharma, telecoms, and local government. Previously a Professor in Sustainable Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast, she has developed interdisciplinary research addressing energy and climate challenges, published in prestigious journals like Nature Energy, Applied Energy, and Renewable Energy. Professor Foley also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, a leading journal in sustainable energy, and held an affiliate position with MIT.
Alan Wyley
Chief Executive Officer, EnergyCloud Ireland
Alan Wyley is Chief Executive Officer at EnergyCloud Ireland. EnergyCloud Ireland works in partnership with a wide range of organisations and companies committed to using surplus renewable energy to help tackle fuel poverty. Through partnerships with government, local authorities, approved housing bodies and energy partners, EnergyCloud delivers free, clean energy to homes across Ireland. Alan recently spent eight years as Chief Commercial Officer at Luzern Solutions, where he played a pivotal role in commercial strategy. Prior to this, he was CEO of EuroCommerce and also also served as Non-Executive Chairman of Staycity, Europe’s largest independent serviced apartment operator. In addition to his corporate experience, Alan has previously held the position of Chair of Barnardos Ireland and Darndale Belcamp Village Centre and since 2017 he has been Chair of the Southside Partnership.
Jerry Sweeney
Founder and Managing Director, CloudCIX
With over four decades of professional experience, Jerry Sweeney's mission as Founder and Managing Director at CloudCIX Limited is to drive innovation in Data Centre operations through a robust technology stack that includes CoLocation, Cloud, HPC and AI/ML. His leadership extends beyond the traditional scope of management, fostering a culture of innovation and strategic growth. Jerry advocates for data centres to utilise their Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems to provide grid balancing services. This helps stabilise the grid and supports the integration of higher levels of renewable energy without requiring the grid to build dedicated battery storage. He has been highly vocal about current market rules that allow excess or "wasted" renewable energy generated in Ireland to be dumped rather than utilised.