Top 60 influencers in renewable energy industry in the sunny Spain

Spain is in the spotlight of photovoltaics: its (PV) capacity grew, becoming Spain’s top power source in 2024. But who is making this possible? Meet the people who are leading the renewable energy scene in this list of solar PV influencers in Spain. 

Renewable energy influencers in Spain

The Spanish National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2023-2030 (PNIEC), which has already boosted the growth of solar PV in Spain, has now been updated. Following a Royal Decree, the Spanish government has set a new 2030 solar target of 76 GW, including 19 GW for self-consumption (this is almost double the original target of 39 GW). It aims to cover over 80% of national electricity demand with renewable energy (6% more than the original plan). 

As such, Spain is increasingly cementing itself as one of the world leaders in photovoltaic energy. The industry is led by outstanding professionals, so we have created (in no particular order) a list of influencers in the industry that we personally like. 

José Donoso

José Donoso is the General Director at UNEF and serves as a founding member representing UNEF at the Global Solar Council. The board elected him as Chairman in 2021. José previously worked as a Development Director at Gamesa for 11 years.

Javier Revuelta

Javier Revuelta, Senior Principal at Afry, Javier has been in the Spanish electricity industry for almost 20 years, including for Spain’s system operator, Red Eléctrica de España. Revuelta often writes about the energy transition and climate change in industry-leading magazines and newspapers such as Pv magazine or El periódico de la energía.

Rafael Benjumea

Rafael Benjumea has more than 15 years of experience promoting photovoltaic solar plants. He has been President of UNEF since 2020 and is also a Founder of FRV and Founder and Chairman of self-consumption PV specialist Powen. He is also Founder & CEO of BENBROS ENERGY and President of Fundacíón Duques de Soria.

Jordi Torres

Jordi Torres is the MD/CEO of Renewables Spain at TotalEnergies. Having previously served as CEO of EDF Renewables China and held VP roles in asset and operations, he brings extensive leadership and expertise to the Spanish renewables sector. Jordi is passionate about sustainability and shares his industry insights on his blog.

Juan Manuel García Horrillo

Juan Manuel García Horrillo, currently Renewables, Gas, and Power Director at Moeve (previously called Cepsa), has over 25 years of experience in the energy sector, having previously worked at OMI, Iberdrola, Red Eléctrica de España, and others.

Enrique Riquelme Vives

Enrique Riquelme Vives, CEO and President at COX Energy, a Spanish photovoltaic solar company that started in 2014 and now has offices and projects in Mexico, Chile, Panama, Colombia, and Spain. In 2010 he established Grupo El Sol in Panama, where he led the development of a 56 MW photovoltaic plant in Guatemala, Rainbow 50.

Guillermo Fidalgo

Guillermo Fidalgo is a Construction Manager at Welink Iberia and a seasoned solar technologist. His technical breadth spans photovoltaic plant construction (permitting to maintenance), substations, and submarine interconnections, honed from directing operations at ENcome Energy Performance and managing European projects.

Javier Robledo

Javier Robledo is currently a Venture Builder, responsible for creating and participating in startups at Incubadora Universidad de Navarra. He does this alongside freelance work, providing strategic consulting across a range of renewable sector projects. Previously, Javier worked as an Open Innovation and Public Funding Manager at Ignis Group. He has a long career history of working on innovation in the energy sector. He was a Consultant at Zabala Innovation Consulting for over seven years before joining Ignis in 2022.

Carlos Relancio

Carlos Relancio, Renewable Energy Director at Galp, has worked in the renewable sector since 2004. He was a member of the Steering Committee at the European PV Technology Platform for four years and CEO of EuroPV, which provided strategic advice and other management services to companies operating in the PV sector. Before joining GALP, he was Executive Vice President at COX Energy.

Jose Emilio Villalba Fernandez

José Emilio Villalba Fernandez is the Founder and CEO of Energy Factory, which provides development services to major energy companies. His expertise in technical services, asset management, and consulting is backed by experience at Renovalia (COO) and industry giants like Iberdrola, Naturgy, Greentech Energy Systems, and E&Y.

Ignacio Salcedo

Ignacio Salcedo has driven Greening Group’s global expansion as CEO since 2020, leading the company’s expansion across Europe, North America, and Morocco with a focus on photovoltaic self-consumption and energy efficiency, where he previously worked as General Manager. He draws upon his MBA and Civil Engineering background to integrate sustainability in advancing the company’s clean energy mission.

Benito Javier Puebla

Benito Javier Puebla has been the CEO of ID Energy Group since 2007, growing it into an international company that provides end-to-end solutions across the photovoltaic value chain. Prior to his current role, he served as Deputy General Director at Eurofoto S.L. for over 12 years. 

José Queirós de Almeida

José Queirós de Almeida is the CEO of Greenvolt Comunidades, a subsidiary of Greenvolt Group. A data-driven MBA/DBA leader, he excels in customer management, product development, and digital marketing across Europe, with a focus on innovation, IoT, AI, and customer experience. José is also an invited MBA professor and a multilingual communicator.

Joaquín García Rico

Joaquin Garcia Rico is the CEO of TSK Electrónica y Electricidad, an engineering and industrial construction services provider. He has also served as Managing Director and Corporate Development Director during his 24-year career at TSK, driving the company's growth in materials handling, biomass, and other sectors. 

Rafael Mateo

Rafael Mateo, CEO of Acciona Energía, is an industrial engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the energy sector. Considered one of the leading experts in renewable energies, he was the CEO of ENDESA-Chile for four years and Director of Production at Endesa for 17 years.

Yann Dumont

Yann Dumont is CEO of the consulting firm Reolum Renewable Research and President of ASEALEN, the Spanish Energy Storage Association. He has an extended professional career in energy and renewables, having previously worked at EDP Renewables and Abengoa and Forestalia Renewables as CEO of wind and solar.

Juan Laso

Juan Laso has been the Executive President of ALTEN Energías Renovables for the last 12 years. Previously, he was President of the Spain & Southern Africa Renewable Energies Consortium for over two years and the Asociación Empresarial Fotovoltaica for four years. He was also the CEO of Grupo T-Solar, where he spearheaded many solar PV installations across the globe.

Manuel Rodríguez

Manuel Rodríguez Fernández, is currently Corporate Procurement Director at Verdalia Bioenergy, focusing on biomethane and biofertilizers. Previously, Manual was Procurement Director at Aquila Capital and has been in the energy sector since 2010. Before joining Aquila Capital in 2020, he worked at OHLA as a Proposal Manager for Renewable Energies.

Belén Gallego

Belén Gallego has nearly 20 years of experience within the global sustainable energy community, championing transformational initiatives that advocate for better policies for renewable energy and decarbonization. She has been co-founder and CEO of services company ATA Insights since 2016. She was previously the Founder and Head of Solar Brands at Reuter Events from 2006-2014.

Luis Selva

Luis Selva, CEO at BNZ, has 20 years of experience in the Renewable Energy Sector, Solar Photovoltaic, Wind, Storage Solutions, and Hybridization. Selva was previously CCO at QBI Solutions, where he led energy transformation initiatives. Before this, he spent 12 years managing the Photovoltaic Business Unit – Service Division at Ingeteam.

Marta Martínez Queimadelos

Marta Martínez Queimadelos, CEO of Cero Generation, has been in the renewable energy industry since 2006 when she became Co-founder and CFO of Grupo T-Solar. Marta joined Cero Generation in November 2021 as a Board Member and became CEO in March 2022.

Eduardo Soria

Eduardo Soria, Partner at Circle Energy, previously worked as an operating partner, advisor, and investment committee member at Everwood Capital. He has substantial experience in other energy-related companies such as Optimize Energy, Tradergy, and Vector Cuatro Group.

Jon Macías Santiago

Jon Macías Santiago, President of APPA Self-consumption, Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer of Edison Next (EDF Group), and Vice President of the Osotu Foundation, has over 20 years of experience in the energy sector. Jon is an experienced advisor on sustainability, energy solutions (photovoltaic, biogas, self-consumption, biomass, microgrid, carbon capture), and how to approach the decarbonization process.

Javier Izquierdo López

Javier Izquierdo López, Technical Director at AEDIVE, works at the forefront of green hydrogen development. He was previously Head of Development Spain H2 at EDP Renewables and Head of e-mobility at EDP Spain. He has been a member of the Governing Board of the Official College of Industrial Engineers of Asturias since January 2020.

Rocío Sicre

Rocío Sicre studied economics and has developed her professional career in the renewable energy sector as a manager specializing in energy and financing. She has been the Country Manager for Spain at EDPR since 2008 and was previously President of the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE). Rocio participates in the Women in Energy Transition Club, which is promoted by Capgemini.

José Manuel Martínez

José Manuel Martínez is the CEO and Managing Director at Eiffage Energía Sistemas and has been there since January 2003 and a delegate of Eiffage for Spain up until 2019. In 2003, he also held the Director General de Industria y Energía position for the government in Castilla-La Mancha for just over 2 years.

Ángel L. Rodríguez

Angel L. Rodriguez has been a Head of Renewable Energy in the engineering, contracting, commercial, and technical office at Elecnor Group since 2010. Here, he has played a vital role in constructing a wide range of solar PV and wind plants across Spain. Before this, he had senior positions in civil engineering and construction organizations such as Grupo S.Econsa Obras y Construcciones SA, U.Razca Construcciones SA, and Constructora Los Álamos S.A.

José Bogas Gálvez

José Bogas Gálvez is the CEO of Endesa & Enel Group’s Country Manager for Iberia. He joined Endesa in 1982 and was General Manager and Head of Generation between 1997 and 1998, after which he was Head of the electricity business until 2004. From 2004 until 2014, he was General Manager for Spain and Portugal before becoming CEO.

Javier Gil

Javier Gil has been CEO and Co-founder at Enerland for over 18 years, which has acquired companies and founded international subsidiaries in Italy, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Argentina, Tunisia, and Poland in recent years, totaling more than 2GW in its pipeline of projects under development.

Andrés Sandoval

Andrés Sandoval, Head of Business Development at Applus+ Renewable Energy Services B.U., has 17 years of experience in the renewable sector, with a major focus on solar PV technology. Since 2008, he has been part of Enertis, where he has managed international development in markets such as the United Kingdom, Central America, and Colombia.

María Díez Barbero

María Díez Barbero is the General Manager of Business Development and Operations in Europe, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for Europe, and Head of Technical Development at Enfinity Global. She previously worked for Vector Cuatro Group, PVdiagnosis, and Siemens Gamesa. She has experience delivering PV, thermal, wind energy, and automotive projects.

José Antonio Lopez Orduna

José Antonio Lopez Orduna started his career in the energy sector in the late 1990s at VINCI Energias. After some years, he held the position of Director of Renewables, Telecommunications, and Nuclear. José later occupied other management positions in business and sales at EWM Energy & Waste Management and SOFOS Energia. He is currently the Director of Utility-Scale Solar Projects at Engie España.

Carlos Saiz Ulargui

Carlos Saiz Ulargui is Head of the Proposals Department for Renewable Energies at OHLA and was previously Head of the company’s renewable energy engineering team. Carlos was the Director of Renewable Energy Projects at Alarde Energy Society for six years before joining OHL Industrial, OHLA’s predecessor.

David Ruyet

David Ruyet is the Managing Director of the smart energy management firm ERP Energias del Plata and has been a partner at Amina Energy since 2013. He has also devoted part of his professional career to teaching, including several MBAs in Spain and Uruguay.

Javier Asensio-Marín

Javier Asensio-Marín is now a self-employed renewable energies strategic advisor. Prior to this, he was the Managing Director for Spain and Head of Business Development for LATAM at Renantis until June 2024. He was CEO of Vector Renewables until January 2021 and was a Board Member of UNEF until September 2021. Javier has more than 20 years of experience in renewable energy, and during the last ten years, he has held executive positions in leading companies in the energy sector.

Juan Pedro García los Santos

Juan Pedro García Los Santos, Generation Director at Ferrovial Construction. Juan previously worked at Abengoa in various positions for 19 years, including Director of PV, Wind and Renewable Energy, and Energy Efficiency Director.

José Ramón Largo

José Ramón Largo, currently the CEO of AP Executive Search, recruiting technical and leadership roles in the energy sector. He was previously Director of the Strategic Development Unit at Forestalia and has spent his entire professional career in the renewables sector. He has occupied different positions in management at top companies such as BP and Siemens Gamesa. Before joining Forestalia, he was Head of Renewable Operations in Iberia at REPSOL.

Fernando Salinas Loring

Fernando Salinas Loring, Managing Director of IBERIA at energy solutions provider Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), has more than ten years of experience in international business development of large-scale PV and CSP solar plants. Fernando has extensive experience managing projects in Spain, Mexico, the USA, Panama, El Salvador, and Australia.

Nacho Bautistais

Nacho Bautistais is the CEO and co-founder at Fundeen. Before creating Fundeen in 2017, he managed operating assets and evaluated new investment opportunities for notable companies in Spain’s renewable energy sector.

Rocio Hortigüela

Rocio Hortigüela had more than 20 years of multidisciplinary professional experience prior to joining Grenergy as an Independent Consultant. She is a mining engineer specializing in energy, technical, and managerial positions. She is also CEO at Entiba Energy and participates in university talks at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM).

Said Istambuli

Said Istambuli has a strong background leading the growth of small and medium-sized B2B firms in the chemical, engineering, and consultancy sectors and the renewable energy industry. Said is currently the Director of Corporate Business Development at Gransolar Group (GRS) and Vice Chairman of the Board at PVH Middle East.

Luis Martín Blazquez

Luis Martín Blazquez is Head of Solar Engineering for Spain and RoW at Iberdrola Renewables, having worked there for 16 years. He was previously a Project Consultant at Accenture and in Repsol’s Optimization and Planning of Refining team.

Carolina Nester

Carolina Nester is the Head of Operations for Iberia at Sonnedix, where she joined in 2017 and was previously an Asset Manager at Vector Cuatro Group. She has experience in implementation and quality management, project design, project and construction management, and PV plant maintenance.

Oriol Brunet

Oriol Brunet is a Key Account Manager for the UK & Europe (Solar PV, BESS & H2) at Ingeteam Power Technology. He previously worked at Green Power Conferences and Solar Media.

Carolina Álvarez

Carolina Álvarez is a Partner and Strategic Consultancy Director at Isemaren. Carolina is an industrial engineer by profession, having previously worked as a senior consultant for energy projects for more than ten years at companies such as G-Advisory and Enertis Solar. She also participated as a speaker at the PULSE event in April 2023.

Rafael Alcon Saez

Rafael Alcon Saez is a PV expert who has dedicated his career to renewables. He has worked as EPC PV Operations Director at Elecnor and EPV PV Operations Manager at ISOLUX. He joined Lantania Group in November 2021 and is now their General Director of Energy.

Juan Manuel Presa Garcia

Juan Manuel Presa Garcia, Senior Business Development Manager at Lightsource BP, is an engineer and executive MBA with 20 years of experience in sales, project development, and management. He focuses on business and project development (B2B) in PV and biomass in the renewable industry.

Dana Albella

Dana Albella, Head of Strategic Accounts & Cross Regional at Longi Solar, has over 15 years of working in the renewable energy space, having previously worked in management positions at Jinko Solar and Ingeteam and joined Longi Solar as Business Development Director in 2018.

Luis Sabaté

Luis Sabaté is CEO and Chairman of the Board at Matrix Renewables. He has over 20 years of experience in the energy sector, having previously worked at Nextracker as Chief Operating Officer for three years, where he led business operations in Latam, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Jorge Barredo López

Jorge Barredo López is a Renewables, Innovation, and New Business Director at Naturgy and a Board Member of Powen and Exera Energía. Among the various positions he has held during his career in renewables, he was the President of UNEF for more than eight years.

Sonia de Sales-Lisboa

Sonia de Sales-Lisboa has over nine years of experience in the renewable energy field and held the position of Business Development Manager at Canadian Solar from 2021 to 2022, after which she joined Octopus Energy Generation in September 2022 as Investment Manager. She was previously a Business Development Manager for Iberia at Q CELLS. She is now the Director of Development at Altano Energy.

Alejandro Villegas

Alejandro Villegas has been Jinko Solar’s Senior Regional Sales Manager since 2024. Before joining Jinko Solar, Alejandro worked at Power Electronics for 8 years in numerous roles. Before this, he was the country manager for GRUPO SOLAER in India, then moved to the USA and took up a number of roles in PV engineering in California and Arizona.

Ivan Arkipoff

Ivan Arkipoff is the Chief Technology Officer at PVHardware, a provider of solar trackers, structures, and control solutions for utility-scale solar power plants. Before joining PVHardware, Ivan was a Technical Director at Grupo Gransolar (GRS).

Inés Monroy

Ines Monroy, founder of Social License Energy, has held positions in business development and sales, project development, and project management in various markets in Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific in the PV energy sector since 2005. She has experience across the value chain, working with manufacturing, distribution, and transfer of PV technology, as well as the development, EPC, and O&M of PV projects.

María Julieta Maresca

María Julieta Maresca is the Senior Hydrogen Commercial Strategy Manager at Repsol. With over 24 years of experience in the energy sector, María previously worked as Project Manager and Process Head at YPF for large-scale projects at LNG and E&P facilities in Spain, Japan, and Argentina.

Óscar Page

Óscar Page is the Managing Director for Iberia at SENS - Iqony Solar Energy Solutions with extensive experience of more than 20 years in the energy sector across various regions. Óscar was previously in a managing position at Capital Energy. He joined SENS, a global service provider for renewable energy, specifically PV, in June 2022.

Celia Roldan

Celia Roldan is Country Manager Spain & Portugal for Enertrag. Celia was previously Shell's Head of Renewable Power Development in Iberia. She has over 22 years of experience in the renewable energy sector and previously worked in companies such as Iberdrola, Abengoa Solar, ABB, and Siemens.

Carlos Meléndez Álvarez

Carlos Meléndez Álvarez, Senior Photovoltaic Design & Grid Engineer at UKA IBERIA S.L.U. (Spain), Carlos has extensive professional experience managing energy projects in Latin America and Spain. Before joining UKA IBERIA S.L.U. in 2021, Meléndez worked on international energy projects for several engineering companies in Spain, Uruguay, and Peru.

Miquel Sirera

Miquel Sirera is the Contracts & Project Manager at Trina Solar. He was previously a Deputy Project Manager at INCOSA and held management positions at Gransolar. Miquel has extensive experience managing utility-scale power plants across three continents.

Alejandro García Menéndez

Alejandro García Menendez is the Sales Director for Electrical Infrastructure at TSK Electronics and Electricity, having worked at the company for over a decade. He handles renewable proposals, PV, wind, substations, and electrical infrastructure.