Meet the team: Thomas Garabetian
Thomas is our Research & Innovation Manager where he coordinates the activities of the association related to research and innovation topics.
This includes liaising with the research and innovation community for solar PV in Europe, for instance through the coordination of the ETIP PV Secretariat (the EU supported platform that defines R&I priorities for PV in Europe), and SolarPower Europe’s involvement in research projects such as those in Horizon Europe.
Prior to joining SolarPower Europe, Thomas worked as Senior Policy Advisor at EGEC on geothermal energy. Before that he worked in Energy Cities and on climate adaptation economics at I4CE. Thomas holds a Master Degree in International Energy from Sciences Po Paris. He speaks French, English, and Spanish.
I love engaging with the solar PV community and learning ever more about PV technologies. It is a stimulating challenge to translate technical topics into policies and vice versa, to support researchers and companies in achieving their objectives to deliver the energy transition and climate action.
Working on EU projects, I might have to say getting several new projects in 2023!
But in truth it has been particularly rewarding to have been able to bring another colleague into the Research and Innovation Team, and expand SolarPower Europe’s presence within the PV R&I community.
I just wish for solar to deliver the 1.5°C target!
There is so much potential for PV that is yet to be tapped, from integration in buildings to having fully circular products, and obviously an efficiency ceiling that is far from reached. We can already do huge amounts with today’s technologies, but we need to accelerate bringing new solar solutions to market if we want to keep 1.5°C alive. Each 0.1°C of global warming is a whole lot of suffering, and solar is one of the key technology solutions to prevent that.
