Page 264 - ISES SWC50

Mike Schach
Country: Australia
Year joined industry: 1990
Company first worked for: BP Solar
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: Yes

Mike Schach has been a major contributor to the industry throughout the years working on many pioneering
solar projects, from the early days at BP Solar to now jointly running the successful small solar advisory firm,
Coronium. Projects include: Solar Power Supplies for Telecom (Telstra) throughout Australia (1990-2000); Sydney
2000 Olympics Athletes Village - 650 grid connected solar systems (1998-2000); Shenzhen Green Gardens 1MW
Rooftop (2005); 3MW Jindo project in Korea (2009); Moree Solar Farm (2009-2010); Business Development of 12
completed Utility Solar farms in Australia for large EPC company (2013-2017); Owners Engineer for Beryl 100MW
Solar Farm.

Kersten Schmidt
Country: Australia
Year joined industry: 1991
Company first worked for: SMA
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: Yes

Kersten Schmidt has worked for some of the biggest as well as smaller, but most relevant businesses in the
renewable energy sector over the last three decades, undertaking projects from Arnhem Land (remote tropical
Australia) to Antarctica to Alice Springs to Alaska. In the late 80’s, Kersten, had a vision of renewable energy
becoming mainstream. He decided to study electrical engineering with renewables as a special focus. He undertook
his first work as a student engineer testing the early generation of solar inverters at SMA. After he had finished his
electrical engineering degree in Germany, Kersten moved to Australia in the 90’s. Here he worked on innovation
in energy efficiency, tidal power research and helped to establish the first few major wind farms in the late 90’s
and early 2000’s. He engineered and project managed some of the landmark turnkey multi MW wind diesel hybrid
power stations/microgrids around Australia and the globe, including in Antarctica. In the solar energy space, Kersten
was a key driver in developing low cost concentrating solar PV dishes for Solar Systems. In the early 2010’s, he
was in charge of engineering some of the biggest solar PV farms in the country with BP Solar. He also worked on
many commercial size solar systems and provided engineering and general support for all kind of residential and
commercial grid connected and off-grid systems, including tracking solutions, free-field and roof top installations.
He was the Technical Manager Australia for the Switzerland based solar inverter manufacturer Solarmax. In 2015
he founded Enesol, a professional and agile consulting company, empowering their clients on their journey to energy
resilience, to lower energy costs and to decarbonisation, by providing independent, effective and relevant support
and advice. Kersten Schmidt is proud of his life-long dedication to and his ongoing achievements in the renewable
energy industry and is looking forward of many more to come.

246 | ISES SWC50 - The Century of Solar-Stories and Visions