Experience

• 

  Harmony Energy

  • Auckland, New Zealand

  • Operations Director NZ

    • Apr 2024 - Present
    • Auckland, New Zealand

• 

  Solar Bay

  • Auckland, New Zealand

  • Senior Engineer

    • Oct 2022 - Apr 2024
    • Auckland, New Zealand

• 

  The SOLA Group

  • South Africa
  • Renewable Energy Semiconductor Manufacturing
  • 1 - 100 Employee

  • Senior Utility Engineer

    • Feb 2020 - Oct 2022

    SOLA Group (Pty) Ltd is a privately owned engineering EPC company specializing in the development, designing, execution, and financing of Commercial, Industrial, and Utility-scale solar projects in Southern Africa. To date, SOLA has developed +400 MWp and constructed 80 MWp of solar projects. My responsibilities at SOLA includes:• As the lead Utility Design Engineer (promoted in Jan 2020) responsible for large greenfield & brownfield projects.• Established the utility-scale engineering division at SOLA, including managing the engineering team, chairing meetings, develop templates, project scheduling, contract specifications, BOQs, QC/QA documents, sub-contractor specifications, and technical contract schedules.• Perform overall quality control on engineering projects budget, schedule, plans, personnel’s performance, and regularly report on project status.• Liaison with clients, consultants, sub-contractors, local and national government personnel to interpret their needs, requirements and representing them in the field.• Ensure projects comply with local and international Legistration requirements.• Preparation of tender bid proposal documentation, BOQ pricing, yield analysis studies, contractual guarantees. • Manage engineering projects from tender stage to fully commissioned, these include:• completed 17 MW PV sites now in operational phase;• currently 30MW in Construction phase and, • in the process of closing 3x 100MW still to be designed still within 2022. • Complete equipment due diligence on various available technologies.• Writing of technical report for submission to LTA and OE.• Act as an engineering consultant for utility projects (up to 86 MWp, $135M): Undertaking gap analysis on contractual obligations, proposing solutions to shortfalls, and consult as a document gatekeeper before submitting files to the developer for final approval.

  • Senior Engineer

    • Jan 2019 - Jan 2020

    Senior Design Engineer & Manager (January 2019 - December 2019) at SOLA Group, Cape Town office:• Manage junior engineers and draftsmen and team workload, responsibilities, evaluate KPIs and conduct design reviews (reviewed and approved 11 projects accounting for 9 MWp). • Develop financial and engineering tools.

  • Design Engineer

    • Mar 2017 - Jan 2019

    Junior design engineer (March 2017 - December 2019) at SOLA Group, Johannesburg office:• Tender and feasibility studies evaluating a client’s potential savings using simulation software such as PVsol, PVsyst, Helioscope and AutoCAD. Compiling of BOQs, financial models and completing preliminary design where required.• Complete 8.5 MWp of rooftop solar systems designs (up to 1.4MWp per project): Responsible for the electrical and mechanical design including all simulations, calculations, commissioning and interactions with client and contractors.• Ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations, as well as adherence to good engineering practices. • Problem solving and troubleshooting for Operation and Maintenance.

• 

  Eskom

  • Vereeniging Area, South Africa (Lethabo Power Station)

  • Engineer in Training

    • Feb 2016 - Feb 2017
    • Vereeniging Area, South Africa (Lethabo Power Station)

• 

  North West University Potchefstroom Campus

  • South Africa
  • Higher Education
  • 700 & Above Employee

  • M.Eng Electrical Engineering

    • Jan 2014 - Nov 2016

    I completed my Master's Degree cum laude in Electrical and Electronic engineering at the North-West University, Potchefstroom. The research project focused on bringing awareness and building much needed capacity in the weather radar environment using the Design Science Research framework. The Master's consisted of three main sections, namely:1) Deploying the weather radar (1974 model)2) Upgrade the radar with state-of-the-art technology following a re-engineering process3) Conduct a risk analysis on the systemResponsibities and experienced gained- Project Manager- Site inspections and installations- Calibration and verification- Re-engineering the radar system- Design, upgrade and implement the re-engineered designs- WIFI communication network - Budgeting - Risk analysis- Design Science Research Methodology Framework- Political matters- Collaborating with both local and international companiesPresented a poster at the 10th International Conference of the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE)Visited the National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the USA for future collaborations and researched training on the latest radar systems.

  • NWU Solar Car

    • Jan 2013 - Oct 2016

    Solar technology is growing at a rapid speed producing new innovative methods to generate, store and use electricity. To promote the technology varies international solar car competitions (as Australia, America, Dubai, South Africa, etc.) challenges universities to compete with one another. These solar cars make use of state-of-the-art technology, showcasing the latest technology available. The North-West University (NWU) took up the challenge to designed and build just such a solar car. In 2014 the NWU competed in the SASOL Solar Challenge 2014 hosted in South Africa. The car finished overall fourth and second for South Africa. After the competition certain modification were made to the car as replacing the telemetry system, new area-dynamic canopy and weight reduction. In October 2015 the NWU compete in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia. In this competition the solar cars have to drive from Darwin (North) to Adelaide (South), a full 3022 km through harsh weather conditions as the constant heat, strong crosswinds, road trains and occasional storms. Against all odds the NWU finished the race in 11th position out of 45 teams from 22 countries, becoming the first team from African to finish the race. The NWU also finished before teams from universities as Cambridge, MIT, Solaris and Blue Sky (Canada). I have been part of the team for the last 3 years with the responsibilities of -Solar car driver and assist in the strategy-Designing of the main and auxiliary electrical system-MPPT layout, installation and calibration-Collaborating with local and international companies-Providing recommendations on various design aspects -Testing and characterizing the car-Assisting in building the car with Carbon Fiber In the following years I will me a co-project leader for new students on the project

• 

  Japan film crew

  • South Africa

  • Film crew assistant

    • Nov 2012 - Dec 2012
    • South Africa

• 

  Eskom

  • Vacation work

    • 2012 - 2012

    Vacation work