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Seven key trends from renewable energy’s 2020 performance & takeaways for 2021

While detailed analysis of the Texas event crisis is still ongoing, the authors note, they examine some of the notable takeaways and trends in renewable energy markets from last year's performance.

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The deep freeze in Texas seems almost certain to be the top energy story of 2021. The meltdown of the ERCOT power grid had dramatic implications at the individual project level, as the financial performance of each project was driven by the weather conditions at its particular location. For example: iced blades caused some wind projects to shut down near the beginning of the cold weather event, missing out — or causing their offtakers to miss out — on a potential windfall due to the record-breaking $9,000/MWh pricing that was sustained for days during the event. Meanwhile, some solar projects exceeded expectations during key high-priced hours.

 

We are excited to dig into the specifics of which projects performed and outperformed as the granular data becomes available. While detailed analysis of the Texas event crisis is still ongoing, we’ve analyzed the hourly generation and price data from every available renewable energy project in 2020 to help understand takeaways and trends in renewable energy markets from last year’s performance.

 

The shocking events of last month notwithstanding, we expect many of these trends to continue in 2021 and beyond, while other new trends are sure to emerge as well. Here, we share seven of our findings, and the data behind them.

1. Renewable energy project value continues to be highly variable.

 

 

The value of renewable energy project generation across the country in 2020 ranged from a low of less than $1/MWh to a high of $57/MWh. (Measured as the value of project generation, sold at the nodal/hub real-time Locational Marginal Price (LMP), where project generation is either observed or modeled depending on data availability.) A complete summary of renewable energy project values observed in 2020 across various markets is below:

 

 

Renewable Energy Project Value

 

(N/A values represent limited data)

 

Generally, we see that the highest-value projects are located in areas of low renewable penetration of the same technology — for example, wind in CAISO or solar in ERCOT. These projects can distinguish themselves by offering a production profile that is complementary to other renewable energy projects nearby and can capture high-value hours currently underserved. Said otherwise, projects that can generate when generation from other sources is low stand to benefit from higher market prices due to basic supply and demand.

 

Looking in more detail, we see a wide range of value across individual projects, driven both by project production profiles and local congestion on the grid.

 

Below we dive into the drivers behind some of the wide-ranging values in the table above.

2. Congestion continues to be a revenue-maker or breaker.

 

 

One data point that should jump out in the above table is that the highest-value project of any renewables project in the country is a wind project in ERCOT West! While most wind projects within ERCOT West produced power worth comparatively little (the average real-time generation-weighted nodal price in 2020 was ~$10/MWh), the Notrees Wind Farm achieved an average nodal value of $56.60/MWh in 2020. Congestion in the first quarter, driven in part by oil and gas drilling in the Delaware Basin, drove the nodal price up for this West Texas wind project, causing entire months to average as high as $260/MWh.

 

 

Notrees Wind Farm Prices

 

The driver behind this price spike was localized congestion, which elevated prices at this particular location and suppressed them elsewhere. Coincidentally, the least valuable project in 2020 was also a wind farm in ERCOT West; it realized an average real-time LMP of less than $1/MWh in 2020.

 

 

Being on the right side of congestion will continue to be a key determinant to a project’s financial success.

3. Resilient projects lead with a competitive edge.

 

The fact that cold weather can cause wind farm outages due to the accumulation of ice on turbine blades is not new. Recently, images of iced over blades on non-generating wind turbines have flooded media outlets, but a similar event happened in late October 2020.

 

 

In late October 2020, an ice storm affected parts of Texas showing how projects that planned for extreme weather events are best positioned to take advantage of price spikes.

 

 

 

Several projects were forced to stop production during the ice storm due to ice accumulation on wind turbine blades. Projects that kept generating benefited from high wind speeds and elevated power prices, while projects that shut down earned little real-time revenue.

 

 

As a result, neighboring projects with a similar wind resource earned very different levels of merchant revenue. An example is shown above: the as-generated value of power generated by Barton Chapel wind farm at ERCOT North Hub was over 2.5 times than that of Green Pastures Wind, a wind farm located just slightly to the northwest.

 

Given that the market impact of the ice storm in October 2020 was tiny in magnitude compared to last month’s events, we expect that the recent cold snap drove even larger discrepancies in project value. Both the October ice storm and the February polar vortex underscore how projects that plan for extreme weather events and build resiliency into their systems have a competitive edge.

 

Given that high prices tend to correspond to extreme weather, clean energy buyers should also be aware that a project’s resiliency during these events has significant financial impacts — and should align incentives in their offtake contracts accordingly.

4. Texas summer price spikes were tame in 2020, but what of 2021?

During the heatwave of the summer of 2019, the ERCOT market saw what was at the time unprecedented price volatility, with real-time prices reaching as high as $9,000/MWh for the first time in the market’s history. This was great news for renewable energy project owners and offtakers, so long as their project was generating during the handful of price spikes. The same is true during last month’s events, during which prices reached $9,000/MWh for days at a time.

 

As we detailed in the 2020 P99 Hedge That Wasn’t white paper, the situation was and will continue to be quite painful for any renewable energy project with a firm volume contract in place that did not generate enough energy to meet their firm volume commitments during price spikes.

 

By comparison, in the summer of 2020, the ERCOT market saw prices that were much lower than in 2019. In August, ERCOT West around-the-clock real-time prices averaged just $33/MWh in 2020, compared to $131/MWh in 2019. The value of both wind and solar projects in ERCOT West, similarly, dropped in August 2020: wind generation was worth just $24/MWh, and solar generation $52/MWh — a 70% and 80% reduction in value, respectively, from August 2019.

 

 

As a result, projects and offtakers that benefited from the prior year’s volatility had a much less profitable summer. For renewable energy projects with firm volume commitments, however, summer 2020 offered a reprieve from the pain of 2019 as lower weather-driven volatility resulted in more stable contract performance.

 

Last month’s events demonstrate that critical weather events are not isolated to one month or one season. Whereas 2019 saw summer spikes, 2021 has already seen record-breaking winter peak load records that resulted in new record-breaking prices in Texas.

 

We will all be watching the weather closely in 2021. This is particularly true for offtakers attempting to hedge market rate exposures and projects with fixed volume swaps, as they remain highly sensitive to price volatility and whether or not the sun is shining or wind is blowing during any exceptionally high-priced hours.

5. Wind energy prices at SPP North Hub bottom out during low-demand periods.

 

The average real-time value of wind generation at SPP North was worth $1/MWh over the entire month of November 2020. This record-low price point was driven by a combination of above-average wind speeds, below-average demand, and more than 1.6 GW of new wind build coming onto the grid in 2020.

 

The graphic above shows that the value of wind generation was in fact well below $0/MWh in many locations across the ISO, if settled in the real-time at SPP North Hub.

 

This low price month stands in sharp contrast with the events of last month, where prices were regularly in the hundreds or thousands of dollars as cold gripped much of the region.

 

With more than 3 GW of additional wind capacity planned to come online in 2021 in the SPP ISO, we will be watching to see if record low generation-weighted prices continue during periods of low demand.

6. Solar in CAISO stabilizes after five years of shape decline.

 

After five years of consistent degradation in shape scalar (the ratio between the as-generated value of power and the around-the-clock value of power), CAISO solar projects bounced back in 2020 with a slight uptick in value.

 

 

While solar shape remained near record lows of around 80% of the ATC price, this is a material uptick from the prior year’s value, which for many California solar projects was below 70%. The increase is attributable in part to price spikes that were concurrent with solar generation during the heatwave in August.

 

Going forward, we will be watching the California solar value closely as hundreds of MWs of battery storage capacity come online in 2021 and increase the grid’s ability to shift solar generation away from the hours of abundant sunshine.

7. Basis in SPP is a less sore subject.

 

 

Basis, or the difference between the LMP at the project node and at the relevant hub, is a significant contributor to a project’s bottom line. Historically, wind projects in SPP have struggled with significant basis impacts to revenue, with nodal LMPs often spending many hours at or below zero.

 

 

In 2020, the average as-generated basis cost for wind projects in this area was $3/MWh, meaning that on average over the year market price at the project’s node was $3/MWh lower than the relevant hub price when weighted by project generation. This is a significant improvement from years prior, in which basis costs reached as high as $20/MWh.

 

 

While 2020 saw node-to-hub basis improve across SPP wind projects, it’s unclear whether this trend will continue. Developers that site their projects in locations that minimize basis risk or that employ downside-protection options will be best positioned for long-term success.

 

 

Node-to-hub basis for wind farms in Texas and Oklahoma continues to improve, as shown by the 12-month trailing as-generated value.

 

 


Reposted as in Utility Dive.

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Edwina Rasmussen
Associate, Analytics – Risk Analytics
Barbara Donnelly
Office Manager

Barbara brings over 20 years of support experience to the REsurety team.  She has worked with startups and high-growth organizations to ensure an efficient and pleasant employee work experience.

Jhané Thomas
DevOps Engineer

Jhané Thomas is a DevOps Engineer with a pervasive background in CI/CD and automation. Prior to joining REsurety, she worked at large company focused on developing computer processors and related technologies, where she improved their CI/CD pipelines and testing infrastructure. At REsurety, she is building and improving the CI/CD infrastructure as well as implement more DevOps practices.


Ms. Thomas is in the process of attaining her Master’s degree in Information technology and has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, both from Johnson & Wales University.

Jessica Tomaszewski
Research Scientist

Jessica Tomaszewski is an atmospheric scientist with experience in boundary layer meteorology, numerical weather prediction, and wind resource assessment. Prior to joining REsurety, Dr. Tomaszewski completed a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship with a focus on simulating interactions between wind farms and the lower atmosphere. She also conducted two summer internships at NextEra Analytics investigating improvements to the wind farm wake modeling process. As a research scientist at REsurety, she investigates new techniques for wind flow and wake modeling and long-term wind resource prediction.


Dr. Tomaszewski holds Doctor of Philosophy and Master’s degrees in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma where she graduated with highest honors.

Jackson Myers
VP, Transaction Analytics

Jackson Myers has more than 7 years of experience in wind and solar energy operations. Prior to joining REsurety, Mr. Myers was a member of the meteorology team at Pattern Energy where he was responsible for the operational data analytics program. Prior to that, Mr. Myers worked at EDPR where he analyzed wind and solar plant performance and led a research program on the use of lightning detection technology at wind farms.


Mr. Myers holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics from McGill University and a Master’s degree in physics from Rice University.

Irina Gumennik
Associate, Risk Analytics

Irina Gumennik is an environmental engineer and data analyst with more than 10 years of experience in the development of renewable energy projects. Irina was part of the team that permitted, constructed, and commissioned the Block Island Wind Farm, the first offshore wind energy project in the United States. Before joining REsurety, Irina worked for the world’s largest demand response service provider on demand-side solutions and battery storage products for commercial and institutional energy users. At REsurety, Irina evaluates weather-related volumetric risk and structures hedging contracts to mitigate that risk for clean energy buyers and sellers.

 

Ms. Gumennik holds a Master’s degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard University.

Elizabeth Kalikasingh
Senior Analyst, Risk Analytics

Lizzy Kalikasingh is a materials engineer and scientist with experience in materials selection and optimization for wind and solar technology. Before joining REsurety, Lizzy researched polymer coatings to reduce ice adhesion for wind turbine blades and was involved in the selling of renewable energy credits generated by wind turbines in Cleveland.  Additionally, she worked as an operations engineer at EverPower Windholdings, where she designed tools to analyze the performance of wind turbines and auxiliary instruments. 

Ms. Kalikasingh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

David Simons
Software Engineer

David Simons is an engineer with experience in energy systems and data science. Prior to joining REsurety, David led the Systems & Analytics team at Enel X, building software to settle demand response events for the world’s largest DR provider. At REsurety, he develops and improves the analytics used to predict renewable energy revenue and quantify risk.


Mr. Simons holds a Bachelor’s degree in Energy Systems Engineering from the University of Toronto as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics from McGill University.

Daniel Jang
Power Markets Research Associate

Daniel Jang is a researcher with experience in fundamentals-based modeling of electric power systems. Before joining REsurety, he worked in the utilities practice at the Brattle Group, consulting on issues spanning wholesale and retail electricity in litigation and commercial contexts. At REsurety, he is helping to advance renewable power price analytics. 


Mr. Jang holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from Princeton University.

Chris Marlowe
Associate, Operations
Brian Sousa
Risk and Transaction Analyst
Blair Allen
Product Manager, Information Services

Blair Allen is a product manager with experience in energy information services products that support both ends of energy market exposure, from the project development phase to managing merchant generation. Before joining REsurety, Mr. Allen worked at a large energy data and analytics company as the Chief of Staff to their Power business unit, helping to manage, develop, and grow the company’s global portfolio of electricity market products and services. Prior to that he worked as a Senior Market Analyst offering price and congestion forecasts to customers with physical or financial risk in the Mid-continent ISO.


Mr. Allen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Bucknell University, with a minor in Economics.

Anshal Savla
Data Engineer

Anshal Savla is an engineer with expertise in building data pipelines and automated workflows.  Before joining the REsurety team, he worked as a Data Analyst at New York City Transit where he built a data pipeline to analyze employee attrition trends. At REsurety, he is working on building and optimizing automated data pipelines to support the company’s analysis of wind speed and electric power generation and pricing data.


Mr. Savla holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from New York University and a Bachelor’s degree in Information and Technology from NMIMS University, in India.

Marion Cundari
Senior Analyst, Transaction Analytics

Marion Cundari is a mechanical engineer with experience in both wind energy and energy efficiency program evaluation. While earning her bachelor’s degree, Marion helped develop a sound based wind turbine condition monitoring prototype as her senior project. After graduation and before joining REsurety, Marion calculated energy and demand savings associated with utility sponsored energy efficiency programs throughout the United States.


Ms. Cundari holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering and a minor in economics from the University of Vermont.

Aaron Perry
Associate, Analytics – Risk Analytics

Aaron Perry is a meteorologist with experience in wind resource assessment, climate science, and numerical weather prediction. Before joining REsurety he worked for Vaisala, performing wind and solar resource assessments, and analyzing hundreds of pre-construction and operational projects around the world. As part of his Master’s studies he researched supply-side volumetric risk to renewable energy companies and the financial tools that may reduce this risk.  At REsurety Aaron evaluates weather related volumetric risk and structures hedging contracts to mitigate that risk for clean energy buyers and sellers.


Mr. Perry holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the Central European University in Hungary, Lund University in Sweden, and the University of Manchester in the UK. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric Science from Cornell University.

Aaron Nickelsberg
Product Manager
David Luke Oates
VP of Power Markets Research

David Luke Oates is an engineer and researcher with experience in statistical and fundamentals-based modeling of wholesale electricity systems.  Before joining the REsurety team, he was a consultant at the Brattle Group, supporting electricity market operators, utilities, and asset owners to address market design, asset valuation, and regulatory questions. At REsurety, he is helping to advance power price analytics in the context of emerging issues in the electricity sector.

 

Dr. Oates holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University, Canada.

Jennifer Newman
VP of Atmospheric Science Research

Jennifer Newman is an atmospheric scientist with experience in boundary layer meteorology, remote sensing, machine learning, and wind resource assessment. Prior to joining REsurety, Dr. Newman completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with a focus on improving turbulence estimates from Doppler wind lidars. As a research scientist at REsurety, she investigates new methods for estimating the risk of potential wind projects.


Dr. Newman holds Doctor of Philosophy and Master’s degrees in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric Science from Cornell University where she graduated with distinction in research.

Tony Lapolito
SVP of Product

Tony Lapolito is the Senior Vice President, Product of REsurety.  He has been a part of multiple early stage companies that have generated well over $1B in liquidity.  Tony is a pioneer in many disruptive technologies including digital media, CDNs, cloud, distributed computing and big data.  He has held senior Product, Marketing and UX positions at Cisco Systems, BNI and SightPath (both acquired by Cisco), Chipcom (acquired by 3Com) as well as Signiant and SevOne. 


Tony holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Massachusetts, Lowell and a Masters of Business Administration from Boston College.

Adam Reeve
SVP of Software

Adam Reeve is a mechanical engineer and data scientist with a strong interest in the rapidly evolving renewable energy landscape. Before joining the REsurety team, he worked for a proprietary trading firm specializing in quantitative analysis of energy markets. His deep experience in data-driven analysis, model building, risk assessment and data visualization support REsurety’s analytical approach to quantifying and managing the weather-linked revenue risks of wind power projects.


Mr. Reeve holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Political Science from Yale College, with a focus on energy and environmental studies. He graduated with distinction in both majors.

Carl Ostridge
SVP of Analytics

Carl Ostridge has more than 10 years of wind energy experience specializing in pre-construction and operational wind resource and energy yield assessments. Prior to joining REsurety, Mr. Ostridge worked for DNV GL analyzing and improving the accuracy of wind farm energy analyses and developing models to predict wind farm energy output and revenue on hourly timescales. He also led research activities focusing on turbine performance, wind flow and wake modeling, measurement instrument accuracy, and wind resource variability and long-term trends. His extensive industry experience and proven analytical skills support REsurety’s industry-leading tools and expertise in weather-related risk and valuation for renewable energy projects. 


Mr. Ostridge holds a Master’s degree in Astrophysics from the University of Exeter in the UK.

Lee Taylor
CEO

Lee Taylor is the Co-Founder and CEO of REsurety.  Since founding REsurety in 2012 to commercialize research he conducted at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Mr. Taylor has built a rapidly growing company, gained institutional financing and attracted top-notch talent, advisors and directors. Today, REsurety’s products are not only award winning, but are redefining the way clean energy buyers and sellers are thinking about and managing risk. Under Mr. Taylor’s stewardship, REsurety has amassed contracts supporting more than 5,000 MW of renewable energy generation capacity, and counts many of the U.S. — if not the world’s — largest companies as customers and partners, including Microsoft, Invenergy, Capital Power, Southern Company, Nephila Climate, and Allianz.


Mr. Taylor holds an MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he was named an Edward Tuck Scholar (awarded for academic achievement) and recipient of the Lt. Walter Jacobs Memorial Prize (awarded for intellectual leadership). He also holds Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Biology from the University of Virginia.

David Luke Oates
VP, Power Markets Research

David Luke Oates is an engineer and researcher with experience in statistical and fundamentals-based modeling of wholesale electricity systems.  Before joining the REsurety team, he was a consultant at the Brattle Group, supporting electricity market operators, utilities, and asset owners to address market design, asset valuation, and regulatory questions. At REsurety, he is helping to advance power price analytics in the context of emerging issues in the electricity sector.


Dr. Oates holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University, Canada.

Karl Critz
CTO

Karl Critz is a software engineer with experience in simulation, modeling, machine vision, and data visualization. His work in renewables has integrated solar power with smart residential load sources and optimized generation strategies for high-penetration wind. As an experienced software architect, Karl ensures that REsurety’s analytical infrastructure is functional, reliable, and scalable.


Mr. Critz holds a Master’s degree in Management and Engineering from MIT Sloan, where he received an NREL Innovative Research Analysis Award grant for wind integration research. Mr. Critz also holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.

Marcial Santiago
Data Quality Engineer

Marcial Santiago is a data engineer with a background in software development and mathematics. Before joining REsurety and the renewable energy industry, he worked as a Data Specialist at McLean Hospital. Mr. Santiago’s background in mathematics and software development help ensure the quality of to REsurety’s data-intensive approach to risk evaluation and mitigation.


Mr. Santiago holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computational Mathematics from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY.

Mark Brewer
Data Visualization Engineer
Martin Richard
Data Engineer
Caelin Schaefer
Risk and Transaction Analyst
Jeremy Traurig
Software Engineer
Alexndra Nelson
Risk and Transaction Analyst
Chris Prince
SVP of Engineering
Devon Lukas
Risk and Transaction Analyst
Enter to Watch Demo Videos
Praneeth Gurumurthy
Jr. Software Engineer
Pete Florenzano
Senior Data Engineer
Nathan Garcia
Software Quality Engineer
Eddy Page
Software Engineer, Data Science
David McDougall
VP, Software Sales
Amit Ranjan
Power Markets Research Associate

Amit Ranjan is an engineer and researcher with experience in fundamentals-based modeling of wholesale electricity markets. Before joining the REsurety team, he was a Senior Analyst at National Grid where he improved the fidelity of long-term capacity expansion models to support corporate strategy initiatives. He also studied the financial and electric system peak implications of electrifying heating in buildings across the US Northeast. At REsurety, he is helping to advance power price analytics amid evolving market designs, increasing penetration of renewable energy and changing policy landscape.

Mr. Ranjan holds a Master’s degree in Energy and Environmental Management from Duke University and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Delhi Technological University, India.

Matthew Livingston
Senior Associate, Risk Analytics

Matthew Livingston is a meteorologist with experience in weather forecasting and data analysis. Before joining the REsurety team, Matt worked for Penn State University as a researcher responsible for collecting and analyzing data retrieved from hail storms to help aid in the prediction of large hail events.


Mr. Livingston holds a Bachelor’s degree in Meteorology with a focus in Weather Risk Management from the Pennsylvania State University. In addition to his meteorology degree, he also minored in Energy, Business and Finance.

Aaron Carbine
Sr. Software Engineer
Yu Wang
Software Quality Manager

Yu Wang is the Software Quality Engineering Manager at REsurety who lays out the quality vision and oversees the quality activities of REsurety’s Risk, Platform and Information products. Before joining Resurety, Mr Wang built his more than twenty years of Software Quality Engineering tenure at MathWorks, Teradyne, Motorola and Amica by leading technical projects, managing onshore and offshore quality engineering teams, working cross-functionally, delivering high quality on-premises, distributed and cloud based software applications.

Mr Wang holds a Master’s degree in Software Reliability Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park.

 
Steven Kalt
Data Visualization Engineer

Steven Kalt is a full-stack developer with experience in data visualization, GIS, web design, and renewable energy origination. Before joining REsurety, he worked for Lux Research, designing interactive visualizations and developing research tools. At REsurety, Mr. Kalt works to build modular, scalable, and informative data visualization systems. 


Mr. Kalt holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Shane Hall
Software Engineer

Shane Hall trained as a mechanical engineer, but pivoted to software engineering after gaining academic research experience in the aerodynamic modeling of wind turbines. He has worked at ISO-NE modeling renewable resources, and as a software engineer in the energy consulting industry building financial software products and running commodity market forecasting to advise on procurement strategy in the C&I space. He has extensive experience in resource and market modeling, machine learning forecasting, and software product development.  At REsurety, Shane builds and improves software that analyzes renewable resources and assesses financial risk.


Mr. Hall holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Bachelor’s degree in Energy Engineering, and a Certificate in Wind Power Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Sarah Sofia
Software Engineer

Sarah Sofia is a photovoltaics engineer with extensive research experience in techno-economic analysis of solar cells and solar-plus-storage systems at high PV adoption rates. Prior to joining REsurety, Sarah performed doctoral research at MIT to determine how novel solar cell architectures and storage technologies could be made economically viable through combining experimental device fabrication, module manufacturing and system cost analysis, and location specific energy yield modeling to inform the optimal solar cell device design. At REsurety, Sarah is developing the team’s solar energy modeling software capabilities.


Dr. Sofia holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, as well as Bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Astronomy with a concentration in scientific computing from Haverford College.

Sahar Shirani
Director, Engineering – Data Science

Sahar Shirani is a civil engineer with extensive background in data analysis and statistical model development. Prior to joining REsurety, she worked at a Boston-based startup focused on treating industrial water, where she conducted market analysis on commodities. At REsurety, she is building and continuously improving the data science platform that powers REsurety’s insights into the renewable energy markets.


Ms. Shirani holds a Master’s degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Amirkabir Unviersity of Technology, in Iran.

Peter Richardson
Engineering Manager, Visualization and Apps

Peter Richardson is an Engineering Manager at REsurety with a focus on data visualization. He has been at the crossroads of Energy markets and data management for over a decade working on a variety of projects including human capacity development for renewable energy systems in the Galapagos Islands and the buildout of analytic software packages for financial contracts in wholesale electricity markets. 


Mr. Richardson holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Colorado College, with a minor in Mathematics. 

Owen Miles
Software Engineer

Owen Miles is a GIS specialist with experience in mapping and visualizing large environmental datasets.  Before joining REsurety, Owen worked in the environmental consulting field, where he specialized in numerical modeling and data visualization for environmental projects. At REsurety, he is building GIS and data visualization tools.


Owen has a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Queen’s University and a Bachelor degree in Water Resources Engineering.

Omri Schwarz
Software Quality Engineer

Omri Schwarz has a long career of software development, quality assurance, and full-stack software and hardware implementation in academic and commercial contexts. Prior to REsurety, Mr. Schwarz designed, developed and administered quality assurance processes at a quantitative hedge fund, operated Beowulf supercomputers at MIT, and developed software at Fraunhofer. At REsurety, Mr. Schwarz supports the developers by implementing and upgrading the QA process, putting stitches in time to save nine. 


Mr. Schwarz has a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

Michelle Bowen
Director, Business Development

Michelle Bowen is a business development professional who is passionate about ushering in a new clean energy era. Before joining the REsurety team, she worked in origination of long-term renewable energy offtake agreements at a leading, global renewable energy company.

Michelle holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering from Rice University.

Sinéad Barry-O’Brien
COO

Sinéad Barry-O’Brien is a leader in operations with proven execution across varied industries. Putting customers at the center of decision-making, she has driven growth through customer experience, team-building, and process improvement. Sinéad has supported global M&A strategies to build market share. She is passionate about scaling entrepreneurial companies in growth industries.


Sinéad holds a Master’s degree in International Public Policy and Diplomacy, from University College Cork, and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the National University of Ireland, Galway.