Meet the Team: Bernardo Kahn | OWC France
At OWC, our teams are constantly expanding into more locations, in expertise, and in sectors of influence. Our people are at the heart of what we do, and we invite you to get to know our team members so you can meet the energy behind change.
This week, we meet Bernardo Kahn, a Senior Offshore Renewable Energy Engineer, based in our Nantes office!
Position: Senior Offshore Renewable Energy Engineer
Office: Nantes
Hobbies Outside of Work: Hiking into the wild!
Can you tell us what first sparked your interest in the renewable energy sector?
Working with renewables was a way to combine my education as an engineer with my willingness to contribute to the fight against the ecological crisis we face today.
Although only investing in renewables won’t solely solve this crisis, renewable energy technologies are definitely part of the solution, and I wanted my day to day work to be part of it as well!
What do your day-to-day responsibilities involve?
I am a naval architect specialised in hydrodynamics so I work mostly with design and simulation of marine systems related to offshore renewable energy technologies such as offshore wind turbines, wave energy converters, tidal energy converters and floating solar farms.
Are their any innovations/technological trends in offshore renewable energies that particularly excite you?
The sector itself is an innovation and is ever-evolving – meaning we are presented with new developments all the time!
In particular, I appreciate any innovation that helps mitigate the ecological impact of renewable technologies. Even though they are a low-carbon source of energy, we still need to be mindful that like any infrastructure project – they still have an environmental impact that we should take into consideration. There are also innovations happening in terms of flexibility and energy storage to deal with the variability of renewables which will really help with energy grids and moving towards a more secure sustainable future!
You’ll be heading to Brazil this week to present at the British embassy – can you share with us a little about this event?
The event aims to inform and build capacity of the Ministry of Energy from the Brazilian government in preparation of their first ever offshore wind tender process. As an expert in the subject, OWC was invited to make a contribution, and we are looking forward to assist the Brazilian government to make their first steps in the exciting offshore wind sector, as we have already been doing with our clients in Brazil.
Finally, what do you enjoy most about working within the ABL Group?
The global outreach of the group allows for me to engage with a variety of different projects across multiple geographies each day which is really interesting.
Having teams all over the world also facilitates the development of projects, sharing global capabilities but also maintaining local contact and knowledge.
