The Kiwa PVEL Story
When global solar deployment began to accelerate in the early 2000s, most PV equipment buyers assumed that module reliability was consistent from manufacturer to manufacturer. They relied on 25-year power warranties to protect their investments. Few predicted the volatility that now characterizes the PV manufacturing landscape.
At that time, Jenya Meydbray was a reliability engineer for one of the world’s largest project developers. The tests that he conducted told a very different story: modules composed of different materials behave differently, especially after accelerated testing.
Jenya knew that sharing this data was the key to building investor confidence in solar, which was critical to adoption of PV technology. In 2010, Jenya started PV Evolution Labs – also known as PVEL – to bring valuable data about the performance and reliability of PV module technology to the greater solar industry.
From 2014 to 2019, PVEL operated under DNV, an advisory services consultancy and classification society. In 2021, PVEL became a member of the Kiwa Group of companies and is now referred to as “Kiwa PVEL”. From the beginning, Kiwa PVEL created data that matters to the global solar industry. Throughout our history and to this day, our commitment to this mission has not wavered.
Learn more about these services at www.kiwa.com/pvel and explore other services offered by the Kiwa Group at www.kiwa.com/solar.
Kevin Gibson
Managing Director
Kevin Gibson brings nearly two decades of experience as a PV technologist to Kiwa PVEL.
Kevin joined the company’s leadership team in 2020 with a mandate to drive and support a new phase of growth and expansion. His relationship with Kiwa PVEL began much earlier: Kevin was the company’s first customer in 2010.
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As managing director, Kevin leverages his past work with Kiwa PVEL to bring the voice of the customer into Kiwa PVEL’s strategic planning and daily operations. He joined Kiwa PVEL from Solaria Corporation, a PV module manufacturer that he co-founded in 2003. While at Solaria as CTO, Kevin not only developed award-winning PV module technologies and unique manufacturing processes, but he also established global production facilities, managed logistics and operations, contributed to investor fundraising initiatives and supported the successful spin-off of Nextracker. Kevin was instrumental to Solaria’s transformation from a start-up into an internationally recognized, technology-leading solar module manufacturer. |
Kevin holds an MBA from both Cornell University, Ithaca NY and the Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium and a BESc Electrical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. He is named on more than 100 patents.
Tristan Erion-Lorico
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
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Tristan Erion-Lorico brings over 15 years of solar and electrical industry experience to Kiwa PVEL. As theVP of sales and marketing, he collaborates with PV module buyers, investors, research institutions and manufacturers to develop innovative performance and reliability test programs for product qualification. Tristan previously served as Product and Quality Manager for a major PV module manufacturer, where he oversaw extended reliability testing and was responsible for new product development and new material qualification. He has also directed equipment procurement and technical site operations for solar project developers and Independent Power Producers at a range of projects across North America, South America and Asia. |
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Todd Karin
Vice President of Technical Operations
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Todd Karin, Ph.D, is the Vice President of Technical Operations at Kiwa PVEL. Dr. Karin holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Washington and a B.A. in Physics from UC Berkeley. He received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a University of Washington Clean Energy Institute fellowship. |
Ingrid Ojeda
Vice President of Finance and Business Operations
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Ingrid Ojeda is responsible for managing finance, strategic sourcing, insurance, real estate, tax, and other business services functions. Prior to joining Kiwa PVEL in 2021, she spent 4+ years at Levi Strauss & Co. in the Corporate Real Estate department leading a finance team and implementing a real estate lease system globally. Before that, Ingrid held finance leadership positions and drove cost-saving strategies at Adobe and Salesforce.org. |
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