Woman energy at Voltalia
The renewable energy sector is a dynamic field: a fertile ground for innovations, with diverse profiles of companies driving solutions designed to accelerate the energy transition. Companies like Voltalia, committed to this transition, have significantly grown over the years. Since its establishment in 2005, Voltalia has greatly expanded its activities, and this wouldn't have been possible without the men and women who have joined us in backing this growth. On this international women’s day we wanted to share the path of two Women who play a key role at Voltalia.
Rita Santos EPC Regional Manager within Europe at Voltalia
Let's start with Rita Santos, based in Portugal. She currently works as the EPC Regional Manager within Europe (focusing on Portugal, Ireland and France), leading the teams that build our power plants. She started at Voltalia in 2019 as the Portfolio Manager for Cotovio, the most challenging project in Europe at that time: the Cotovio Solar PV plant, a ground-mounted solar project spread over an area of 100 hectares, generating 48.9 MW with 104,400 solar panels. After succeeding in this challenge, she became the EPC Regional Manager, and her team expanded to cover European projects. Her new challenge is to build more than 300MW plant in Ireland, combining five projects already in Construction Phase, and to prepare additional projects that are still in sales phase, all this year. To achieve this objective, she is assembling a team of around 50 people (direct and indirect).
As a renewable energy believer, Rita faced the sector's ups and downs: few women in electrical studies, companies going bankrupt, and technological evolution—from 2 people in the solar team since she first started working in 2006 up to more than 100 in a few years at Voltalia Portugal in 2019. After this journey, we asked Rita for advice she could give to other Voltalians to be successful:
"First of all, I believe that being polite and respectful to your team is key. Your team is your work environment; your colleagues, be available for them. These are the people you see every day, with whom you face all the challenges. I started working as a site manager; I know what can happen on the field, and that helped me a lot to understand the team and manage projects. When you hear about a problem, solve it as quickly as you can, even if it's not a big one. It's your priority as a manager but also as a team player in your work environment: your team. And when you have a good one, everything can be done."
Rita Santos EPC Regional Manager within Europe at Voltalia
Adriana Bretz Legal Director and Compliance Officer at Voltalia Brazil
Later, we spoke with Adriana Bretz, located in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil. She started her journey with us as in-house counsel in 2013 and is now the Legal Director and Compliance Officer, member of the COMEX in Voltalia Brazil. By that time, Brazilian team was about to start the construction of 198 MWs (wind farms) in Rio Grande do Norte State and now Voltalia has 1,37 operating GWs considering several projects located in different Brazilian States. Voltalia Brazil's activity, initially focused on developing projects, soon enough started to involve bids in regulated auctions, building plants, selling energy to private players, and selling energy projects and/or services.
"I am used to say that my job description changed several times between the moment I started to now. After the first year, I saw new opportunities rising, so I quickly started to study and learn about all those new opportunities and how my team could possibly assist business teams: Dev, Epc, O&M, energy commercialization, etc. The legal function in Voltalia works with everyone and we were at the core of evolution and faced many challenges together.”
Adriana Bretz Legal Director and Compliance Officer at Voltalia Brazil
In 11 years, Voltalia Brazil became a key player within Brazilian energy market, and Adriana, which was the only corporate lawyer in the country until 2018, structured a specialized team now composed of 5 lawyers, 2 paralegals and an intern, covering Mexico and Colombia too. She explained how she faced her different challenges:
"Be proactive in your job and kind to people, don't be afraid to start from scratch. Since I had to develop new skills, I sought help from my profession colleagues. Then, a second lawyer with different specialties to better cover the fuller scope was hired. Also, we need to listen to each other. All Voltalians are our clients in South America, so it is crucial to listen to each other to get the full picture."
Adriana Bretz Legal Director and Compliance Officer at Voltalia Brazil
Adriana & Rita managed to succeed all the challenge they faced professionally and personally while having a family on the other side: determination, strength and will were needed to get them where they are today. These experiences are many inside Voltalia and all around the world and if we take the opportunity to highlight them today, we should thank them every day for their commitment. We are proud to have you onboard.
