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Brian Grenko, President

| VDE Americas

Brian Grenko, President

Brian has over two decades of engineering and operations experience, mainly within the renewable energy industry. In 2016, he joined VDE Americas as a senior principal engineer and the company’s head of photovoltaic technologies. 

Early in his career, Brian served as quality manager for the pioneering solar company AstroPower, which GE acquired in 2004, and supplier quality leader for GE Energy’s Solar Technologies business. In 2009, Brian joined Yingli Green Energy Americas as a founding executive. As VP of technology, Brian led Yingli’s engineering organization, supported research and development efforts, and managed the company’s PV testing laboratory. Before joining VDE, Brian was the founder and CEO of Amplify Energy, a photovoltaic engineering services firm that DNV-GL acquired in 2016.

Brian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He is a certified Lean Sigma Blackbelt.

Beth Companas

Beth Companas, Senior Director of Technical Advisory

| VDE Americas

Beth Companas, Senior Director of Technical Advisory

Beth Copanas is the senior director of technical advisory at VDE Americas. With over 20 years of experience leading design due diligence and performance testing for photovoltaic projects, she has supported the successful deployment of multiple gigawatts of utility-scale solar capacity while working on engineering and construction teams, guiding projects from development through commissioning with a focus on performance, reliability, and stakeholder alignment.

Beth specializes in identifying and resolving performance, commissioning, and testing risks and has helped streamline commissioning processes, reduce delays, and ensure long-term system reliability. Throughout her career, Beth has collaborated closely with developers, EPCs, and asset owners to ensure technical transparency and alignment with project goals. Her ability to translate complex technical findings into actionable insights has helped drive informed decision-making across diverse stakeholder groups.

Beth holds an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University and a BA in Biology from Williams College. 

Jonathan Ostrom Allen

Jonathan Ostrom Allen, Director of Hail Risk

| VDE Americas

Jonathan Ostrom Allen, Director of Hail Risk

Dr. Jonathan Ostrom Allen, PE, is the director of hail risk at VDE Americas. With over 30 years of experience in data analytics and scientific research related to the electric utility industry, he contributes to the development and advancement of natural catastrophe modeling products and services, mitigates technical risks for customers, and oversees operational hail stow verification studies for equipment manufacturers and project owner-operators.

Previously, Jon specialized in ambient air quality and air quality control research, with a focus on coal-fired power plants. For these studies, he determined the effect of power plant operations on control efficiency, developed empirical process models, and recommended changes to improve mercury control. Jon has authored 30 peer-reviewed publications, 13 conference papers, and 55 technical reports.

In addition to BS degrees in Chemical Engineering and Finance from the University of Pennsylvania, Jon holds an MS and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Meet VDE Americas

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Our team has extensive experience reviewing distributed generation (DG) and utility-scale renewable energy and storage projects on behalf of project sponsors or banks providing various types of project financing. We maintain a core team of salaried technology experts and professionals to manage customer accounts and projects while also relying on a deep bench of contributing subject matter experts using personal connections and our 36,000+ member strong VDE Association which includes preeminent technology leaders from industry and academia. This approach has enabled us to establish a distributed network of talented and trustworthy resources across the world with diverse backgrounds and experience. Our deep bench of talent includes industry professionals who have dedicated their careers to the advancement of renewable energy. 

Meet the rest of the team

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2023-08-29
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Hail Risk Intelligence and Mitigation

VDE Americas' provides solar project hail risk assessments based on site-specific meteorological data and product-specific technical details. Our science- and engineering-based hail risk reports provide solar project stakeholders with financial loss and risk exposure estimates based on project-specific lat-long coordinates and fielded PV module and tracker technologies.

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Neighborhood Hail

Independent Engineering

VDE Americas specializes in providing transaction-level due diligence related to utility-scale solar photovoltaics (PV), battery energy storage systems (BESS), and hybrid solar-plus-storage applications. We also offer portfolio-level due diligence to support the deployment of commercial and industrial (C&I) distributed generation (DG) and community solar projects.

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Owner's Engineering

VDE Americas work with investors and lenders to ensure the long-term success of a clean energy venture by reviewing and validating technical feasibility, regulatory compliance, and project execution. We do so by acting a concierge-style extension of our client's deal teams to provide on-demand critical engineering analysis, oversight, and support.

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Independent Inspection Services

VDE Americas caters to a wide range of stakeholders—including project developers, owners, operators, financiers, insurers, reinsurers, equipment suppliers, and manufacturers—and provides remote inspections, in-person inspections, and desktop reviews with deliverables that include detailed reports and certificates.

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Inspection Services

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