Europe’s best engineer is a solar energy consultant

Stanislas Merlet (32), a solar energy consultant at Multiconsult, was today crowned Young Professional of the Year 2018 in EFCA’s prestigious competition.

Merlet was chosen ahead of 20 strong candidates from all over Europe. He is French, but he works at Multiconsult, where he has played a key role in building up the company’s strong team of solar energy experts.

- It was awesome to win, both for me and the solar energy market. The prize is a reflection of the doors that Multiconsult has opened for me. Being able to draw on expertise from the whole company has made it easier for me to work on what I find most exciting, which is using traditional technology in new ways in a variety of markets. In just a few years we have become the market leader in Scandinavia for solar power. My colleagues and I spend a lot of time on research and development, so I hope this acknowledgement will also result in more projects in Norway, says Merlet.

Stanislas has a Master’s degree in renewable energy from Corsica and Madrid. He worked on solar energy development projects in Montpellier, before his desire to experience a new culture led him to Norway. Stanislas is currently working on several international projects, and last year alone he travelled to ten different developing countries.

Multidisciplinary approach attracts talent
Multiconsult’s CEO Christian N. Madsen is proud that a Norwegian company has a solar energy consultant who excels internationally.

- This is great news and thoroughly deserved. Many people could learn from Stanislas’ ability to spot new opportunities, as well as his positive attitude towards challenges. The prize is above all a huge endorsement of Stanislas himself, but it also reflects well on Multiconsult. Although we are a small company in the global context, we are capable of attracting the industry’s best international talent. Two years ago we had Arnt Fredriksen in second place in the same competition. I think that both talented young engineers and the company benefit from an environment that promotes innovation and multidisciplinary cooperation, says Madsen.

The Jury’s verdict: Advancing the solar energy community
The jury highlighted Stanislas’ commitment and expertise. He was described as an industry trailblazer in an important and rapidly developing discipline. Thanks to his breadth and depth of knowledge, Stanislas is helping to building up the expertise of the solar energy community, through lectures, courses and articles both in Norway and internationally.

- We are very proud that Stanislas, who we named Norway’s Young Consulting Engineer of the Year in 2017, has gone on to win at the European level, being recognised as the most talented engineer in Europe, says Liv Kari Skudal Hansteen, CEO of the Norwegian Association of Consulting Engineers and vice-president of EFCA.

___________________________

About EFCA
EFCA, the European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations, is the umbrella organisation for the consulting engineering industry in Europe. It represents industry associations from 26 European countries and represents FIDIC in Europe.

About the project: Solar PV in sub-zero temperatures and the dark season
The prize Young Professional of the Year 2018 was awarded on the basis of both the candidate’s professional expertise and commitment and a selected project. Stanislas played a key role in a project in Queen Maud Land, which involved supplying the research station Troll with local, renewable energy. The location is an Antarctic desert that experiences seasonal darkness, sub-zero temperatures all year round and hurricane-force winds, but Multiconsult’s solution was a photovoltaic system. The project generated a lot of interest from the industry on account of its innovative solutions. This included tilting the panels at an angle of just ten degrees, to prevent the wind resistance from creating a glacier.