Energy Shapers: Solar power that gives spaces a new value

Not just calculations, but imagination and adaptability: we explore Engineering in Renewables Solar with Alessandro Luce.

After exploring the world of storage and the challenge of grid stability, the journey into the discovery of the “Energy Shapers” enters a new dimension: spaces. Our second protagonist is Alessandro Luce, who coordinates the development and engineering documentation of photovoltaic renewable projects. A role that goes beyond calculations and sizing, restoring value to areas that seemed to have exhausted their usefulness.
To tell this story, we will use as an investigative tool a reinterpretation of the Proust Questionnaire, which we already used in the previous interview dedicated to the “Energy Shapers”. Three direct questions (an image, a word, a verb) to go beyond technicalities and discover the soul of the profession.

Alessandro’s profession in 3 answers

Your work often leads you to imagine the future of disused industrial areas. What image best represents this ability to see value where others only see emptiness?
“That of an apparently static, silent area, where however flows begin to emerge: of energy, people, activities. It is the moment when a place stops being ‘empty’ and starts to engage again with its surroundings, becoming once more part of a living system of public utility.”

Solar technology is advancing rapidly, from bifacial modules to storage and measurement systems. At the same time, spaces and regulatory frameworks are also changing. What is the key word for understanding the engineering approach of the team you work in within this constantly evolving landscape?
I would say integration. Not understood merely as the sum of technical components, but as a real synergy between our different businesses and the people working in them. One example above all is the ability to connect a solar plant with the network of charging points for electric mobility: different technologies and teams working together, pushing overall efficiency far beyond individual performance.

In such complex projects, technical skills alone are often not enough. What is the verb that describes the essential attitude needed to turn a project from paper into a real plant?
“Connect. To connect different skills, technical requirements and real constraints, development timelines and industrial objectives. It is a continuous and indispensable action, without which a project would remain a well-made theoretical exercise, but only on paper.”

Building on complexity: engineering as a bridge

If for Maria Angela Bracale, our previous “Energy Shaper”, managing storage was like a chess game played on time and anticipation, for Alessandro the challenge shifts to a territorial level.
“The context in which we operate is made of constraints and hidden opportunities: the challenge is to enhance already anthropized spaces or areas that are not suited for other uses, and transform them into resources. We need to go beyond pure plant engineering: we must ‘break down’ mental and technical barriers to make what once seemed unfeasible possible.
In this scenario, technology plays a crucial role: think of bifacial modules, photovoltaic panels capable of capturing light even from the rear by exploiting ground reflection. However, no two sites are the same: this is why adaptability is what truly makes the difference. There are no standard solutions that can be applied everywhere: each project must be tailor-made to respond to the unique characteristics of the site.”

To close our interview, we also asked Alessandro to find an analogy that could capture the strategic essence of his work. And his answer takes us to the heart of the concept of design as a challenge.
“I would say my work is similar to building a bridge. A bridge that must be solid, adapt to the shores it connects, and remain balanced while the context changes. A bridge that is built day by day, without prefabricated parts, but rather carefully thought out, designed, and adapted.”

The next Energy Shaper

The energy transition is, first and foremost, an act of connection: between past and future, between problems and solutions. At the center is technology, but even more so the human component. Our journey does not stop here, as we will continue to be accompanied by our “energy shapers,” one expertise after another.