Assessing the technical potential of ASEAN countries to achieve 100% renewable energy supply

Ashley is a Chartered Engineer with 18 years’ experience in Engineering, Project Management and Commercial Advisory. He is originally from Melbourne, Australia, where he began a career in railways, then spent the next 10 years working on the delivery of EPC contracts (both sponsor and contractor side) in the UK and Australia in the railway, road, and building sectors.

In 2015 Ashley moved to Singapore to join a commercial advisory business where he worked on infrastructure project feasibility studies, developed innovative public-private sector business models and other strategic planning outputs for a variety of sectors and for projects across Southeast Asia. In 2019, Ashly moved back to Melbourne to join a mid-sized consultancy where he uses his deep local transport sector experience to advise the rail industry on the planning and delivery of several major rail projects.

Ashley further research interests span Australia's domestic industries as well as cooperation with Southeast Asia where he has an acute interest in supporting stakeholders at all levels to navigate the evolving APAC renewable energy landscape.

Ashley applies a strong technical background in civil engineering as well as in power and railways, with an acute commercial outlook. He has extensive knowledge of the evolving climate change science and policy as well as in renewable energy development technologies and has recently advised on planned high-speed rail, conventional rail, renewables, and airport projects.

Education: Masters in Renewable and Sustainable Energy from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering from RMIT University Melbourne

Dr. Ursula Fuentes Hutfilter, based in Perth, Western Australia, is presently working as a Senior Climate Policy Adviser at Climate Analytics Australia. She focuses on the development of climate policy and energy transformation strategies in the Asia-Pacific Region, and contributes to work on the Climate Action Tracker. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Murdoch University, Western Australia, leading a project under the Australian-German Energy Transition Research Hub. 

From 2013 until January 2017 she was Head of Unit for Strategic Aspects of Climate Policy and the National Climate Plan at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Germany, where she has been responsible for general and strategic aspects of climate policy, as well as for the development of the German domestic climate plans and programmes at national level, covering all sectors: energy, buildings, transport, industry, agriculture, and forestry. Previously she was in charge of managing, building up and developing the German National Climate Initiative, a funding programme for innovative climate technologies and projects for local communities, small-scale businesses and consumers.

From 2003 to 2010, she held positions on International Climate Policy of the Federal Environment Ministry as Head of German Delegation to the IPCC (Fourth Assessment Report Cycle, Initiative on Special Report on Renewable Energy) and as Issue Leader for the EU Negotiation Team to the UNFCCC, focussing on mitigation, forestry (REDD/LULUCF), shared vision/ultimate objective, scientific and strategic aspects.

She held positions as research analyst for energy and climate policy for the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), for the Federal Parliament, and as project manager at RIVM in the Netherlands for the Science Policy Dialogue Project on Longterm Options for the Climate Regime.

Education: PhD in Atmospheric Physics (1998), Degree in Physics from Ludwig Maximilians Universität München.

I came to Murdoch University as a researcher in the field of wind energy with 9 years experience working with research groups in the United Kingdom and the United States. This work often involved collaboration with other research groups and industry throughout the world through mechanisms such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) Wind RD&D Program. I co-wrote successful grant applications for funding from the UK’s Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

I have been employed in different roles at Murdoch University since February 2001. Initially I was employed by the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Renewable Energy (ACRE) on projects related to the commercialisation of a range of wind turbines. At around the same time, I was consulted by the School of Engineering to work together with others from the wind energy industry and develop a unit on wind energy for the Renewable Energy Engineering Program. From 2002 to 2007 I worked as a part-time lecturer in the Energy Studies Program and a part-time research officer with the Research Institute of Sustainable Energy (RISE), on industry projects related to wind turbines. In 2007, I became 100% employed by the School of Engineering and Energy in the area of Energy Studies and Renewable Energy Engineering. In 2008 I established a National Small Wind Turbine Centre (NSWTC) at Murdoch University, sparked by my ideas on small wind turbine research. The NSWTC is a $1.05 million federally-funded Centre that aims to improve the quality and reliability of small wind turbines. I am currently the Academic Chair of the Energy Studies Program.