Georgios Kyriakarakos, Agricultural Engineer, Ph.D.

Dr. George Kyriakarakos is an Agricultural Engineer, holds an MSc in the field of “Energy Systems and Renewable Energy Sources” and a PhD in the field of “Renewable Energy Autonomous Polygeneration Smartgrids optimized with Soft Computing Techniques”. He has over 20 years of experience in over 60 national and international research, innovation and technical assistance projects in the renewable energy, energy efficiency, rural industrialization and climate change mitigation sectors.  Furthermore, in many of these projects he has been utilizing artificial intelligence approaches for the design, sizing, management and control of complex energy systems as well as for developing decision support systems for energy policy planning and climate change mitigation. Finally, he has worked as a technical and regulatory expert concerning renewables, energy efficiency and rural electrification. George has authored 26 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 4 book chapters and 26 international conference publications with over 1440 citations of his work. His h-index is 15 and his g-index is 37. Moreover, Dr. Kyriakarakos was part of the consultants’ teams that developed (i) the “Strategy and Action Plan for a Harmonized Regulatory Framework for the Electricity Market in Africa” (ii) the “Guidelines for Institutional and Policy Model for Mini/Microgrids”, (iii) the “Guidelines for Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) Energy Labelling and Eco-Design at the Continental Level” (iv) the “Guide for policy makers on developing Quality Assurance frameworks for off-grid appliances in Africa” (v) the “Strategy and Roadmap for Smart Distribution Grids in Africa”, (vi) Strategy and Roadmap for Establishing a Market for Energy Efficient Appliances in Africa – AfCFTA and AU-EU Initiative of Harmonization of the Electricity market in Africa and (vii) the “African Union Post-COVID-19 Recovery Strategy and Action Plan for the African Energy Sector along with its implementation and M&E framework”, all of which have been adopted or are in process of adoption by the AU Heads of State and Government. He is currently part of the team developing the “African Union Energy Efficiency Strategy and Action Plan”. Finally, he has worked as an expert for European Investment Bank in the field of climate change mitigation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as a renewable energy expert and for GIZ investigating the use of biomass in green hydrogen and Power-to-X pathways.