Eckhart is passionate about solar and the global energy transition to renewables. He has worked in 3 continents for extended periods and enjoys the international nature of the solar PV industry. Only by working together will we transition to renewables and clean energy in the time it takes to avoid a major climate crisis.
Together with John Weaver, Eckhart founded PV intel to provide better intelligence and data to the solar PV and energy storage markets. Eckhart has worked in the technology industry and in trade publishing and sees plenty of potential in providing better data analysis and tools to both upstream and downstream players in the PV and energy storage markets.
Eckhart is the publisher of the trade publication “pv magazine”, a leading trade media platform covering the global solar PV and energy storage markets. Eckhart joined the PV industry in 2010 as the Greater China representative of Solarpraxis AG, a German pioneer in the photovoltaics sector. He spearheaded the China business of Solarpraxis, organizing conferences in Shanghai and producing trade publications catered to the Chinese market. He has witnessed firsthand the rise of top tier Chinese PV manufacturers and still maintains a strong network to these players.
In 2015 Eckhart acquired the pv magazine publishing business from Solarpraxis and continued the international expansion, setting up a pv magazine USA platform in 2016. Other regional platforms include pv magazine Germany, pv magazine France, pv magazine España, pv magazine Mexico, pv magazine Latam, pv magazine Australia and pv magazine India. A strong events business complements this range of publications and social media channels in various languages.
Prior to his work in the solar sector, Eckhart worked as a lawyer in an international law firm in New York (Coudert Brothers) and then as an entrepreneur and business developer in the Voice-over-IP sector. His VoIP company POPTEL Telecommunications AG was the first VoIP provider in Europe and after its sale in 1999 Eckhart moved to Los Angeles, CA to head business development & legal at oCen Communications, Inc., another VoIP provider with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.