Currents

Danny Kennedy, an early pioneer in the residential solar rooftop sector and now CEO of New Energy Nexus, a non-profit that connects entrepreneurs to capital to build clean energy projects, joins us to discuss the future of clean energy. We get into his view on the fate of coal, who is winning the race for the future, what will happen to petro states in an EV economy, China’s role in clean energy, the biggest opportunities for impact and return, the most exciting entrepreneurs in the company’s portfolio and more.

Daniel Goldman, co-founder and managing director of Clean Energy Ventures, joins us to discuss green infrastructure investment. We go over what Clean Energy Ventures looks for in potential clean energy and climate tech companies in which to invest, how its investment approach toward early-stage companies differs from the traditional venture capital model, what areas it considers most promising, what trends and technologies in the climate tech sector it expects to gain momentum in the next year and much more.

Simon Morrish, entrepreneur and CEO of Xlinks, joins us to discuss the ambitious Xlinks solar project, which transfers solar energy from Morocco via a 6.3 GW subsea cable to the UK. We get into the scope of the project, where the idea came from, the current project status and next steps, how projects like this are financed, if the model can be replicated internationally, how he is able to convince skeptics and more.

What is the outlook in Congress for the massive infrastructure plan that President Biden unveiled last week? Listen as four veteran Washington observers, John Gimigliano, principal-in-charge, federal tax legislative and regulatory services, KMPG Global, Elissa Levin, director, federal government affairs, Avangrid, Inc., Joe Mikrut, partner, Capitol Tax Partners, and Chris Miller, partner, AJW, Inc., discuss which parts of the plan they expect to be enacted with Keith Martin from Norton Rose Fulbright.

Adam Stern, executive director of Offshore Wind California, and Jim Berger, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, join us to discuss prospects and growing momentum for offshore wind power in California. We start with an overview of progress to harness offshore wind in the US, the potential to bring this renewable energy technology to California, what it would mean for clean power, jobs and climate in the Golden State, new legislative initiatives as well as hurdles and financing to develop offshore wind in California, and how much this new industry is expected to grow in the next 10 years.

Charles Wheeler, president, co-CEO and CIO, and Benjamin Baker, managing director, at Greebacker Capital join us to discuss the firm’s mission and their fundamental approach to sustainable infrastructure. We discuss some of the most notable changes in renewable energy since the firm was founded, the hardest part about navigating the industry, the competitive landscape, the shift to a private equity focus, how the firm is expected to evolve and much more.

Has the appetite among banks and tax equity investors to finance hedged merchant power and storage projects changed as a result of the events last month in Texas and, if so, how? What lessons did lenders and tax equity investors take away about how to do future projects? Are the effects limited to projects in ERCOT? Sven Wellock, managing director and co-lead of energy – renewables and power at ING Capital, Daniel Miller, managing director at CIT Energy, James Wright, managing director and head of renewables, clean energy and sustainability for the United States at CIBC Capital Markets, and Rubiao Song, managing director and head of energy investments at JPMorgan, talk about these and related questions with Keith Martin from Norton Rose Fulbright.

Richard Matsui, CEO of kWh Analytics, joins us for an update on the Solar Lendscape. He covers what is new in tax equity, gives a breakdown of three trends he is seeing on the lender side and an update on the underperformance of solar projects that was uncovered in the Solar Generation Index, explains how underperformance might affect refinancing and more.

Close to 4,000 people registered to listen to a discussion among three experts about the prospects for hydrogen. Interest is particularly high in green hydrogen, which is expected to play a significant role as the US moves rapidly to decarbonize. Sheldon Kimber, CEO and founder of Intersect Power, Karen Lee, senior counsel for commercial law at the Southern California Gas Company, and Sanjay Shrestha, chief strategy officer of Plug Power, talked with Jim Berger and Deanne Barrow with Norton Rose Fulbright.

Eren Ergin, general manager of renewables and distributed assets at Honeywell, joins us to talk about stationary battery storage. We discuss what Honeywell is doing in the market, how it has created a business unit focusing on storage, how it believes it can compete and succeed long-term, how remote operation centers tie into asset management, safety concerns for projects, misconceptions about battery storage in the infrastructure investment community and much more.

Richard Walsh, managing partner at Madison Energy Investments, joins us to talk about trends he is seeing in the C&I solar market. We get into the best state markets for C&I solar and emerging markets, how storage is becoming part of projects, how investors can keep track of the different markets despite the rapid pace of change, how the corporate push for renewable energy has affected C&I solar, how retail energy providers play a role in deregulated state electricity markets and more.

Kunal Phalpher, CCO of Li-Cycle, joins us to talk about recycling lithium-ion batteries. We get into the size of the market, what is recycled out of the batteries, how much of the materials extracted can be used in new batteries, the impact the growing energy storage market will have on the need to recycle batteries and more.

Eli Hopson, CEO, and Jay Lurie, CIO, at the DC Green Bank join us to give an overview of the bank, why it was established and the goals it has set for itself. We discuss its available capital, priority sectors, how its financings are structured, the near-term opportunities and obstacles it sees, how private capital and service providers can start a discussion with the bank about working together and more.

Bryce Smith, CEO, and Rob Collier, vice president, developer relations of LevelTen Energy, join us to discuss the company and the current state of PPA offer prices and trends. We get into how the renewable energy industry has changed in the last decade, what they are seeing in the PPA market, Q4 data on solar and wind P50 prices, their forecast for 2021 and more.

Bill Green, managing partner of Climate Adaptive Infrastructure, joins us to talk about the meaning of the firm’s name and its mandate. We get into how Climate Adaptive Infrastructure is different from typical infrastructure investors, how the firm is tackling the ‘triple threat risk’ of the climate crisis, examples of recent investments the firm has made, areas that it is targeting, the point at which it wants to invest in a project and more.

Rudy Roy, CEO of HST, joins us to discuss the technology company’s mission of improving people’s lives by scaling clean energy. We discuss how HST has scaled its platform to have thousands of projects in over 100 countries, who the platform’s customers are, how its metasearch functionality works and applies to clean energy, how a software company can reduce a gigaton of carbon emissions, the challenges and opportunities he sees for global cooperation in the buildout of clean energy and more.

Many developers struggled during 2020 to find tax equity. Economists expect growth to start slow and accelerate by year end. Interest rates remain low, but the yield curve is becoming steeper as the bond market takes into account the potential for future inflation. Listen to a discussion led by Keith Martin, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, among John C.S. Anderson, global head of corporate finance and infrastructure at Manulife, Jean-Pierre Boudrias, managing director and head of project finance for North America at Goldman Sachs, Jack Cargas, managing director at Bank of America, Ralph Cho, co-head of the North American power and infrastructure group at Investec, and Yale Henderson, managing director at J.P.Morgan, about what to expect in the year ahead for tax equity, bank and term loan B debt and project bonds.

Kiran Bhatraju, CEO of Arcadia, and Jorge Vargas, operating partner at Energy Impact Partners, join us to discuss Arcadia’s community solar strategy, including subscriber management. We discuss the benefits of community solar compared to retail or rooftop, where the market is most active, how to manage community solar offtake effectively, how billing works, how customers can save money, Arcadia’s work with the project finance community, getting investors comfortable with no FICO scores and more.

John D. Powers, vice president, global renewables and cleantech at Schneider Electric, joins us for a close look at trends in the corporate renewable energy market. We discuss how an organization can best accelerate its carbon neutrality efforts, Schneider Electric’s Gigaton PPA Program with Walmart, whether other organizations can replicate the program, new corporate PPA markets that are emerging, opportunities for organizations to automate and digitize, other sustainability models and technologies to consider and more.

Adam Kuehne, senior vice president of project finance at Summit Ridge Energy, a leading owner-operator of community solar projects in the US, joins us for a community solar market update. We discuss the market today, how it has been affected by COVID, what 2021 will look like, the next variants of community solar, his wish list for regulatory reform and more.