Currents

Ken Elser, senior vice president for project finance and M&A at DNV GL, joins us to discuss how independent engineers are seeing COVID-19 affect renewable energy projects. We talk about how the pandemic has affected the execution of deals already in progress, what DNV GL has seen in terms of force majeure claims, its insights into supply chain issues, how the pandemic is affecting how IEs work, how deal flow would change in the event of some form of tax credit extension and more.

Benoit Allehaut, managing director at Capital Dynamics, joins us to discuss the state of the market and what the company has been up to lately. We go over what he views as the current state of the M&A, tax equity and debt markets, how investors are handling the merchant curve when valuing projects, the company’s new joint venture with Sol Systems, exposure to the PG&E bankruptcy, and more.

Gary Blitz, co-CEO, and Matthew Heinz, managing director, of AON M&A and Transaction Solutions, join us to discuss the reps & warranty and tax insurance markets. We get into how they are being affected by COVID-19, how R&W insurance can help in distressed transactions, how specialty products like tax insurance and litigation buyouts are being used, and much more.

Brian Warshay, principal consultant for distributed energy resources and energy storage at DNV GL, joins us to discuss merchant storage. We discuss the evolving energy storage value stack, how developers are managing the risk involved with merchant storage projects, the difference between merchant storage and merchant power plants, whether lenders are comfortable with merchant storage, the current size of the energy storage market, three questions clients should be asking and more.

Luke Lindberg, senior vice president of external engagement for the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), joins us to discuss EXIM’s reauthorization after Chairman Reed’s confirmation last May. We go into what the bank’s priorities are, the changes Congress made to its charter during reauthorization, the markets that EXIM is focused on, how they work with other government agencies and more.

Keith Martin, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in Washington, joins us to unpack the $2.2 trillion economic relief bill that cleared Congress on Friday -- the CARES Act -- and what it means for companies in the project finance market. We get into the handful of things it does for companies, the prospects for more targeted relief for renewables, what we are seeing currently in the market and more.

Tax equity for renewable energy was expected to be a US$15 billion market this year, and interest rates on bank debt had dropped to 125 to 137.5 basis points over LIBOR – before the coronavirus hit. Is financing still available for power and infrastructure projects? Has there been any change in availability or cost of tax equity, bank debt, B loans and project bonds? How have asset valuations been affected? Six key market participants talked about these questions and more. They are John C.S. Anderson, global head, corporate finance and infrastructure at Manulife, Ted Brandt, CEO of Marathon Capital, Jack Cargas, managing director at Bank of America, Ralph Cho, co-head of North American power and infrastructure at Investec Bank, Yale Henderson, managing director at J.P.Morgan and Max Lipkind, managing director and head of energy and power leveraged finance at Credit Suisse.

This was expected to be a peak year in new capacity additions for wind and solar projects – before coronavirus hit. How has the outlook changed? Is work continuing on projects that are already under construction? Are new projects still able to secure financing? How are utilities faring? What issues are companies facing that will require a government response? Six power company CEOs joined us to talk about these questions and more. They are Michael Garland, CEO of Pattern Energy, Paul Gaynor, CEO of Longroad Energy, Miguel Prado, CEO of EDP Renewables North America, James Torgerson, CEO of Avangrid, Guy Vanderhaegen, CEO of Origis Energy, and Tom Werner, Chairman and CEO of SunPower Corporation.

Dan Shreve, head of global wind energy research at Wood Mackenzie, joins us to discuss the future of the wind market. We take a look back at 2019, the outlook for 2020, the risks to the supply chain due to coronavirus and the potential effect on deployment, the impact of the PTC extension, the competition in the US between wind and solar, and more.

Sue Wang, Ben Koenigsberg and Keith Martin join us to discuss the impacts of coronavirus on the renewable energy industry. We discuss how coronavirus is affecting daily life in Wuhan, the effect on loans, what sponsors should do after receiving force majeure notices, what might happen to renewable energy projects that are up against deadlines to start or finish construction to qualify for tax credits, how the M&A market is being affected, and more.

Claire Edwards, knowledge counsel with Norton Rose Fulbright in London, joins us to discuss the upcoming move away from LIBOR, the London Interbank Offered Rate. We discuss the basics of LIBOR, its importance to the industry, why it is being replaced, what types of rates people can expect to see in place of it, the difficulties around getting people to accept a new standard rate and much more.

Karl Choltus, SVP, national surety practice leader at Beecher Carlson Insurance Services, LLC, joins us to discuss all things surety bonds. We discuss what a surety bond is, their traditional applications and competitive advantages, how similar a surety bond is to a guarantee, the target audience for a surety bond and much more.

Sue Wang, senior counsel in our Washington office, joins us to discuss the banner year that renewables had in 2019. We get into the different changes in step-down dates for tax credits, what types of projects people are interested in buying, how clients are mitigating political risk, the growth in storage paired with generating facilities and more.

It is the start of a new year. Many forecasters expect modest global growth this year, helped by favorable monetary policies by central banks, but with risk on the downside due to trade and geopolitical tensions. The US market remains awash in liquidity. 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 Bank plc, 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.

Howard Seife, global head of financial restructuring and insolvency at Norton Rose Fulbright, joins us to discuss how power purchase agreements are affected by utility bankruptcies in the wake of the latest ruling by a US appeals court in the FirstEnergy Solutions bankruptcy. He covers what the FirstEnergy Solutions case, plus experience with the PG&E and other recent bankruptcies, suggest about when a PPA can be rejected, what project owners and creditors can do to protect themselves, and more.

Woody Rubin, president at AES Distributed Energy, joins us to discuss the distributed solar market. We talk about the market in general, the current abundance of capital, the balance between community and residential solar, AES’ recent success in Hawaii, changes he has seen in the energy storage market and more.

Richard Matsui, co-founder and CEO of kWh Analytics, is back to give us an update on their popular resource, the Solar Lendscape. We discuss how many banks are currently active in solar, what that means for the market and how many are lending in the community solar segment. From there we discuss the solar revenue put, trends in merchant risk and more.

Keith Martin, with Norton Rose Fulbright, joins us from Washington to discuss the likelihood that Congress will pass a tax extenders bill at year end and what tax changes of interest to the renewable energy industry are potentially in play.

Live from the Wharton Energy Conference, Manish Kumar, managing director at The AES Corporation, Jackson Lehr, operating partner, infrastructure at Energy Impact Partners, Martin Torres, managing director at BlackRock and Peter Zhu, senior vice president at Macquarie Capital, sit down with Todd Alexander to cover financing renewable energy. The lively panel discusses everything from traditional PPAs and tax equity to the latest trends the panelists are seeing in the industry.

Fleming Ray, senior project manager, due diligence at DNV GL, joins us to discuss all things solar plus storage. We get into the federal and state policies surrounding the market, the outlook for the next five years, the core technical due diligence focus areas, the integration of battery testing results including DNV GL’s recently published Battery Scorecard, and more.