Currents

Abby Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), joins us to discuss current supply chain ethics issues in the US solar industry. We discuss the current forced labor issues that the industry is seeing, the response SEIA has seen from the Chinese government, what is happening at the border with US Customs, the association’s traceability protocol, the new tariffs som...

Jean-Louis Kindler, CEO of Ways2H, a company focused on turning the world’s waste into renewable hydrogen, joins us to discuss the company’s technology and the hydrogen market. We get into what is currently happening in hydrogen, how Ways2H fits into the hydrogen economy, its recent projects in Tokyo, Paris and the UK, where he sees the biggest demand for renewable hydrogen, the cost of renewable...

Mark McGrail, vice president of the commercial office at Enel Green Power North America, joins us to discuss green power aggregation. We get into the options available to corporations that want to buy renewable energy, how virtual power purchase agreements work and why they are growing in popularity, the factors buyers should consider when making their purchasing decisions, common myths about PPAs...

Nick Knapp, senior managing director, and Mike Yurkerwich, director with CohnReznick Capital, join us to talk about what sponsors need to know to finance carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects. We discuss what CCS is and why it is an important component of the energy transition, what the current market for CCS is in the US, the market drivers spurring growth, capital requirements for CCS...

Due to the increased investor appetite for digital infrastructure and growing governmental focus on improving connectivity, digital assets like data centers are crucial in supporting the growth of smart and sustainable cities. Listen to a discussion led by David Barksdale, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, among Kristina Metzger, senior vice president and leader of CBRE Data Center Capital Markets...

Bret Kugelmass, managing director of the Energy Impact Center, joins us to talk about why nuclear is his chosen technology to reach our carbon goals. We get into what small modular reactors (SMRs) are and how they are different from the larger traditional nuclear reactors, what the main challenges are in the commercialization of SMRs, the current opportunities for SMR developers, how the OPEN100 m...

Damian Georgino, with Norton Rose Fulbright, joins us to discuss investing in water infrastructure. We start with how he got into the water space, what the market looks like today, the diligence questions that investors should be asking, how rates are regulated in the market, where the investment opportunities are and more.

James Wright, managing director and head of renewables, clean energy and sustainability with CIBC Capital Markets, joins us to discuss batteries and energy storage. We get into why it has taken so long for battery storage deals to come to the project finance lending market, how lenders are thinking about the unique risk factors that come with a new technology, why these battery projects are more b...

Kimberlee Centera, CEO of TerraPro Solutions, joins us to discuss the critical aspects of utility-scale transmission development. We discuss key issues and challenges for transmission line development, land use feasibility, tax credits and incentives, site location, project development and timing and more.

Andy Klump, CEO of Clean Energy Associates, joins us to discuss supply chain traceability. We get into the concerns over polysilicon made in Xinjiang that many financiers and developers have due to their ESG-minded stakeholders, the work that CEA has been doing on supply chain traceability, its expansion into downstream engineering services work in the US, the challenges that Klump sees as more mu...

Richard Matsui, CEO of kWh Analytics, and Joe Kastner, CEO of Radian Generation, join us to discuss the 2021 Solar Risk Assessment Report. We discuss the findings of the report’s third edition, what the risk assessments mean for the solar project finance community, the problems the research found, Matsui’s and Kastner’s perspectives on the underperformance issues that were uncovered in last year’s...

Laura Pagliarulo, president of SolaREIT, joins us to talk about ways to reduce project costs in clean energy projects. We discuss how SolaREIT works with landowners and developers on land acquisition and lease monetization, the types of investors it has, the liquidity it is providing landowners, at what stage SolaREIT buys the land or lease, how it interacts with financing parties and more.

Nacho Ruiz Hens, managing director at Karbone, joins us to talk about breaking into the US renewable energy market for foreign investors, especially from Spain. We discuss the attraction of the US market, the main barriers to entry, the current activity from Spain, what opportunities he sees and more.

Trevor Pinkerton and Lior Nuchi with Norton Rose Fulbright join us to discuss the renewable energy SPAC market. We discuss the boom the SPAC market has seen in the last year, the recent slowdown of SPAC IPOs and why it is happening, why technology-focused companies are subject to de-SPACing, the history of renewable energy in the SPAC world, what happens with the deals after they close, how much d...

Dr. Javier Cavada, CEO of Highview Power, joins us to talk about the energy storage technology on which the company is working. We discuss the energy storage landscape and where he sees it going in the future, market drivers for long-duration energy storage, some of the challenges with long-duration energy storage that Highview Power is addressing, projects the company is developing, the company’s...

Lee Taylor, CEO of REsurety, joins us discuss the carbon accounting market. We discuss how the company has solved the missing piece of the carbon accounting puzzle, how it has found that some renewable projects displace as much as twice the amount of carbon as others, what locational marginal prices are and how they work, a new concept called locational marginal emissions and how it can help energ...

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,...

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, wh...

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...

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...

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...

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 equit...

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 IN...

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 Shres...