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Currents

Latest episodes

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Mar 29, 2021 • 20min

Ep152: Offshore Wind in California

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.
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Mar 22, 2021 • 28min

Ep151: Private Equity with Greenbacker Capital

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.
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Mar 19, 2021 • 46min

Ep150: Merchant Financings After Texas

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.
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Mar 15, 2021 • 15min

Ep149: 2020 Lendscape Update: The Refinancing Boom

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.
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Mar 11, 2021 • 60min

Ep148: Hydrogen: The next frontier

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.
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Mar 8, 2021 • 24min

Ep147: Competition in the Battery Storage Market

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.
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Mar 1, 2021 • 24min

Ep146: What's Next in C&I Solar

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.
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Feb 23, 2021 • 23min

Ep145: Recycling Lithium Batteries

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.
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Feb 15, 2021 • 30min

Ep144: Meet the DC Green Bank

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.
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Feb 8, 2021 • 27min

Ep143: The Current State of PPAs

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.

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