Currents

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.

Keith Martin, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, joins us to unpack the tax extenders bill that cleared Congress on Monday night. We discuss how the bill affects solar, wind, and other renewable energy projects, the immediate impact on the market, who the biggest beneficiaries are and more.

Nick Merricks, head of UK smart electricity meter products at Landis+Gyr, joins us to discuss smart technology in the energy industry. We discuss how COVID-19 has affected the market, the growing need to invest in infrastructure that will support the energy transition, how vital smart meters are to reaching net-zero carbon emissions, how regulation affects energy digitalization, what technologies Landis+Gyr is developing to support deployment of EVs and more.

Steve Vavrik, chief executive officer, Josh Prueher, chief financial officer, Mark Klein, chief operating officer, and Doug Moorehead, chief technology officer of Broad Reach Power, join us to discuss their investment strategy in solar + storage. We get into why they are so heavily concentrated in ERCOT and California, how they are different from other developers, the new battery projects they are developing in ERCOT, the changes they have seen in battery projects over the last decade and what they think we will see in the next five years and more.

Reid Spolek, energy lead at Google, Chris Hansen, vice president of origination and renewables at TVA, Spencer Sessions, senior manager of economic development at TVA and Johan Vanhee, chief commercial officer and chief procurement officer at Origis Energy, join us to discuss the role of clean energy in rural America’s economic rebound. We discuss how the organizations are involved with solar and energy storage in rural American communities, how the projects affect low-revenue-base communities, the challenges and lessons learned from the recently announced Skyhawk project, a 100-MW solar installation in Tennessee, how large corporate energy buyers like Google are viewed and much more.

Jonathan Yates, associate principal with Arup, joins us for an update on the district energy space. We discuss why district energy is getting a lot of attention right now, what activity Arup is currently seeing in the market, how COVID is affecting the outlook for new projects, factors to consider when looking at how to procure energy for projects, the future of technology in the space, how to assess when a district-energy system is the right solution for a project, key issues for sponsors and lenders to pay attention to and more.

Dr. Angela Wilkinson, secretary general of the World Energy Council, joins us to discuss the Council’s mission. We get into the differences between the Council and other organizations, the impact that COVID-19 will have on the industry, the Council’s “Humanizing Energy” theme and what it is looking to achieve, why the energy transition is important, the “Energy Plus community” and how it relates to the transition, the Council’s immediate priorities and much more.

Kimberlee Centera, CEO of TerraPro Solutions, joins us to discuss her company and how it is handling risk management during this unprecedented year. We get into what TerraPro Solutions does, some of the risks involved in developing utility-scale energy projects, challenges developers are facing, how delays related to COVID-19 are being managed, how to build trust among stakeholders and much more.