Currents

Aki Marceau, director of electrification of transportation, and Yoh Kawanami, director of customer energy resources, operations at Hawaiian Electric, join us to discuss Hawaiian Electric’s efforts to electrify transportation on the islands. We talk about the unique position that the utility is in, how it has been affected by COVID-19, the utility’s demand response department, its EV charging program with Enel X and more.

How should carbon sequestration transactions be structured in light of proposed regulations the IRS issued on May 27 about claiming section 45Q tax credits? The IRS has disallowed over half the tax credits claimed so far. Keith Martin, David Burton and Amanda Rosenberg talk about three ways to structure such transactions and more.

Many developers report that the tide appears to be flowing out on tax equity. At the same time, the two largest tax equity investors say it is business as usual for them. We talked to Peter Cross, managing director at Credit Suisse Securities, Jorge Iragorri, head of the alternative financing group at Morgan Stanley, George Revock, head of alternative energy and project finance at Capital One, and Darren van’t Hof, managing director of environmental and community capital at US Bank, about the current state of the market.

James Bowen, co-founder of Energetic Insurance, joins us to discuss his company’s story and the problems that its insurance policy solves. We get into who should consider using the product, the value proposition, who benefits, how the policy helps when there is a lack of tax equity, if it can enable securitizations or other capital market transactions and more.

Giovanni Bertolino, head of e-mobility at Enel X, joins us to discuss the rapidly evolving electric vehicle sector and the potential impact on the renewable grid. We discuss Enel X’s role in energy and transportation, some of the broader impacts of COVID-19, how government incentives encourage sales of EVs and installation of charging infrastructure, how increased EV adoption might affect the energy grid, smart charging strategies that utilities are using today and more.

In times of economic and financial crisis, commercial lending and private sector investment into emerging markets – even for projects or opportunities with sound economics and credit fundamentals – often dry up. Development finance institutions and export credit agencies are often called upon to step into the breach. While aggregate investment declines, IFIs, in effect, see a larger piece of a smaller pie. In these unprecedented times of global pandemic and meltdown of the world economies and markets, DFIs and ECAs are able to take a longer view beyond the immediate crisis and play a leading role in getting emerging markets back on track. A panel of senior representatives of leading IFIs join us to discuss what their institutions are doing to tackle the crisis.Sarah Devine and Ken Hansen, partners at Norton Rose Fulbright, moderate a panel including Tony Bakels, director of credit and special operations at FMO, Georgina Baker, vice president, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia at International Finance Corporation, Koffi Klousseh, director of project development at Africa50, Luke Lindberg, senior vice president of external engagement, The Export-Import Bank of the United States, Hristo Stovkov, head of growth capital and innovation finance at European Investment Bank and Tracey Webb, vice president structured finance and insurance at U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

Keith Martin, partner in Washington, joins us to discuss the recent executive order banning equipment provided by companies in foreign adversary countries. We get into what the ban covers, which power projects are affected, how it will work in practice, when it will take effect and how it might affect equipment already installed. We also cover the recently launched investigation that may lead to tariffs on imported electrical transformers and their components.

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.