Currents

Jacob Susman has been investing and developing projects in renewable energy since 1999. He led OwnEnergy from inception to its sale to EDF Renewable Energy, where he is now VP, Head of Origination. In today's episode, Jacob sits down with Todd to discuss what it takes to build a successful renewable energy startup and offers his insights on opportunities in today's market.

Join Keith Martin, David Gillespie and Michael Masri as they take you through over a dozen provisions in the recently enacted tax bill that will affect transactions in the power and broader infrastructure markets. This special episode was recorded live on December 19 starting with an overview of the changes followed by answering audience questions.

A massive tax-cut tax bill that is in the final stages in Congress has significant consequences for the US power industry, especially renewable energy companies. Keith Martin, partner in the Washington office, joins us to discuss the implications.

Dramatic change is underway in Mexico's power sector. Clean energy auctions awarding long-term power purchase agreements have been a great success so far. The results of the third and most recent auction were announced in November, bringing some of the lowest prices for renewable energy in the world. We're joined by Raquel Bierzwinsky, partner in the New York and Mexico City offices, to discuss the auction and the reform of the Mexican renewables sector more broadly.

Back-leverage loans have become the primary way to raise debt for tax equity-funded renewable energy projects in the US. Today, we're joined by Ralph Cho and Mike Pantelogianis, Co-Heads of Power and Infrastructure Finance, North America at Investec, to discuss the state of the back-leverage loan market.

To kick off Season 2 of Currents, we've invited Rob Eberhardt, partner in New York, to discuss financial hedges for renewable energy projects. Rob helped to develop an innovative new wind power hedge last year that attracted considerable attention in the market.

Mergers and acquisitions activity in the energy sector is on the rise, and cross-border transactions are driving much of this activity. In today's episode, we talk to Marwan Azzi, from our New York office, who gives us an in-depth view of how these transactions work and shares his insight on market trends.

As political uncertainty continues to dominate the news, we take a closer look at political risk insurance: a valuable tool when developing projects in riskier emerging markets. Ken Hansen, partner in our Washington office, joins us to give a breakdown of the industry and major players, and discuss recent developments.

The global LNG industry has seen remarkable growth in a short time. Noam Ayali and Brian Greene, partners in our Washington, DC office, fill us in on the market, how these projects are developed and financed, and some of the hurtles you might face.

The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, “WIFIA,” is a funding mechanism that was enacted to address the US water infrastructure gap. WIFIA aims to encourage private investment in public water infrastructure projects, and the EPA announced this week that it had received 43 letters of interest in its first round of solicitations. In this episode, we speak with Jake Falk, Counsel in our Washington, DC office, to discuss the WIFIA program.