Renewable Energy Finance: Trends and Innovations

The last few years have seen dramatic shifts in renewable energy finance markets.  

The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in the wake of the financial crisis, initiated the Treasury cash grant program, and was notably successful in filling the role previously held by tax equity players who had retreated from the market. With the expiration of the cash grant for projects that had not commenced construction by 2011, and the scheduled expiration of the production tax credit at the end of 2012, the next few years are expected to be a transition period for renewable energy financing. This transition will affect both the supply and the demand side because of a  number of factors including: (i) regulatory uncertainty surrounding the expiration of the cash grants and the production tax credit and corresponding political support for renewable energy incentives, generally: and (ii) macro-economic market uncertainty. 

We invite you to a roundtable of a select group of industry experts for a robust discussion on these trends in the renewable energy finance markets.  Topics covered will include:

• The evolving role of institutional investors in renewable energy markets
• How additional new entrants in the tax-equity space may affect the cost and availability of financing
• The outlook for financing renewable projects in both a post-cash grant environment and amid uncertainty regarding the future of the production tax credit for wind
• The enhanced role of distributed renewable projects and the outlook for their continuing success
• The potential impact of master fund financing structures and securitization techniques
• How trends in commodity prices and input costs may affect the ultimate viability of renewable projects
• Avoiding the boom and bust cycle caused by incentive uncertainty, and additional models for success in renewables: a global perspective

Please join us for this interesting and provocative discussion.  After a short presentation by each of our panelists, the floor will be open for panel discussion and questions from participants.

Q & A Submission:
Q & A both on the teleconference and live at the host firm sites, will follow the speakers' presentations. Please email questions to abaquestions@acore.org.

Call Times:
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Eastern
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Central
10:00 am - 11:30 am Mountain
9:00 am - 10:30 am Pacific
8:00 am - 9:30 am Alaskan

Teleconference Co-Chairs:
Robert F. Riley, Partner, Williams Mullen PC (Washington, D.C.)
Michael W. Wise, McDonald Hopkins, LLC 

Legislative Update:
Todd Foley, SVP Policy & Government Relations, ACORE

Moderators: 
Kyle Drefke, Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Christopher Gladbach, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Speakers:
Stuart Murray, Director, Infrastructure & Energy Finance, CitiBank
Ben Cook, Vice President, Structured Finance, Solar City
Michael Meyers, Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Dr. Rakesh Radhakrishnan, Director, Advisory Services, Commodities and Energy, Thomson Reuters