Innovation in Risk Management for Renewable Project Finance | An Infocast Master Class
A number of Foley attorneys will be presenting at Infocast’s Innovation in Risk Management for Renewable Project Finance Virtual Master Class on April 14th and 15th, with Foley Partner Darin Lowder acting as Lead Instructor. This two-day Master Class provides a deep dive into recent innovations in assessing, managing and allocating risks in developing, selling, acquiring or financing for renewable projects. Taught by active practitioners, this unique class examines how to proactively reduce the risks that can negatively affect the pricing, sizing and availability of tax equity investment and project debt. See below for a breakdown of the agenda:
Wednesday April 14th
11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. | Definitions – Approaches to De-risking Renewable Energy Transactions
Foley Partners Darin Lowder and Thomas Hoffmann will be discussing both existing and new tools available to minimize and allocate risks through various methods, including using insurance products to allocate risks to third parties.
1:10 – 1:55 p.m. | Structuring Transactions with Risk Management as a Strategic Goal
In this session, Foley Partner Darin Lowder, in addition to Benjamin Cooper (Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management – KeyBank) and Jared Donald (Country Head, USA – AMP Solar), will focus on how rather than focusing on managing risks for renewable power projects only when the assets are being sold or financed, the process of reducing risk should be incorporated from the ground up. They will discuss how sophisticated sponsors incorporate risk reduction strategies into all phases of project development and operations.
2:45 – 3:30 p.m. | Effective Due Diligence on Large Portfolios as a Key Risk Mitigation Strategy
Foley Associate Annie Tsai and Foley Partner Jason Barglow will address how, as approaches to due diligence efforts evolve from the traditional process, sponsors are using diligence efforts in the acquisition, and lenders and investors are utilizing a variety of approaches to conducting due diligence in managing and mitigating the risk of financing large portfolios of renewable energy projects.
3:55 – 4:45 p.m. | Best Practices to Utilize Evolving State Level Offtake & Incentive Programs
In this session, Foley Partner Darin Lowder will discuss how state-level incentive programs are regularly revised and updated as renewable energy adoption increases. Projects must ensure current and future qualification for various incentives or offtake structures to avoid the risk of significant reductions in offtake
values or related incentives. The risk of non-compliance must be addressed pre-and post-closing. He will discuss how these risks are identified, addressed and managed over time.
Thursday April 15th
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. | Recent Innovations in Insurance Products for Project Financing Transactions
Foley Partner Darin Lowder, with Richard Matsui (CEO of KWH Analytics), will discuss some of the new insurance products being regularly incorporated into renewable energy project acquisitions and financings, and how/in what circumstances they are typically implemented.
12:10 – 12:55 p.m. | Addressing Merchant Pricing Risk
In this session, Sven Wellock (Managing Director & Co-Lead of Energy – Renewables & Power with ING Capital LLC) will address how more sponsors and financing parties are getting comfortable taking on merchant pricing risks to varying degrees. What protections do lenders require, how have financing parties gotten comfortable taking those risks, and what risks are the different categories of parties willing to take? The panel will answer these questions and more.
1:20 – 2:05 p.m. | Risk Mitigation: Debt/Investment Sizing and Pricing
Foley Partner John Eliason, will be moderating a conversation with Adam Altenhofen (Senior Vice President of Origination at Soltage, LLC) and Erin Heintz (Managing Director of Green Energy Finance at M&T Bank), on the views of the greatest project risks from a lender and investor perspective, and how lenders and investors determine what risks are acceptable for a particular portfolio.
3:00 – 3:45 p.m. | Looking Ahead: The Biggest Risks to Project Financing Transactions in 2021
For this session, Foley Partner Darin Lowder will highlight the views of industry-leading sponsors regarding the greatest risks to successful renewable energy project financings in 2021. What has changed in the risk terrain, and what tools are likely to be utilized in new and novel ways to address those risks.
For more information on this program or to register, please visit the Infocast website.
