Name: Utility Scale Solar & Wind North America 2024
Start: 2023-06-12T08:00:00-04:00
End: 2023-06-13T17:00:00-04:00
Location: San Diego

Utility Scale Solar & Wind North America 2024

December 2024 | Houston, Texas | #USSWNA2024

Themes Discussed on the 2022 Agenda

Agenda themes to set your strategy for success

CAPITALIZE ON THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT

Learn from success stories across the value chain on leveraging the investment act, which will aid you in mapping out your 2023 and future strategy to secure maximum investment and production tax credits.

GRASP THE INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE

Discover the appetite of investors amidst market uncertainties and renewed hunger for renewable deployment. Analyze the bankability and tax credit opportunities of solar, wind, storage, and new technologies like hydrogen, to de-risk your portfolio expansion.

MITIGATE DEVELOPMENT AND CURTAILMENT RISKs

Optimize your vendor network of new and existing OEMs & EPCs and eliminate uncertainties in your supplier strategy. Hear from leading utilities, TSOs and FERC on the state of play for grid upgrades and interconnection backlogs, to stay ahead of curtailment challenges.

PERFECT ASSET MANAGEMENT

A deep dive into commercial and technical asset management. Learn how to maximize returns through re-contracting, extend the life of your assets and form favorable power purchase agreements.

ACHIEVE OPERATION SUCCESS AT SCALE

Stay ahead of the competition and future-proof your operations strategy at each stage in the asset lifecycle. Hear of the innovations in digitalization, O&M best practice and supply inventory to maximize asset value.

SUCCEED IN BATTERY AND HYDROGEN STORAGE

Hear of the best financial and operation models and examine the evolving vendor and grid integration landscape to tap into the full potential of storage.

Enquire about 2024

Less than 10 passes remains- register now with code lastchance250 for $250 discount

USE CODE USSWVIP FOR A FREE VIP UPGRADE (expires Friday 21)

Register now for $200 discount with code LAUNCH200 for this week only (expires this Friday 27th).

Choose your agenda

Day One | June 12

The agenda will be timed in due course. Times and speaker allocations are provisional.

Keynote Sessions

09:20am • June 12

Keynote Address

Where next? Tracking the trajectory for U.S. solar, wind and storage

Where next? Tracking the trajectory for U.S. solar, wind and storage

• Hear how the industry’s progress will propel into 2023 and beyond

• Get updated on policy changes and outlook on permitting and interconnection frameworks, so that you can plan for what is to come

Doug Schultz, COO, DOE Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations

09:40am • June 12

Keynote Panel

Harness the full potential of the Inflation Reduction Act

• Analyze the investment and development landscape of competing renewable technologies and capitalize on the opportunity to seize market share

• Hear success stories from leading owners and asset managers of how they implemented the latest guidance from the IRA to maximize asset profitability

• Examine the international landscape and learn how North America will compare to the global market for renewables investment

Boris Schubert, Chief Development Officer, Silicon Ranch

Dave Carroll, Chief Renewables Officer & Country Manager, Engie North America

Jorge Pedron, COO, Avangrid

Laura Beane, President, North America, Vestas

Moderator: Melissa Stark, Managing Director, Global Energy Transition Services Lead, Accenture

10:30am • June 12

Break

MORNING COFFEE

11:00am • June 12

PLENARY PANEL

Establish certainty in the supply chain to de-risk development and operations

• Review the evolving global and domestic supply landscape to future-proof your supply chain strategy

• As supply chain uncertainties persist, understand how pricing volatilities are impacting development and operations, and learn how to best balance this risk between stakeholders

• Examine how to create a supply chain that is in compliance with ESG

Joaquin Castillo, North American CEO, Acciona

Federico Toro, COO, North America, Repsol Renewables

Maria Garcia Stanton, VP, Supply Chain, CPS Energy

Mitchell Moss, SVP and Chief Credit Officer, HASI

Moderator: Melissa Stark, Managing Director, Global Energy Transition Services Lead, Accenture

11:45am • June 12

interview

Building on the Inflation Reduction Act and building a domestic supply chain

· Understanding the makings of the landmark policy and how to unlock the funding for your business

· The role of long duration energy storage in decarbonizing America's power market and how you can capitalize on the fast growing industry

Paul Browning, Founder, CEO and Board Member, Continuum Renewables

12:05pm • June 12

Plenary Panel

Bolster the U.S grid - reducing interconnection queues and integration of non-dispatchable

• Discover why interconnections and grid upgrades are being delayed and understand what industry paradigm shift will mitigate this

• Hear of the latest policy changes to be implemented by RTOs (regional transmission organizations) to provide dependable and predictable interconnection queues

• Explore the impact to existing operational assets due to transmission upgrades and how to minimize operations downtime

• Discuss how market rules will need to adapt to address supply reliability

John Windsor, SVP, Renewable Generation, Liberty

Daniel Fuller, Chief Investment Officer, Energy Transition Capital

Natasha Henderson, Director, System Planning, SPP

Mike Deggendorf, SVP, Regulated Infrastructure Development, American Electric Power

Omar Aboudaher, VP of Solar Development, Leeward Renewables

Moderator: Melissa Stark, Managing Director, Global Energy Transition Services Lead, Accenture

12:50pm • June 12

BREAK

LUNCH & WORKSHOPS

Interested in brand amplification to, or standing out from the crowd in front an audience of North American executives across solar, wind, and storage? Reach out to sion.hocking@thomsonreuters.com to discuss.

LUNCH Workshops

12:40pm • June 12

Lunch Workshop

Reliability, cost and performance risk of PV connector failures

· Connectors are a major source of failure in all kinds of systems, and in PV systems represent on the order of 8% of O&M costs and with significant downtime and risk of larger damage such as fire. Join this workshop lead by NREL technical experts leading the joint project by NREL, EPRI, Sandia, and funded by the DoE, to increase discuss and reach a consensus on connector cost and performance parameters for techno-economic analysis.

· In this interactive session, learn of NREL’s cost to performance model of PV connector failures to understand and provide input on the frequency of failures, the average repair and asset down times, and the labor and hardware costs needed to address failure.

· Take the exclusive opportunity to work with NREL and share the experience of your asset fleet’s PV connector performance, to help build a suitable model that will help eliminate PV connector failures across your fleet.

Andy Walker Senior Engineer, NREL

Jal Desai, CEM Engineer, ADDS Center, NREL

Wind operations & project development

2:20pm • June 12

Panel

Staying ahead of wind asset management and operation trends

• Tap into the full potential of the tax credits by hearing insights from major asset owners and operators on how they have evolved their strategies to capitalize on the Inflation Reduction Act

• Explore optimal operational and workforce strategies, examine inhouse vs. outsourcing, and developing competency to match fast growing fleets

• Examine what tools you need to make an operations approach sustainable for scale, and how that can help to future-proof your operations strategy

• Explore the commercial and technical opportunity of repowering existing wind sites to harness tax credits and maximize portfolio profitability

Lilian Cabral, Senior Manager, Services Business Development, Invenergy

Chelsea Stone, VP, Service Commercial, North America, Vestas

Jimmy Lindsay, Senior Manager Origination & Structuring, Portland General Electric

Moderator: Raja Pulikollu, Technical Executive, EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute)

3:05pm • June 12

Presentation

Leveraging data to understand new technology risk

• As new and larger turbines are developed, it’s vital to understand how these new technologies will impact the short and long term performance of your projects

• Leverage industry data and learnings to understand what technology will perform best on your project by looking at contractual availability and loss factors

Gareth Brown, CEO, Clir Renewables

3:25pm • June 12

Presentation

Remove uncertainty from the turbine platform selection process

• As profiles of new turbines platform continues to have more generation per tower but less reliability, it is vital to select the right turbine platform to prevent future long-term headaches

• Hear of the lessons learnt from leading operators and asset owners on platform selection

Raja Pulikollu, Technical Executive, EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute)

3:45pm • June 12

Break

AFTERNOON COFFEE

4:15pm • June 12

panel

Mitigate bottlenecks to reach the full potential of North American wind

• See how to achieve the full growth potential of US wind for 2023 and beyond, and what hurdles the industry must overcome in supply chain, interconnection, workforce and securing capital to get there

• Hear the discussion between thought leaders across wind asset owners, utilities, developers, and financiers to understand what direction the industry is heading towards, and the steps needed to propel U.S wind growth

Martin Mugica, President & CEO, Skyline Renewables

Tracy Stoddard, VP, Business Development, Acciona

Mark Eilers, Director, Development, Avangrid

Craig Pospisil, VP, Head of Wind Development, Terra-Gen

Moderator: Raja Pulikollu, Technical Executive, EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute)

5:00pm • June 12

Break

EVENING DRINKS

Solar project development

2:20pm • June 12

Panel

Unlock the North American solar gold rush – leadership discussion

• Hear how to harness the full potential of the Inflation Reduction Act, by mitigating obstacles in workforce, supply chain, project financing and interconnection

• Gain insights from the discussion between utilities, energy producers, investors, and developers, to stay ahead of the industry paradigm shifts to capitalize on this once in a generation investment

• Explore how major players are staffing their project builds based on Inflation Reduction Act requirements

Mit Buchanan, Managing Director, Energy Investments, JP Morgan

Laura Caspari, VP, Head of Power Marketing and Commercial Strategy, Engie North America

Shane Easter, Director, Renewable Energy and Environmental Finance, Wells Fargo

Moderator: Evelyn Butler, VP, Technical Services, Solar Energy Industries Association

3:05pm • June 12

Presentation

Succeed in solar permitting- securing community buy in

• Hear the best practices to securing positive community engagement as utility scale solar projects stretch beyond 100+ megawatts

• Understand how, and when multiple communities must be bought into the projects for a smooth project bidding process

David Gahl, Executive Director, Solar and Storage Industries Institute

3:25pm • June 12

Maximize PV plant performance in high lightning strike regions

• With approximately 60% of the USA is exposed to substantial lightning strike activity, which threatens the performance of PV plants larger than 10 MW

• Understand how effective implementation of lightning protection will reduce damage to PV panels, DC combiner boxes, and more, along with the ROI of this technology

Steven Weber, Director Technical Engineering, DEHN

3:45pm • June 12

BREAK

AFTERNOON COFFEE

4:15pm • June 12

Panel

Mitigate solar project financing risks

• As uncertainty in marketing prices, the supply chain and interconnection continue to pose development and pricing risks to projects, hear the discussion from investors, financers, and developers on how these risks can be managed as a value chain

• Examine the landscape of debt and equity for project financing and hear different perspectives on financing risk profiles

• Learn of the different opinions regarding full merchant risk projects, and if they will be impacted by the current financial climate

Shane Easter, Director, Renewable Energy and Environmental Finance, Wells Fargo

Neha Mahajan, VP, CohnReznick Capital

Rob Walsh, Managing Director, Blackstone

Moderator: Evelyn Butler, VP, Technical Services, Solar Energy Industries Association

5:00pm • June 12

Break

EVENING DRINKS

Day Two | June 13

08:30am • June 13

Morning Coffee Panel

Women leaders in solar and wind

Gain a diverse perspective from women leaders across development, investment, and asset management directing the momentum of the industry

Natasha Henderson, Director, System Planning, SPP

Elizabeth Laine, Head of DEI & Talent, Clearway Energy Group

Kayla Schultz, Partner, CohnReznick LLP

Lilian Cabral, Senior Manager, Services Business Development, Invenergy

Laura Caspari, VP, Head of Power Marketing and Commercial Strategy, Engie North America

Moderator: Evelyn Butler, VP, Technical Services, Solar Energy Industries Association

Solar operations & maintenance

09:30am • June 13

panel

All about inverters, trackers, and PV modules- selection, achieving maximum lifespan and long-term availability

• Discover from leading operators on the best practices to manage inverter and modules availability, technical issues, and selection to achieve top profitability from your solar farms

• Examine the impact, reliability, and longevity of the industry’s shift towards string and 800v inverters, along with the neck-breaking speed of solar module modification by OEMs, to future-proof your solar operations

• Maximize the effectiveness of trackers deployment in regions such as the north-eastern markets by grasping the solutions to difficulties in terrain, loading and winter operations

Dylan Sontag, Senior Director Asset Operations and Performance Engineering, Silicon Ranch

Gaurav Pravinkumar Raval, Head of Engineering, MN8 Energy (formerly Goldman Sachs Renewable Power)

John McLaughlin, VP, Utility Sales, US & Canada, JinkoSolar

Moderator: Evelyn Butler, VP, Technical Services, Solar Energy Industries Association

10:15am • June 13

panel

Overcome the scaling pains of solar operations

• Explore how to achieve top technical performance for your solar farms with scalability at its core

• Hear from innovative operators on how they have evolved their operations approach and workforce to succeed at scale

• Discover the best practices for spare parts and storage strategies to avoid operation downtime

• Learn of the latest O&M models to increase your solar farm reliability

Christopher Frantz, Partner, Excelsior Energy Capital

Mark McLanahan, EVP, Pearce Renewables

Jerome Le Hir, VP, Asset Optimization, Director - Strategic Initiatives, EDF Renewables North America

Moderator: Evelyn Butler, VP, Technical Services, Solar Energy Industries Association

11:00am • June 13

Break

MORNING COFFEE

Solar asset management

11:30am • June 13

panel

Perfect solar asset management across the project lifecycle

• Examine the opportunity for early asset repowering or expansion to capitalize on tax incentives

• As portfolios continue to expand at a rapid pace, hear how leading asset managers are planning for end-of-life strategies for gigawatts of assets, with a deep dive into technological and commercial considerations

• Understand the significance of taking the ownership of O&M strategy and guiding this focus throughout the asset life cycle

• Explore the intelligent utilization of O&M analytics to form a feedback loop for equipment selection that wins short term prospect and long-term profitability

Katie Markeson, Chief Operations Counsel, AES Clean Energy

Chris Blythe, Director, Asset Management, Arevon Energy

David Lillefloren, CEO, Sunraycer Renewables

Gaurav Pravinkumar Raval, Head of Engineering, MN8 Energy (formerly Goldman Sachs Renewable Power)

Moderator: Evelyn Butler, VP, Technical Services, Solar Energy Industries Association

12:15pm • June 13

Presentation

Avoid repowering your PV plant with cost effective refurbishment

• Reduce system downtime and lost production revenue by cost effectively extending the life of your PV plant

• Remove risks, costs, and delays from interconnection changes, re-permitting, and supply chain uncertainty.

Robert Morse, VP, Technical Operations, Phoenix RS

Solar and wind investment

09:30am • June 13

panel

Securing the future – Forward planning amidst market uncertainties

• Learn from industry leaders the most effective approach to combat the effects of rising interest rates and inflation, to ensure profitability in contracts in the long run

• Examine how key global issues such as the recession and the war in Ukraine will affect the future investment landscape, to strategize how to stabilize your business and reduce risk in a volatile climate

Wilson Handler, Partner – Private Equity, Apollo Global Management

Justin Barash, Director of Strategy, MN8 Energy (formerly Goldman Sachs Renewable Power)

Jim Mras, SVP, Renewables Group, GE Energy Financial Services

Kayla Shultz, Partner, CohnReznick

Moderator: Rob Edwards Jr., Managing Director, Hamilton Clark Sustainable Capital

10:15am • June 13

panel

Negotiating Valuable Power Purchase Agreements

• Explore the ingredients for an ideal PPA for both corporate and non-corporate offtakers, to avoid renegotiations and secure longevity

• Examine the near-term outlook for PPAs as market pricing evolves, and learn how risk should be shifted amongst stakeholders to ensure industry sustainability

• Hear of the delivery and expectation of PPAs with existing assets between energy producers and offtakers

Sohinaz Sotoudeh, VP, West Origination & Power Marketing, EDF Renewables North America

Tommy Greer, Chief Commercial Officer, Arevon Energy

Robin Lunt, Chief Commercial Officer, Guzman Energy

Reid Spolek, Global Clean Energy Procurement Lead, Google

Moderator: Rob Edwards Jr., Managing Director, Hamilton Clark Sustainable Capital

11:00am • June 13

break

MORNING COFFEE

Energy storage

11:30am • June 13

panel

Backing batteries – how to integrate energy storage into your portfolio

• Learn from successful energy storage developers how to maximize the benefits available from the storage ITC, and the benefits in competition with solar and wind to secure your market share in the space

• Connect with others to get the insight you need to avoid setbacks and ensure profitability throughout the project, with the perspectives of storage manufacturers

Nick Genova, Senior Special Assets Officer, DOE Loan Programs Office

Kris Cheney, EVP for Central/Western Region, EDPR

Kelly Sarber, CEO, Strategic Management Group

Moderator: Rob Edwards, Managing Director, Hamilton Clark Sustainable Capital

12:15pm • June 13

Presentation

Anatomy of a massive utility scale solar + storage project

• Hear of the case study of how a 3.2Gw solar project with 2.0GW of storage on 18,000 acres in Western Arizona was successfully executed

• Grasp the multiple layer analysis including land characterisation, interconnection, permitting, financing and more to launch a utility scale project from conception to operations and beyond

Kelly Sarber, CEO, Strategic Management Group

LUNCH & ROUNDTABLE

12:35pm • June 13

Roundtable

New assets, new opportunities – Discussions on Storage and Hydrogen

• Connect and discuss with the full value chain of developers, financiers, utilities, and asset managers and grasp the current opportunities of storage and hydrogen

Doug Schultz, COO, DOE Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations