19th Annual Renewable Energy Finance Forum (REFF) Europe

8:15AM Registration and refreshments

9:00AM Session 1. MACRO OUTLOOK

9:30AM STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION

• A game changer? Putting climate risk and environmental and social indicators on a par with traditional financial metrics and risk calculations
• Oil and gas majors moving into power generation, renewables and electricity markets in Europe. What are the strategies going forward and how will that impact the investment universe and supply chain in the short and long term?
• Too many chasing too few? What will be the stage of play in the medium term with decreasing prices and costs for renewables? Competition for assets
• Emission free Europe 2050: Investors’ and developers’ perspectives and strategies
• Utility’s perspective: Integrating renewables into electricity system
• Procuring directly from developers: An opportunity or a threat?

Chris Hunt, Partner, Riverstone Llc

Angus McCrone, Chief Editor, BNEF

10:30AM Coffee and networking break

11:15AM Session 2. REGULATION: An hour with the Governments

12:00PM QUESTION TIME: 2030 and 2050 targets: reality or a myth?

• How to incorporate climate change into credit ratings of state and local bonds?
• Lesser concessions or no public backing up. What are the investors’ and lenders’ strategies?
• Super-grids: Not so “super” so far? Planned regulations
• Development of green bonds market
• Demand Side Response (DSR), distributed generation and energy storage: What regulations are being developed to support these? What is happening with VAT and carbon pricing?
• Regulations on storage: Charging, feeding the grids and generation license

Mark Sommerfeld, Policy Analyst, Renewable Energy Association

David Kerins, Economist, European Investment Bank

12:45PM Networking Lunch

2:15PM Session 3. EUROPE’S NEW HOPE. Energy Storage

Are we witnessing a birth of the new market? Is this a business with many fathers? Will Energy Storage generate a stream of business opportunities? And how these opportunities will be financed?

Case Studies: Leading the way

• Solar battery storage plant
• Wind Project

Panel Debate:

• Solar and wind storage: What are the business models and financing structures are taking place?
• Energy storage technologies: Current methods and associated risks, capacities and bankability
• Commercial viability, profit potential and investor appetite: Who might the likely investors be?
• What kind of debt these projects are attracting?
• Identifying risk factors when evaluating financing potential of a storage project
• How electric vehicles (EV) interact with the grid and how that can transform storage?

Felicity Jones, Partner, Everoze Partners

Senior Executive, British Energy Storage Solutions*

Senior Executive, Anesco*

Matthew Ridley, Head of Equity Infrastructure, Temporis Capital*

3:00PM GRID MODERNISATION PANEL

• Opportunities in investing into transmission networks
• Opportunities in sector coupling to utilise electric vehicles and storage systems, links between mobility and power sector
• Across borders: How can the developer in Sweden be interlinked with offtaker in Germany? And what investments and upgrades are needed?
• Off-grid opportunities and smart grid evolution
• Decentralised Energy: What does it entail for the supply chain? Gird congestion and investment deferral revenue

Glenn Harris, Senior Originator, Centrica Energy marketing & Trading*

3:45PM Coffee and networking break

4:15PM Session 4. THE RISE OF NEW TECHNOLOGY - capturing the “i-phone” moment

As opposed to commodity markets, renewable energy follows a different concept – it is a technology play, rather than “commodity play”. With improving technology costs decline dramatically and new business opportunities grow quickly.  Hear from leading technology investors and providers on how they assess these fundamental transformations!

Presentation: Technologies in offshore wind, including FOW

Presentation: Larger than the London Eye? Ultra-modern wind turbines. Benefits, regulations and ROI
Presentation: Sweet but short? Top 10 things to watch out for to make maturing assets work for you longer and to boost profits

4:45PM Panel Debate

• Backing cutting-edge renewable technology: Questioning capex, opex, ROI and best financing strategies
• Which new developments in renewable technology would you vote for?  Bankability and ROI
• Economics of costs: How expensive is the development and implementation of new technology, do the benefits outweigh the cost for investors and what are the ROIs?
• Are lenders put off by potential risks posed from implementing new renewable technology in an otherwise low risk project?
• Integrating new technology with existing assets
• Blockchain technology: The next thing before it is even a thing?
• Big Data for Operational renewables
• Electric vehicles, IoT, Smart grid infrastructure

Guy Auger, CEO, Greensolver

Felicity Jones, Partner, Everoze Partners

5:30PM Evening Cocktail Reception

8:15AM Registration and refreshments

9:00AM Session 1. CEO STRATEGY DEBATE: beyond 2030 – Voting

Live polling: What will the world of tomorrow look like by 2030?

Steps: By 2030

• The tariffs will stay
• Flexible demand side mechanisms will be fully developed and implemented
• All legal and commercial aspects of storage will be fully developed and implemented
• Residential wind and solar will reach 60% threshold in Europe

The number of projects will outgrow the available capital

9:15AM CEO STRATEGY DEBATE: beyond 2030 and what do we do in the meantime?

We are embarking on a new era where fewer and fewer tariffs are offered and renewables compete on price, where storage is co-located, market is re-designed and everyone is affected. What are the best ways of raising or deploying capital in the industry?
 

Institutional and financial investors:

• How can the investors approach markets differently? Example: Small scale solar investments  

• What are the strategies in a low price environment?
• What is the new normal? How sustainable is the current level of institutional investor appetite for renewables?
• How are institutional investors diversifying their portfolios across the life cycle of assets, and taking on different types of risk?
• Looking at distressed assets
• The role of fixed income in financing deals

Debt providers:

• How will the debt market behave in light of rising corporate PPAs and projects with no public support?
• In an environment of less certain fixed prices, how the cash flows are re-assessed and how does that impact debt size?
• Examining the use of:
• Mezzanine debt
• Bank loans followed by refinancing via capital markets
• Private placements via institutional investors
• Financing through development banks
• Bonds and other structures

Ian Berry,  Head of Infrastructure Equity, Aviva Investors

Alan Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Forsa Energy

Martin Berkenkamp, Chief Executive Officer, A2E

Kees-Jan van de Kamp, Senior Portfolio Manager, NN Investment Partners

10:00AM DEVELOPER CEO STRATEGIES

• How are the tariffs and regulations affecting the project pipeline?
• What criteria are developers using to select sources of financing?
• How are developers’ financing strategies evolving?
• What is the role of storage?
• How renewable energy developers are adapting their sto confront changes in the marketplace?

David Maquire, Founder and Director, BNRG

Philip Prause, Vice President, GreenGo Energy Group

Senior executive, Mainstream

10:45AM Coffee and networking break

11:15AM Session 2. NEW MARKET OPPORTUNITIES: No public support and corporate PPAs

Presentations: Deal or no deal? Subsidy free world.
 

11:45 Panel Debate:

• What are the implications of the transition from a subsidy-dependent regime towards a business model with heavy exposure to merchant risk for the whole supply chain?
• Price reduction and contractor alignment. What is going to happen?  Multi buyer contracts
• Corporate PPAs: myth or reality?
• Financing to corporate PPA offtakers: What are the winning financial schemes and contracts to go forward?
• Investor’s point of view on merchant risks, shorter debt tenors, and deals
• Lenders’ risk profiling and credit analysis

Peter Bachmann, Director, Scottish Equity Partners

Kees-Jan van de Kamp, Senior Portfolio Manager, NN Investment Partners

Henning Wuester, Director – Knowledge, Policy and Finance Centre, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

Graham Harding, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, British Solar Renewables*

Jonathan Maxwell, Chief Executive Officer, Sustainable Development Capital (SDCL)

12:15PM EUROPE’s NEW HOPE: Offshore Wind

• Case Study. Leading the way: Offshore Wind Farm
• For how long will the success last? Supply and demand and growth forecasts
• Offshore wind investors: Profile, perspectives, strategies
• The role of project sponsors in developing new finance structures and taking on different types of risk
• Lender perspectives on a successful deal structure
• Analysis of the latest offshore deals: Equity returns and debt pricing

Mark Giulianotti, Head of Offshore Wind, Green Investment Group

1:00PM Networking Lunch

2:00PM Session 3. NOT BY SOLAR AND WIND ALONE

2:30PM Session 4. The networking hub

4:00PM Chairman’s closing remarks and End of Conference