Following the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA), the U.S. solar and wind tax credit landscape is undergoing significant change: stricter safe harbor rules, shorter timelines for construction and commissioning, and more stringent foreign content and component origin requirements. At the same time, storage projects retain more favorable timelines under the revised law.

This session will explore how stakeholders can build resilient, bankable projects amid these evolving rules. Key topics will include:

• Adapting financing and structuring to meet new deadlines without compromising project quality
• Strategies for meeting foreign-content / FEOC / domestic content requirements and what that means for supply chain planning
• Enhancing project competitiveness via non-subsidy revenue streams: capacity markets, ancillary services, merchant exposure and flexibility monetization
• Lowering LCOE through operational efficiencies, streamlined permitting, digital tools, and lean portfolios
• Risk evaluation: schedule, regulatory/compliance (IRS guidance, content rules), market demand, and offtaker credit

As distributed energy resources (DERs) proliferate across the U.S. market, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are emerging as a pivotal solution for grid flexibility and project monetisation. This session explores how VPPs can enhance revenue certainty for solar and storage assets, while helping utilities and developers manage grid reliability at scale.

• How VPPs aggregate and optimise DERs to provide capacity, ancillary services, and peak-shaving capabilities
• The role of open standards in making VPPs bankable and interoperable with utility systems
• Real-time response capabilities and their impact on grid services revenue
• Financing and investment considerations: when and how VPP participation adds value for project sponsors and lenders

With recent IRS guidance, evolving legislative timelines, and rising demand for reliable U.S. supply chains, domestic content is no longer optional but a central pillar to project finance. This session explores the real costs, risks, and trade-offs in meeting domestic content rules, especially as projects navigate safe harbors, component shortages, tariff impacts, and policy uncertainty.

• Are project sponsors willing to pay extra for domestically produced components?
• How has the updated IRS elective Safe Harbor changed project CapEx planning and procurement strategy?
• How are project timelines and completion dates being affected by domestic content sourcing, supply chain delays, and tariff / foreign-entity rules?
• How are lenders viewing domestic content requirements in their underwriting?

• How did developers and IPPs structure deals differently in 2025 to access capital?
• What role did tax equity, transferability, and other IRA incentives play in getting projects financed?
• How are sponsors and investors pricing in new risk factors, from supply chain and interconnection delays to merchant exposure and community solar subscriber risk?
• Which additional risk-mitigation tools (insurance, revenue guarantees, synthetic PPAs) proved most effective?
• How have lenders’ underwriting standards and credit committee requirements evolved this year?
• What return expectations are equity and tax equity investors setting for solar-plus-storage projects in today’s environment?

Tax credit structures in solar and storage financing continue to evolve rapidly, introducing complex considerations for lenders and investors underwriting these transactions. This panel explores how lenders and capital providers are adapting underwriting processes to manage risks and refine deal structures for both solar and standalone storage assets.

• Are lenders becoming more conservative in their underwriting assumptions? How is this affecting capital availability, debt sizing, and pricing?
• How prevalent are preferred equity or membership-interest-collateral structures becoming in back-leverage arrangements?
• How effective have insurance products proven to be in mitigating tax and operational risks in solar and storage transactions?
• Are appraisers realistically accounting for the complexities of newer tax credit structures and storage assets?
• How are discrepancies between appraisal valuations and lender expectations being managed?

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This session examines New York State’s approach to its energy transition in the current policy environment. This session delves into New York’s evolving energy strategy and upcoming tenders, as New York state targets 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and a zero-emission electric grid by 2040.

• What incentive programs and roadmaps are being deployed to accelerate solar and storage deployment across the state ahead of 2030?
• What funding opportunities remain from the state’s approved $280 million for energy storage initiative, aiming to reach a total of 6 GW of energy storage capacity by 2030?
• What is expected to be in NYSERDA’s Request for Proposals for large-scale solar projects in 2026?
• How is New York ensuring the benefits of the energy transition reach disadvantaged communities? What opportunities does this provide for project sponsors?

• Unpacking policy uncertainty and other key trends in the US energy storage market
• Analyzing impacts of policy changes on energy storage costs and future deployment
• Assessing the US battery storage supply chain outlook

Despite rigorous financial modeling and conservative aging assumptions, many grid-scale BESS developments fail capacity tests and don’t meet the performance required to hit targets. In this session we’ll unpack the common gap between plan and reality: it’s not aging alone that kills returns.

Operators often assume linear degradation and maximal availability, only to confront real-world stranded capacity, offline strings, control failures, or design limitations. These gaps, between what’s assumed in the model and what’s experienced in the field, erode yield and stress investor confidence.

In this talk, we will:

• Share real-world examples and what “reality” is showing
• Dive into the leading root causes: availability challenges, control & software gaps, scheduling imbalance, and design limitations
• Highlight evolving best practices that shift O&M from reactive fixes to proactive performance protection

• Which regions are appearing as the most attractive for standalone storage deployment, and why are these markets offering the best opportunities for growth and profitability?
• How have investors priced risk in standalone storage versus solar + storage hybrid projects, and the financial implications of these differences.
• Which strategies have worked best for project sponsors (e.g., resource adequacy, tolling, merchant) to de-risk investments and ensure secure financing?

• Is it a buyer’s or a seller’s market right now?
• Which types of assets are moving fastest and how are valuations evolving across asset classes and regions?
• The impact of interest rates, and supply chain constraints on price expectations and deal timing?
• Are investors increasingly favoring operational assets over greenfield and RTB projects in 2025?
• What’s the appetite for different asset classes: utility-scale vs. C&I, solar-only vs. hybrid vs. storage-only?

• How is the explosive growth of data centers driving the business case of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)?
• How are lenders and investors adjusting their underwriting criteria in response to rising merchant exposure, increasing volatility, and regulatory uncertainty?
• With increasing market volatility, how are revenue predictions and forward price curves evolving?
• How challenging has it been for developers and financiers relying on forward projections?
• How much risk is acceptable when financing merchant storage projects?

This session uncovers the truth behind the headlines. Are investors as bullish on solar and storage as they say, or have they continued to be more cautious than expected?

• How is the current macroeconomic and political environment impacting capital allocation and deal flow for USA renewable energy?
• Which fund strategy for the USA renewable market is attracting the most investment right now (e.g., core, core+, value-add)?
• What new requirements are institutional investors bringing to the table this year that weren’t present in 2023 and 2024?

This session kicks off with drinks and quick-fire presentations from capital providers, detailing the financing, investment, and acquisition opportunities they’re currently seeking in the U.S. market. A diverse range of capital providers will share their interests across different asset classes, transaction sizes, and power markets.

Following the presentations, capital providers will host roundtable discussions where delegates can engage directly with them, discuss potential business opportunities, and set up 1-2-1 meetings.

Whether you’re raising capital, seeking project finance, or looking to sell or acquire projects and portfolios, this session offers the perfect opportunity to network with active dealmakers in the U.S. solar and storage market.

• What strategies are helping developers and investors secure reliable, cost-effective equipment delivery?
• How can domestic and international manufacturing ecosystems complement each other to meet accelerating demand?
• What role do transparency, digital tracking, and logistics innovation play in ensuring projects stay on time and budget?
• How are financiers and insurers adapting contract structures to account for global supply chain realities?
• What timelines and investment signals are shaping the next phase of supply chain expansion in North America?

Too many projects have delivered underperforming returns to investors. In this session, Raptor Maps will provide data that speaks to where the issues have occurred and what forward-thinking project investors, underwriters, insurers, and developers can do to more consistently manage costs and better price risk.

• Perspective from capital providers and asset owners on the emerging opportunities in refinancing
• Real-world refinancing case studies that drove significant savings and enhanced profitability.
• What are capital providers looking for from asset owners when considering refinancing opportunities?

Capacity prices are surging, but will the upside last? Investors face a market caught between demand growth, affordability constraints, and evolving RTO rules that collectively blur the line between windfall and risk. This presentation explores how sustained load growth, residential electrification, and market reform are complicating capacity markets and the risks/opportunities that the new market dynamics create.

• How has the change in administration affected tax equity availability and pricing for solar and storage projects?
• Did transferable tax credits become the preferred route in 2025, as traditional tax equity slowed down in response to federal policy uncertainty? Will this continue into 2026?
• Is there sufficient tax equity supply to meet demand or are developers facing a squeeze as investor caution rises?
• What does the market look like for an ITC transfer on a high-grade solar asset in 2025? How are pricing trends evolving?

• How are developers navigating land availability and forming partnerships with landowners in high-potential areas?
• Where are transmission bottlenecks limiting deployment, and which regions are addressing these challenges effectively?
• Which power markets are creating the right conditions—pricing, policy, and demand—for profitable solar & storage investment?
• How are local demand trends (e.g., data centers, electrification, population growth) shaping where projects are getting built?
• Are any states developing long-term frameworks that truly support scale-up, and how do incentives compare regionally?
• Where is there growing momentum for storage-specific tenders, and which states are taking the lead on long-duration storage solutions?

• As of April 2024, the U.S. government has announced cuts to DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations which included $350 million in funding for six LDES projects across the country. How has this impacted investor confidence in LDES?
• What policies, market signals, or offtake structures are needed to unlock bankability at scale?
• What kinds of revenue models or use cases are starting to make long-duration projects pencil out?

• How real, and bankable is the projected power demand from data centers, AI, and high-load industries across U.S. regions?
• How does growth in industrial and data-driven load align with solar and storage development opportunities?
• What are the risks and rewards of investing in projects targeting data center offtake?
• How are grid constraints (transmission, interconnection, firm capacity) affecting project viability near major data center hubs?
• What strategies and technologies (e.g., co-location, storage, hybrid assets) are best positioned to meet the unique needs of large energy users?