Financing Utility-Scale Storage: Where is Equity Heading Next, and Where Does Debt Belong?

Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Time
02:00 pm - 03:30 pm
Hall
ICM München
Room
Room 13 B

There is plenty of equity available for financing grid-scale storage across Europe. Projects no longer need to adapt their commercial models to accommodate debt. This panel session examines which national markets are particularly exciting for equity investors, and which revenue streams and project maturities can justify the use of leverage.

02:00 pm - 02:05 pmWelcome & Introduction

Charles Lesser

Partner

Apricum - The Cleantech Advisory

02:05 pm - 03:05 pmPanel Discussion

03:05 pm - 03:30 pmPitches by Panelists with Q&A

Lori Qin

Vice President

BlackRock Climate Infrastructure

Carol Kort

Director Project Finance Renewables

Rabobank

Radu Gruescu

Partner

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners

Jon Ferris

Head of Flexibility and Storage

LCP Delta

Speakers

Speaker

Carol Kort, Rabobank

Director Project Finance Renewables

The Netherlands

Carol is a Director within the European Project Finance team of Rabobank, one of the leading banks in project finance globally. The energy transition is one of the core pillars of Rabobank's ambition and the bank has been project financing renewable energy assets for over 20 years with a current global commitment of c. EUR 5bln distributed over 20 countries. Carol is responsible for the origination, structuring and execution of renewable energy transactions (battery storage, offshore wind, solar PV, onshore wind) across Europe, including complex holdco and/or portfolio structures and financing on the basis of corporate PPAs and/or merchant revenues. Most recently, Carol has been involved in financial advisory for offshore wind in the Netherlands and has led the negotiation and execution of the financing for several large-scale solar PV portfolios in the Netherlands, Denmark and Italy. In respect of battery storage specifically, Carol recently closed financings for a stand-alone battery in France and two stand-alone battery portfolios in the UK. Before joining Rabobank, Carol was responsible for debt advisory within Philips Capital and prior to that spent the first years of her career within structured metals and energy finance at ING. Carol holds a Master in Business Computer Science from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Speaker

Charles Lesser, Apricum - The Cleantech Advisory

Partner

Germany

Charles Lesser is a senior corporate financier in the international energy industry. Over 25 years he has led a wealth of successful transactions in public and private capital markets, from asset and corporate M&A to IPOs. His award-winning career includes heading the energy investment banking groups at a number of leading international banks. He has a particular interest in energy storage and heads Apricum's global transaction advisory practice.

Speaker

Jon Ferris, LCP Delta

Head of Flexibility and Storage

United Kingdom

Jon has spent his career in energy engaging consumers and distributed assets in energy markets, managing a €1bn wholesale trading book on behalf of C&I consumers, working with retailers to develop new contracts improving market access for smaller and more diverse flexible assets. As Head of Storage and Flexibility at LCP Delta, he is responsible for leading research into two of the most dynamic aspects of the energy transition, and producing the industry-leading European Market Monitors on Flexibility and Storage.

Speaker

Lori Qin, BlackRock Climate Infrastructure

Vice President

United Kingdom

Lori joined BlackRock in 2015 and is a member of the Climate Infrastructure investment team which currently manages over $9bn in capital commitments. Lori is responsible for sourcing, executing and managing climate infrastructure assets in Europe, and has recently led transactions in the transmission and energy storage sectors in the UK. Lori earned a MA degree in Mathematics from St Edmund Hall, Oxford University.

Speaker

Radu Gruescu, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners

Partner

Denmark

Radu Gruescu is Partner at Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, responsible for originating, evaluating and executing investments and projects within CIP's Flagship strategy. Radu's primary focus is on Investment Platforms, where he is Partner-in-Charge and board member for a number of CIP investments. With EUR 20bn of capital raised so far for energy infrastructure investments and with a target to increase this to EUR 100bn by 2030, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is a global leader in renewable energy investments and makes significant and meaningful contributions to the green transition. Radu joined CIP in 2017 and has a track record of more than 21 years in the energy sector. At CIP, he has led investments in projects and companies covering a large spectrum of renewable energy technologies (onshore wind, solar PV, battery storage and geothermal) and across many European markets. Prior to joining CIP, Radu was Director at Terra Firma Capital Partners, with responsibility for European renewable energy investments such as Infinis in the UK and RTR Rete Rinnovabile in Italy. Before that, he worked in the Power Generation and M&A departments of Centrica plc, where he focused primarily on offshore wind transactions and business development. He started his career in 2002 in J.P. Morgan's Energy & Power investment banking group in London. Radu studied Business Administration and Electrical Engineering and graduated from Darmstadt University of Technology.

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