Currents
Currents is a podcast published by Norton Rose Fulbright that features in-depth discussions on the latest developments in project finance. The podcast is hosted by partner Todd Alexander, who interviews key business leaders and policy makers to investigate important trends affecting the energy and infrastructure space.
Episodes
Ep369: The Path to Commercial Space‑Based Solar
John Bucknell, CEO of Virtus Solis Technologies, explains how his company plans to collect solar energy in orbit and send it to ground stations by microwave, providing continuous, low‑cost power for large loads such as data centers.
Ep368: Bringing Battery Storage to Dense Cities
James McGinniss, CEO of David Energy, explains how plug‑in batteries and retail electricity supply can lower energy costs for commercial customers in dense urban markets like New York City.
Ep367: Building Grid Resilience Against Extreme Weather
Mishal Thadani, CEO of Rhizome, explains how utilities can combine asset data, outage history and climate models to identify their highest extreme weather risks and plan resilience investments.
Ep366: New Rules, Tariffs and Project Risk
Luke Edney, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, discusses how new regulatory developments, tariffs and supply chain constraints are affecting procurement and construction for energy projects.
Ep365: Energy as a Service in a Constrained Grid
Mariko Meier, CEO of Unison Energy, discusses how on‑site microgrids help commercial, industrial and data center customers manage energy reliability, cost certainty and carbon goals.
Ep364: Inside Middle Market Tax Credit Transactions
Iñigo Rengifo, CEO of Concentro, discusses how tax credit transfers are being executed in the middle market and distributed generation sectors, including diligence, tax insurance and the outlook for tax credit sales for smaller projects.
Ep363: How Tariffs Are Reshaping Renewable Project Costs
Stefan Riesinger, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, discusses the current state of tariffs affecting the renewable energy industry and how developers and financing parties can assess and manage the resulting risks.
Ep362: Load Growth and the Future of Capacity Markets
Brent Nelson, senior managing director of market intelligence at Ascend Analytics, discusses how load growth, capacity market challenges and data center demand are reshaping power markets and long‑term planning.
Ep361: Aligning Markets to Reduce Carbon Emissions
Amy Brachio, CEO of Carbon Measures, discusses how product‑level carbon data and regulation can align market incentives to reduce emissions in hard‑to‑abate sectors.
Ep360: Turning EVs Into a Grid Resource
Joseph Vellone, CEO of ChargeScape, discusses how connecting electric vehicles to the grid can turn EV batteries into a flexible energy resource that benefits utilities, automakers and drivers.
Ep359: The Race to Power AI Data Centers
Mark Taylor and Kim Zou, co‑founders of Currence (formerly Sightline Climate), discuss how data center growth is reshaping power markets, including credibility challenges for announced projects, energy procurement strategies and the fastest paths to bringing new capacity online.
Ep358: Rethinking Energy Affordability and Resilience
Jon Powers, president of CleanCapital, discusses energy security, affordability and how distributed solar and storage can strengthen a more resilient and diversified US energy system.
Ep357: Managing Technology Risk in Energy Storage Projects
Jan Napiorkowski, managing director, and Jamie Daggett, energy storage and fuel cell lead at Ariel Green, discuss how technology performance insurance is evolving to support energy storage, fuel cells and other emerging clean energy technologies by helping projects manage risk and access financing.
Ep356: How Developers Can Turn Land Into Growth Capital
In host Jim Berger’s first episode, Laura Pagliarulo, CEO of SolaREIT, discusses how solar and battery storage developers can use real estate assets as a source of capital to fund project development, construction readiness and pipeline growth.
Ep355: How Data Centers Are Reshaping Project Finance
Ralph Cho, co‑chief executive officer and founding member of Apterra Infrastructure Finance, joins host Todd Alexander to discuss the rapid growth of data center financing, evolving debt market structures and broader trends in project finance. Plus, a big announcement on the future of Currents.
Ep354: How Developers Can Protect Their Tax Credits
Alan Cordova, head of strategy at Empact Technologies, discusses how developers can manage compliance risks related to prevailing wage, FEOC restrictions and beginning‑of‑construction requirements to protect tax credits.
Ep353: Navigating FEOC and Tax Credit Uncertainty
Dorian Hunt, partner and head of renewable energy at Leo Berwick, discusses how evolving FEOC restrictions, tax credit market dynamics and regulatory uncertainty are affecting renewable energy development and financing.
Ep352: Key Developments in the Energy Sector
Nick Bradley, director of renewables advisory at Arcadia, which is a global utility data and energy solutions platform for enterprises, discusses trends and developments in the energy sector and how they are shaping current market opportunities.
Ep351: Challenges and Opportunities in Distributed Solar
John Stroud, managing director at Limes Renewable Energy North America, discusses the challenges and opportunities in developing community solar and distributed generation projects in a changing policy and market environment.
Ep350: How Lenders Manage Credit Risk with Insurance
Ben Roberts, president of Texel Group, discusses how non‑payment insurance works in project finance and how lenders use it to manage credit risk, allocate capital and support lending activity.
Ep349: Meeting Surging Power Demand with Gas Assets
John Bills and Adil Sener of PEI Global Partners discuss the renewed interest in gas‑fired power assets driven by rising electricity demand, data center growth and supply constraints in power generation.
Ep348: Key Risks Shaping the Solar Industry
Jason Kaminsky, CEO of kWh Analytics, discusses key findings from the 2026 Solar Risk Assessment Report, including trends in reliability, insurance and emerging risks affecting solar projects.
Ep347: The Role of Distributed Solar in a High‑Demand Grid
Zaid Ashai, CEO of Nexamp, discusses how distributed generation and community solar can support rapidly growing electricity demand, improve grid resilience, and adapt to changing policy, financing and interconnection challenges.
Ep346: Rethinking Nuclear Approvals in the AI Era
Kevin Kong, CEO and founder of Everstar, discusses how artificial intelligence can streamline nuclear licensing and accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear power projects.
Ep345: Funding the Next Generation of Energy Technologies
Brandon Owens, vice president of innovation and research at NYSERDA, discusses how New York is supporting energy innovation through grants and research programs focused on grid modernization, buildings, energy storage and emerging technologies.
Ep344: Update on FEOC and Its Market Impact
Keith Martin, Norton Rose Fulbright partner, gives an update on the FEOC restrictions on use of clean energy tax credits, including compliance challenges, insurance constraints and how the market is responding.
Ep343: Off‑Grid Solar for Public Spaces and Communities
Vanessa Branco, chief sales and marketing officer of Sunbolt, discusses off‑grid solar and battery solutions that provide reliable, low‑maintenance power for campuses, governments and communities without access to the grid.
Ep342: Meeting Baseload Demand with Nuclear and Gas
Richard Taylor, CEO of ONE Nuclear, discusses developing hybrid natural gas and small modular nuclear power projects to meet growing data center demand for reliable baseload electricity.
Ep341: Onsite Power Solutions for Data Centers
Rebecca McDonald, VP of data center energy solutions at Bloom Energy, discusses how onsite fuel cell generation is being used to meet data center power needs amid grid constraints, interconnection delays and rising demand.
Ep340: Distributed Generation in a Constrained Grid
Rich Dovere, CEO of Dispatch Energy, discusses the opportunities and challenges of developing distributed generation amid rising power demand, transmission constraints and shifting incentives.
Ep339: Adapting Community Solar for a New Grid
Aaron Halimi, CEO of Renewable Properties, discusses how community solar and distributed generation are adapting during a period when traditional subscription models face constraints.
Ep338: A New Use for Old Wells
Kemp Gregory, CEO of Renewell Energy, discusses a novel energy storage approach that repurposes idle oil and gas wells into gravity‑based storage systems, using existing infrastructure to deliver low‑cost, flexible capacity to the grid.
Ep337: How Tax Credit Markets Weathered 2025
Alfred Johnson, co‑founder and CEO of Crux, discusses key findings from Crux’s latest analysis of the clean energy finance market, including trends in tax credit transfers, tax equity, pricing and capital deployment amid policy and market headwinds. The conversation also highlights insights from Crux’s newly released 2025 Market Intelligence Report, which examines how clean energy and manufacturin
Ep336: Supreme Court Strikes Down Tariffs
Stefan Reisinger, Norton Rose Fulbright partner, joins us to discuss the ruling by the United States Supreme Court to strike down the tariffs imposed by President Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Ep335: New IRS Guidance on FEOC and 45Z Tax Credits
Keith Martin, Norton Rose Fulbright partner, discusses newly issued IRS guidance on the FEOC rules, explaining how the Treasury clarified the calculation of prohibited foreign content and what uncertainty remains for developers and tax credit buyers. He also reviews proposed regulations for the 45Z clean fuel tax credit and how the changes may improve transferability and market participation.
Ep334: Renewables Development in a Demand‑Driven Market
Jim Spencer, CEO of Exus Renewables North America, discusses the company’s recent $400 million corporate debt raise and how rising demand is reshaping renewable development. He also outlines current grid, supply‑chain, and interconnection challenges and how developers are adapting with storage, gas and repowering strategies.
Ep333: Rethinking Forecasts in an Uncertain Climate
Rob Cirincione of Sunairio explains why traditional weather models miss the extreme events that drive grid risk and how high‑resolution, ensemble‑based forecasting can better predict impacts on power markets.
Ep332: Forecasting Energy Trends for 2026
Robbie Orvis of Energy Innovation discusses how shifting federal policies, tax credit changes and rising electricity demand shaped renewable energy deployment in 2025 and what those trends may mean for 2026. He also explores expected growth in solar and storage, potential headwinds for wind and the broader implications for power prices and grid planning.
Ep331: Cost of capital: 2026 outlook
Four project finance industry veterans talk about what to expect this year for tax equity, tax credit sales and debt. The four are Jack Cargas, managing director and head of tax equity origination, Bank of America, Ralph Cho, co-CEO, Apterra Infrastructure Capital, Rubiao Song, managing director and head of energy investments, JPMorgan, and Elizabeth Waters, managing director - project finance Ame
Ep330: Using Curtailed Power for Data Centers
John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Holdings, discusses how the company develops data centers co‑located with renewable power plants to use curtailed energy, the role of “renewable computing” and how flexible data center operations can help manage growing AI‑driven electricity demand.
Ep329: Building and Scaling Renewable Projects in a Shifting Policy Environment
David Lillefloren and Tyler Hall of SunRaycer discuss launching and scaling a renewable energy development platform, from team-building and capital strategy to executing projects amid changing federal policy, supply‑chain constraints and rising power demand.
Ep328: Optimizing Distributed Generation Assets
Barrett Bilotta, CEO of Agilitas Energy, discusses the company's integrated approach to renewable energy development and recent trends in distributed generation and energy storage.
Ep327: Market Dynamics in Tax Credit Insurance
Dan Berger, managing director at Lockton Companies, discusses recent trends, challenges and developments in the tax credit insurance market.
Ep326: How Linear Generators Empower Businesses
Shannon Miller, CEO of Mainspring Energy, describes the company’s modular linear generator technology and discusses its potential uses and cost considerations for various energy customers.
Ep325: New Rules for Private Power in Mexico
Raquel Bierzwinsky, Norton Rose Fulbright partner, discusses the latest reforms to Mexico’s power sector, highlighting how new regulations are creating opportunities for private investment and project development after years of stagnation.
Ep324: Evolving Community Solar and Storage
Stefano Ratti, CEO of Chaberton Energy, shares how his team is evolving from solar-only development to integrating storage and navigating shifting market dynamics, tariffs and policy changes.
Ep323: Data center financings: Part II
Four industry experts discuss about the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in data center financings. The four are Claus Hertel, managing director, Rabobank, Melih Ileri, chief investment officer, DC BLOX, Mike Johnson, director, Société Générale, and Tim McGuire, vice president, capital markets, Rowan Digital Infrastructure. The moderators are Christine Brozynski and Christy Rivera in Ne
Ep321: Financing the Next Wave of Nuclear
Jake Jurewicz, CEO of Blue Energy, shares how modular, prefabricated nuclear power plants could dramatically reduce costs and timelines and unlock new opportunities for commercial financing and grid-scale deployment.
Ep320: Streamlining Utility Planning for Rapid Deployment
Pier LaFarge, CEO of Sparkfund, explains how distributed capacity procurement is helping utilities rapidly deploy batteries and other distributed energy resources to meet grid constraints and rising demand.
Ep319: Bringing Transparency to Clean Energy Certificates
Ben Gerber, CEO of CleanCounts, explains how its nonprofit registry brings transparency and reliability to renewable energy and thermal certificate markets by helping asset owners and consumers to validate their clean energy claims.
Ep318: TDK Ventures on Emerging Energy Tech
Nicolas Sauvage, president of TDK Ventures, discusses how AI-driven energy demand, emerging battery technologies like sodium-ion and shifting geopolitical dynamics are shaping the future of energy storage and deep tech investing.
Ep317: Tariffs and the Future of Battery Storage
Dan Finn-Foley, director of energy storage market intelligence at Clean Energy Associates, discusses the impact of tariffs, shifting supply chains and emerging technologies on the US battery storage market.
Ep316: How Captona is Scaling Energy Transition Assets
Izzet Bensusan, CEO of Captona, shares how his team is investing in renewables, storage and clean fuels while using preferred equity structures and preparing for rising energy demand.
Ep315: Developing Smarter Energy Platforms in Europe
Adrien Pinsard, CEO of Telis Energy, shares how the firm is scaling a decentralized green energy platform across Europe’s largest power markets, combining organic development and strategic acquisitions to meet growing demand from renewables, batteries and data centers.
Ep314: Navigating cost, risk and regulation in energy storage
Chris McKissack, CEO of Fullmark Energy, shares insights on the evolving energy storage market, discussing cost trends, operational complexity, regulatory shifts and how Fullmark is positioning itself to meet rising demand across key US power markets.
Ep313: New Construction-Start Rules
Keith Martin, Norton Rose Fulbright partner, joins us to talk about how the new construction-start guidance issued by the US Treasury and the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" as a whole are affecting the renewables market.
Ep312: Modeling Risk and Value in Renewable Energy Portfolios
Brock Mosovsky, head of commercial analytics at cQuant.io, breaks down how advanced modeling and probabilistic forecasting are reshaping how developers, investors and lenders assess value, risk and offtake strategies in renewable energy and storage projects.
Ep311: A Discussion of the New FEOC Rules
Kristina Costa, who was involved with FEOC issues at the White House and Treasury during the Biden administration, Seth Hanlon, who led work on the Inflation Reduction Act guidance as deputy assistant secretary for tax policy in the Biden Treasury and is now with the NYU Tax Law Center, and Kyle Sweeney, who is also with the NYU Tax Law Center, join us to provide their assessment of the FEOC provi
Ep310: Legal Perspectives on Energy and Infrastructure
Chris Panaro, Executive Director & Counsel at Nomura, shares legal insights from financing energy and infrastructure projects, highlighting the risks, regulatory shifts and deal structures shaping today’s project finance landscape.
Ep309: Bitcoin Mining and Renewable Integration
JohnPaul Baric, founder of MiningStore, explains how Bitcoin mining is evolving into a powerful tool for grid stability and renewable energy integration.
Ep308: Clean Energy, Island Style
Lukas Sheild, general manager at REC Solar Hawaii, shares how microgrids are transforming energy resilience across the Hawaiian islands.
Ep307: What the Proposed Scope 2 Changes Could Mean
Lee Taylor, CEO of REsurety, joins us to unpack the debate surrounding the proposed revisions to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Scope 2 emissions guidance.
Ep306: Summary of the Big Beautiful Bill
Keith Martin, Norton Rose Fulbright partner, joins us to break down the Big Beautiful Bill and how it will affect renewable energy tax credits.
Ep305: Nature as a Business Risk
Megan Pillsbury, CEO of Dunya Analytics, joins us to discuss how businesses can identify and manage environmental-related risks using scalable, science-based tools.
Ep304: Navigating the DOJ’s New FCPA Guidance
Keith Rosen, a Norton Rose Fulbright partner, explains the Department of Justice’s updated guidance on enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and discusses how it will affect US companies developing infrastructure projects overseas.
Ep303: Scaling Clean Energy Access Through Community Solar
Jorge Vargas, CEO of Aspen Power, joins us to discuss the evolving landscape of community solar in the US. He shares how Aspen is expanding access to clean energy through innovative partnerships, strategic development, and a focus on emerging markets.
Ep302: Insights from the 2025 kWh Solar Risk Assessment
Jason Kaminsky, CEO of kWh Analytics, returns to discuss key findings from the 2025 Solar Risk Assessment report. The report highlights growing threats from extreme weather. We also discuss how AI is being used to improve data analysis and the rising importance of cybersecurity and battery safety in renewable energy. The 2025 Solar Risk Assessment is available to download at kwhanalytics.com/sola
Ep301: Making Tax Credits Work for Clean Energy
Alfred Johnson, CEO of Crux, discusses how Crux is streamlining clean energy financing through a marketplace for transferable tax credits, insights on market growth, recent policy changes and more.
Ep300: Decoding the House Bill: Impacts on Energy Tax Credits
Keith Martin, Norton Rose Fulbright partner, breaks down the latest US legislative changes affecting renewable energy tax credits, including last-minute amendments and their implications for solar, wind, hydrogen and carbon capture projects.
Ep299: FEOC Restrictions: The House Passed Foreign Entity of Concern Restrictions
Kristina Costa and Ted Lee, who were involved in FEOC guidance at the White House and Treasury during the Biden administration, and Kyle Sweeney with the NYU Tax Law Center, join us to discuss their concerns with the FEOC restrictions in the budget reconciliation bill that passed the US House this week.
Ep298: Summary of Tax Provisions from House Ways and Means Committee
Hilary Lefko, Norton Rose Fulbright partner, joins us to discuss the Republicans' proposed plans for the future of renewable tax credits to be folded into the budget reconciliation bill later this year.
Ep297: Energy Management for Data Centers
Michael Stadler, CTO of Xendee, discusses how microgrids are designed and operated to minimize costs, enhance reliability and achieve emissions goals. He explains how microgrids can address the growing electricity demand driven by AI and the challenges of utility upgrades and discusses the benefits of technologies like combined heat and power systems and batteries.
Ep296: Ascend Analytics CEO on Navigating the Energy Market
Gary Dorris, CEO of Ascend Analytics, discusses how his company uses software and data to understand the economic dynamics of energy supply. He explains the complexities of predicting power prices due to the increasing influence of renewables and storage and the importance of advanced computing and machine learning in optimizing asset management.
Ep295: Giraffe Financial CEO on Tax Credit Monetization
Jason Prince, CEO of Giraffe Financial, discusses tax credit monetization and the challenges and opportunities in the evolving landscape of climate incentives, including dealing with transaction costs and regulatory compliance, as he explains Giraffe Financial’s approach to make tax credit monetization accessible and efficient.
Ep294: Navigating Utility-Scale Solar and BESS Development in 2025
Sabah Bayatli, president of OCI Energy, discusses the evolving policy and regulatory landscape shaping utility-scale solar and energy storage development in the US, including tariffs, the Inflation Reduction Act, interconnection challenges and contracting strategies and also explainsOCI Energy’s approach to geographic and technological diversification.
Ep293: Data Center Financings
Four industry experts discuss what to expect from current financing structures for data centers. The four are Claus Hertel, managing director, Rabobank, Melih Ileri, SVP capital markets and strategy, DC BLOX, Mike Johnson, vice president, Nomura and Tim McGuire, senior director, project finance, Rowan Digital Infrastructure. The moderators are Christine Brozynski and Christy Rivera in New York.
Ep292: Tariff Impact on the Infrastructure Sector
Stefan Reisinger, Norton Rose Fulbright partner, joins us to discuss the newly imposed tariffs and how they may affect the infrastructure industry.
Ep291: Not Science-Fiction: How Reflect Orbital is Creating Sunlight at Night
Ally DeGunther, vice president of strategy for Reflect Orbital, joins us to discuss the company’s development of technology that uses satellites to reflect sunlight after dark, and how this technology could be applied.
Ep290: New Solutions in Energy Storage
Rob Piconi, CEO of Energy Vault, joins host Todd Alexander to discuss the energy storage market and novel storage solutions that Energy Vault has been working on.
Ep289: Challenges of Greenfield Solar Development in 2025
Vitaly Lee, EVP and Chief Development Officer of Qcells, joins us to discuss the outlook of greenfield solar development in 2025, the M&A market outlook, and more.
