6 - 7 Apr 2027
San Diego
6 - 7 Apr 2027
San Diego
Monday 5 April 2027
Tuesday 6 April 2027
Session 1
Registration & welcome coffee
For the first time in decades, US electricity demand is skyrocketing. Driven by the explosive growth of AI, data centers, and the electrification of industry, asset managers are operating in a fundamentally altered macro environment where power is scarce and the grid is strained.
A new class of energy buyer has entered the market, and they are no longer passive offtakers. The world's largest corporate buyers are sophisticated market movers with internal modeling teams and the capital to dictate terms. From hyperscalers to industrial giants, they bring unprecedented financial and market leverage. This session steps back from individual deals to examine the macro power shift: what it means for the asset management function when the entity on the other end of your contract holds more capital, analytical firepower, and political clout than the grid operator.
Serving them requires asset managers to evolve from passive operators into dynamic energy traders and structural problem-solvers. This panel brings together asset managers, developers, and energy buyers to map what that evolution looks like in practice.
Morning networking break
Session 2A
The handoff from project development to commercial operations is increasingly fraught with costly surprises, largely driven by the transition to cluster studies and new network cost allocation frameworks. This session equips operational asset managers with the tactical playbook needed to audit sudden upgrade fees, adapt to shifting queue dynamics, and safely guide late-stage projects into profitable operations.
With grid upgrades lagging years behind renewable deployment, local congestion is destroying project economics through severe basis risk. This presentation dives into the financial realities of regional bottlenecks.
Curtailment has moved beyond being a localized issue to becoming a structural reality of the grid. Asset managers must move from accepting curtailment as a loss to actively managing it via software.
Session 2B
As portfolios age and interest rates fluctuate, asset managers have unique opportunities to restructure debt, refinance, or bring in new tax equity partners to unlock trapped capital. This presentation covers the traditional levers of financial engineering, focusing on how to refinance operational assets, manage debt service requirements, and lower the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) to unlock trapped equity.
The IRA's transferability provisions have created a massive, fast-moving secondary market for tax credits. This presentation highlights the "new" financial engineering, guiding asset managers on how to successfully monetize ITCs and PTCs while structurally managing the strict compliance and recapture risks demanded by tax buyers and debt providers.
The financial success of an operational asset is dictated years before COD. This panel features developers who focus on the financial and commercial friction points of project handovers. Moving beyond engineering choices, experts discuss how early financial modeling, PPA structuring, and CAPEX-driven procurement decisions directly impact long-term debt servicing, insurance premiums, and OPEX realities for the asset owner.
Networking lunch break
Session 3A
Workshop
A hands-on deep dive into identifying the technical drivers eroding project IRRs. This workshop is your guide to evaluating raw SCADA data and drone thermography to isolate hardware issues and system bottlenecks. Understand critical drivers such as DC/AC clipping, thermal derating, and PID/LID degradation, and use site-specific soiling and snow-loss modeling to optimize wash schedules.
Despite multiple advances in O&M technology and analytics, underperformance remains a persistent challenge for solar assets. This panel moves from diagnosis to resolution, bringing together O&M leaders to discuss practical field strategies and hardware retrofits that close the gap between projected P50 models and actual operational yield.
Session 3B
Workshop
Long-term financial models were built on the assumption that historical weather patterns would hold. They are not holding. Shifting climate baselines, increased frequency of extreme weather events, and multi-year precipitation anomalies are creating systematic gaps between P50 generation forecasts and actual field performance. This workshop examines how asset managers and technical advisors are rebuilding long-term yield assumptions from the ground up.
As early-generation US solar assets approach years 10-15, asset managers must decide whether to continue repairing degrading components or to initiate a full repowering. This panel explores the decision map of asset owners that act as a foundation for hold, sell, or repower decisions.
Afternoon networking break
Session 4
Asset management is messy. In this highly popular, off-the-record format, senior leaders share their most expensive mistakes, operational disasters, and the hard-won lessons that followed.
Networking drinks
Wednesday 7 April 2027
Session 5A
What goes wrong financially when AM teams treat BESS like PV? Batteries are complex chemical assets with strict operational limits that dictate their financial lifespan. The decisions around depth of discharge, cycling frequency, and thermal management, made in the first years of operation, compound quietly until they surface as warranty disputes, degradation acceleration, and stranded revenue.
Unplanned downtime is the enemy of IRR. By utilizing machine learning models trained on vast telemetry datasets, operators can identify anomalies and replace components just before catastrophic failure occurs.
Battery storage must dynamically stack revenues to pencil out. Whether bidding a massive utility-scale asset into day-ahead markets or optimizing a distributed commercial fleet against local tariffs, operators rely on sophisticated software to execute complex, real-time algorithms. This panel debates between maximising short-term revenue through aggressive cycling versus protecting long-term warranty and degradation curves.
Session 5B
The Inflation Reduction Act incentivizes clean energy development, but maintaining tax credit value requires continuous labor compliance throughout the asset lifecycle, not just at construction. This presentation breaks down the administrative and operational requirements for asset managers overseeing contracted field teams, with a focus on the documentation gaps that most commonly trigger clawback risk
As portfolio sizes scale exponentially, relying solely on third-party talent acquisition is no longer viable. This case study demonstrates how asset owners and major O&M providers are building internal workforce development pipelines to recruit, train, and retain high-voltage technicians, moving from reactive hiring to structured talent infrastructure.
The skills gap is not going away! So the question is not how to close it but how to operate successfully despite it. This panel brings together asset managers, O&M service providers, and labor experts to debate practical strategies for expanding field capacity and improving site-level response times.
Morning networking break
Session 6A
Workshop
Adding battery storage to an operating solar asset is one of the most consequential capital decisions an asset manager makes, and one of the most frequently underestimated. This workshop moves beyond theory to examine real retrofit scenarios, guiding participants through the key decision points that separate a well-executed hybrid integration from one that creates years of operational and financial drag.
Determining when an aging asset should undergo a full repowering or BESS retrofit requires balancing technical degradation against capital expenditure and market opportunity, but this calculation is increasingly complex. This panel brings together utility-scale and distributed asset owners alongside financial advisors to evaluate the exact tipping points that justify project recapitalization.
Session 6B
Workshop
Physical site management extends far beyond mowing grass and spraying weeds. This practical workshop explores active land stewardship techniques, including managed grazing, pollinator habitats, and soil conservation, demonstrating how thoughtful vegetation management reduces operational expenditure while strengthening local support.
A solar asset's relationship with its host community is an operational factor that weighs across a 30–40 year asset life. Local opposition, shifting county ordinances, and landowner disputes are not legacy issues from the permitting process: they are live AM risks that affect site access, staff recruitment, decommissioning obligations, and ultimately asset value. This panel explores how asset managers build and maintain the community relationships that determine whether an asset can operate as designed for its full intended life.
Networking lunch break
Session 7A
When solar plants reach years 10 through 15, component degradation, inverter obsolescence, and cumulative wear require a shift from routine maintenance to strategic asset rehabilitation. This panel discusses how asset managers prioritize capital expenditures to extend useful life and prevent catastrophic production drops.
Planning for asset retirement requires accurate financial modeling of decommissioning costs, salvage values, and environmental compliance. This panel brings together recycling providers, EPCs, and regulatory specialists to analyze the reverse supply chain, transport logistics, and emerging recycling regulations shaping end-of-life solar management.
Session 7B
With extreme weather events testing the limits of solar infrastructure, passive strategies are no longer sufficient. This panel brings together O&M leaders and field directors to debate tactical response playbooks during high-risk weather events, evaluating the decisions required to protect assets during high-risk events such as Texas hailstorms and California wildfires.
The rising frequency of severe weather events has caused a hard insurance market, with premiums soaring and deductibles for natural catastrophes (NatCat) reaching project-threatening levels.
Afternoon networking break
Session 8
To close the summit on a visionary, high-energy note, this session puts senior leaders in the hot seat. Rather than looking back, panelists are forced to navigate hypothetical yet highly probable market scenarios over the coming years.
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Domenica Rodà
Senior Event Manager
For questions about the program and content of the event:
[email protected]
Victor Georgescu
Event Manager
For questions about the program and content of the event:
[email protected]
Maryana Malyshevska
Business Developer
For questions regarding partnership opportunities:
[email protected]