Solar & Storage Finance Agenda

Registration Opens. Grab a coffee and network before sessions begin.

Foreign Entity of Concern compliance is no longer a checkbox, it is reshaping procurement strategy, financing structures, and OEM relationships across the industry.

• What does FEOC compliance require of asset owners and developers, and how far ahead of enforcement is the industry preparing?
• How is regulatory pressure on domestic content reshaping OEM selection, supply chain design, and project economics?
• Which procurement decisions made in 2022 and 2023 are now creating FEOC exposure, and what options do asset owners have?
• How are lenders and tax equity investors treating FEOC risk in project finance, and what disclosures are now standard?
• What does a FEOC compliant domestic supply chain look like at scale, and how far away is the industry from getting there?

How decisions made at the development stage can create operational uncertainties years later.

• Which procurement choices (e.g. warranties, data access rights, LTSA structures, augmentation obligations) are hardest to renegotiate post-COD?
• Finance modelers and legal teams routinely sign off on technical assumptions they don't fully understand, where does that asymmetry show up in the P&L?
• What do investors still misunderstand about the day-to-day cost of running a battery asset, and who is responsible for closing that gap?
• When an asset changes hands, what does a proper technical due diligence look like, and what do buyers routinely miss on state of degradation, maintenance records, and warranty transfers?

Certifications and standards give the energy sector a common vocabulary for cybersecurity — but they describe a moment in time, not a permanent state. This session explores why ongoing verification, not one-time certification, is the actual discipline that keeps grid-connected equipment secure: how access governance, monitoring, system architecture, and supply-chain integrity interact continuously across a product's lifecycle, and what that means for how financiers and asset owners should think about risk over the life of a project, not just at closing. 

This session summarizes key findings from Crux's 2026 Mid-Year Market Intelligence Report, based on Crux's industry-leading dataset covering $85 billion in clean energy project finance transactions:

• The changing shape of the clean energy project finance market across debt capital markets, tax equity, and transferable tax credits.
• The policy and market landscape, including how market participants have adapted to prohibited foreign entity rules and other policy milestones.
•  Availability, volume, structure, and pricing data across different project financing structures.
• Crux's outlook on the volume, pricing, and policy catalysts likely to shape market sentiment in the second half of 2026.

• Merchant revenues have declined. So what does a bankable California revenue stack actually look like today, and how are lenders adjusting debt sizing against revised forward curves? 
• Standalone storage cannot be financed without a swap or toll. How are Resource Adequacy contract rates evolving, and what Internal Rates of Return can developers realistically target in 2026? 
• As PPA total contracted capacity has declined in the state over the past year, how can CAISO learn from more dominate offtaker PPA markets such as ERCOT, MISO and PJM?  
• Curtailment is eroding solar Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) competitiveness. Does co-location solve the economics, and at what cost to the standalone storage business model? 
• CAISO interconnection timelines add years to development schedules. What are the cost implications of queue delays, and how are developers pricing interconnection risk into project financing? 

• Production and Investment Tax Credits dominates deal structuring. Traditional tax equity from major banks has shifted. Some developers face a trade-off between going through regulatory hurdles to gain the tax credit versus importing components  and avoiding the tax credit altogether. 
• Projects under Section 48E in order to obtain necessary clean energy tax credits face additional scrutiny from tax equity investors, particularly regarding FEOC compliance. What are the capex implications, and how is this reshaping equipment procurement decisions? 
• Solar Investment Tax Credits (ITCs) expire after the end of 2027; storage credits run to 2033. So how should developers sequence capital allocation across those two timelines? 
• Major investors and banks have paused utility-scale tax equity over FEOC concerns. What does the tax equity supply shortage mean for project debt sizing and developer returns? 

Utilities across the nation are navigating a rapidly changing grid.  Extraordinary demand growth and a rise in low-cost solar power projects have transformed the challenge from simply meeting peak demand to balancing rapidly shifting load and vast amounts of excess, intermittent generation through smarter, more flexible energy storage and demand management systems. This presentation will explore how modern storage systems help utilities move power where it’s needed, avoid renewable curtailment, unlock unused capacity, relieve transmission congestion, and enhance affordability and reliability without expanding costly traditional generating capacity.

• The grid need is clear, but what is the cost of capital for non-lithium storage today versus four-hour lithium-ion? Is the premium justifiable on a levelized cost basis? 
• California's CPUC mandates drive the largest LDES procurement pipeline in the US, but policy frameworks are still creating financing barriers. What policy fixes would move the economics? 
• Alternative chemistries offer supply chain advantages but carry technology risk. How are lenders stress-testing non-lithium technology assumptions in their underwriting? 
• The first credible non-lithium financings will set the template. What combination of offtake, policy support, and capital appetite is needed to get those transactions across the line? 

• California Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) are among the most active offtakers in the state. How are CCA procurement structures priced, and how do they compare to utility bilateral contracts for developer returns? 
• Arizona's removal of its renewable mandate has redirected developer pipelines to California. How is this affecting Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) pricing and bilateral contract negotiations in the state? 
• FEOC rules now affect utility network upgrade sourcing. What are the cost and timeline implications for projects dependent on utility infrastructure? 

Open networking and Expo Hall open.

Ahead of chairing the session on streamlining storage interconnection and regulatory approval, California Energy Commission Commissioner Noemi Gallardo will deliver a keynote address on the state’s clean energy trajectory. California’s battery storage fleet now exceeds 21,000 MW — one of the largest in the world — up from less than 700 MW when Governor Newsom took office in 2019, a rise of more than 2,500% in seven and a half years. Commissioner Gallardo will reflect on the policy framework behind this transformation and what the next phase means for the developers, investors and asset owners in the room.

In this session, expect to find out:

• The 21 GW milestone and what’s driven it — how California built the nation’s largest battery fleet, spanning nearly 16,000 MW across 310 in-state utility-scale systems, 2,000 MW from facilities in Nevada and Arizona serving the CAISO grid, and 3,000 MW from over 300,000 distributed systems at homes, farms and businesses
• Storage unleashing solar — for the first time, Californians used more solar than natural gas in the first half of 2026, with solar usage up 22% and gas down 51% since 2024, as an 80% expansion in battery capacity gave solar somewhere to go after sunset
• Progress toward 2045 — with 67% of retail electric sales now from clean energy and clean resources meeting 100% of CAISO demand for part of the day on 92% of days so far in 2026, what’s required to reach the state’s 100% clean electricity target
• Permitting at pace — the CEC’s Opt-In Certification Program has approved 1,850 MW of storage and 1,450 MW of solar in the past year, with over 3,000 MW in the queue — and the scale of the remaining challenge, with more than 52,000 MW of storage needed by 2045, setting the stage for the panel to follow

• Where are the costliest permitting delays in 2026, and what is the IRR impact of a 12-month approval slippage on a typical utility-scale project? 
• FERC fast-tracking large load interconnection requests is creating queue disruption. As hyperscale data centers major power demands supersede other individual developer projects sitting in the interconnection queue, and as network conditions change, how do developers manage financial risk of restudy costs? 
• Battery safety standards are fragmented across states, creating permitting unpredictability. How are developers pricing that risk into development budgets? 
• How are better-capitalised developers using permitting advantages to improve project economics versus smaller players? 

• What is the fully-loaded cost of CAISO interconnection for a utility-scale storage project in 2026, including network upgrade allocations? How does this compare to ERCOT and PJM? 
• Grid Enhancing Technologies can unlock 10-25% additional transmission capacity at a fraction of the cost of new lines. What is blocking adoption, and what would accelerate it? 
• California is competing for hyperscaler investment via the GIDAP process. Data centers are exploring islanding to bypass interconnection entirely. What do developers need to do to position projects for that offtake? 
• How will AI-assisted interconnection studies reduce study timelines and the cost uncertainty that currently makes project financing harder? 

• What does corporate offtake look like structurally, and how is it priced versus utility bilateral contracts? 
• Data center performance requirements, 24/7 availability standards, and underperformance penalties create a fundamentally different contract from utility offtake. What are the development cost implications for project sponsors? 
• Lenders treat utility offtake and corporate offtake very differently. What are the specific underwriting requirements for corporate counterparties, and which lenders are becoming comfortable with hyperscaler credit?