New PTC Legislation, AES Potential Sale

Register for the SkySpecs webinar! The crew discusses the
resignation of Wind Europe CEO Giles Dickson and his impact on the
organization. They examine a new executive order from the White
House targeting 'unreliable' wind and solar energy sources,
analyzing its potential effects on tax credits and the renewable
energy market. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email
update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored
by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather
Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the
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YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the
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Podcast brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be
a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com
today. Now here's your hosts, Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro,
and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime
Winner d podcast. I'm Alan Hall in the Queen City, Charlotte, North
Carolina. I got filter the tower out in California and Joel Saxon
is in wet Austin, Texas. It rained again today. The storm waters
have been severe, like a hundred year flood Situations in Texas
have been very dangerous and a lot of people have been injured down
there. yeah, our condolences go out to everybody affected down in
Texas and there's supposed to be some more severe. Rainstorms in
the East coast of the United States. So hold on tight. there's a
lot of news going on [00:01:00] this week around the
world. the one that sticks out first and I wanna bring this to the
attention of everybody that, if you haven't heard yet, is, wind
Europe. CEO Giles Dixon has announced he's stepping down after 10
years as leading WIN Europe. And I was stunned when this happened.
And obviously, I. Don't have any influence in when Europe being an
American. I just watch from the outside and I, from what I've seen
and attended the conferences over in Europe, everything from what
I've seen under his tutelage has been great. And the promotional
materials and all the information that when Europe provides, has
been outstanding. so Giles is going to go back to teaching. He's
gonna go back into the schoolhouse. but it, seems like it's a shock
to everybody at, Wind Europe, at least that's the outward
appearance. Board chair Henrik Anderson, who is the head of Vestus
Praise Dixon's, tremendous contribution,
noting [00:02:00] that he will leave Wind Europe stronger
than he when he arrived. And that's clearly the case. Phil, do you
have any insight as to what's going on behind the scenes over in
Wind Europe and with Giles?  Phil Totaro: I do not, but I
can also speak from personal experience, having met him, I wanna
say back in 2018 or probably 2017. and I can certainly attest to
the, the work that they've done. As you might be able to see, I've
got two, things sitting here behind me that are awards from, the
Wind Europe and, predecessor to, that, we've, done a lot of work
over in Europe and it's been facilitated by, the Wind Europe,
events that they do as well as the publications that they've put
out. certainly my thanks go out to, to him
and, [00:03:00] wish him well on his, future
endeavors.  Joel Saxum: I would say from an American
standpoint, been to wind Europe now, man, I don't know how many
times, half a dozen times or something like that. They do a really
good job over there. And this is from, the leadership comes from
the top of just circling the wagons, right? Bringing everybody out
to the show, getting more voices involved, giving, getting
executive leaders from a lot of these large operators, giving them
the space to talk and putting them, in an area where their voices
are listened to. So like when, the last time I was at Wind Europe,
I think it was in, bill Bao. so I went, walked into Bill Bau, and
when you walked into the conference center, there was big banners
hanging of all of the key speakers and what their messages were
with pictures of their faces, six feet tall, hanging in all the
hallways. And I thought, what a great way to get visibility to the
industry, right? Because if anybody walks in here, because of
course at those shows you get, impartial
news [00:04:00] agencies and other things going. You see
that stuff right in the, European realm. I'm like, I recognize the
face of the CEO of RWE and, these things like they pop up. They're,
good at getting in the face of the, public and getting their
message across. And I would like to see us do more of those things
here. under giles's tutelage there, fantastic job. he said he's
gonna step back and go to teaching and give back to his local
community where he's from, and I think that's fantastic. it's a, a
career shift. He's given a lot to the wind industry. and moving on.
So now, we have those Giles in Pierre walk and talk videos that
they put out every, so often, they're gonna have to find someone
else to walk and talk with.  Allen Hall: That's gonna be
hard to do. Those win flicks are really well done. They're great
promotion for the industry in, Europe. I, there's very little that
I've seen that even really compares to them the amount of knowledge
you're gonna get in about four and a [00:05:00] half
minutes about what is actually happening on the ground in Europe.
You just don't find it anywhere like that. The, they are really
good tuned to all the inner workings of the eu, the individual
countries, all the manufacturers. They have the pulse of that
industry and it's, gonna be a lot to live up to wherever they
nominate to be. The next CEO win Europe. It. It has a high bar. A
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control of your turbine's health today. Over in the United States,
the White House has issued an executive order targeting, what has
been described as [00:06:00] quote unquote unreliable
wind and solar energy sources, which is a matter of strong debate.
The executive order titled, ending Market Distorting Subsidies for
Unreliable Foreign Controlled Energy Sources. Does that make an
acronym, guys? I don't think it does. The order directs the
Treasury Department to strictly enforce termination of clean energy
tax credits already included in the recently passed budget
reconciliation bill. the feeling on the street is this was done to
placate some of the. Congress, people that wanted more action
against wind and solar, mostly from petroleum, based states, and
that they didn't feel like they got enough in the legislation, so
they wanted to reinforce it. I, don't think this has any real
effect, but in in the larger scheme, but the one area which can. Be
adjusted with or played with is the [00:07:00] timing of
when projects have to go in and what the percentage of projects has
to be done to qualify for the tax credits. And Phil, you want to
provide some insights into what can happen with the qualification
aspect.  Phil Totaro: Yeah, so let's start with
understanding what got approved in the bill. Any project that
starts construction after July 4th, 2026 will no longer be eligible
for a production tax credit. Going back to Alan's comment about
this executive order, the intent. There is to direct the Treasury
Department, which oversees obviously the IRS, which has a final say
in what the qualification criteria are for getting the, Companies
who wanna claim the production tax credit, you have to submit an
application to be able to do that. they are being directed under
this executive [00:08:00] order to reexamine whether or
not there needs to be changes. That would be I. Basically
considered anti renewable. So anything that can take, money off the
table for wind and solar is, what they're trying to accomplish with
this. And what they can do, that's outside the scope of the bill is
they can. Have, the threshold for what constitutes start of
construction raised such that, let's call it about 15.3 gigawatts
out of the 30 gigawatts that's already, into the, construction and
permitting queue. There's about 15 gigawatts of that is at jeopardy
if we can't. if they raise these thresholds and if we can't get
started on construction with all that by, July 4th, 2026. 
Joel Saxum: Phil, I got a question for you 'cause I wanna
clarify this. We know that solar PV [00:09:00] onshore
wind almost exclusively, and I think it is exclusively, will
harvest PTCs over the lifetime instead of the 30% ITC credit for
CapEx, however. Offshore wind usually goes for ITC. And so I wanna
clarify this also pertains to ITC as well. That's, under, under the
same rule set as the PTC. Yes. and ITC if you don't know, is
investment tax credits versus production tax credits. So you,
that's a onetime, wham. on, I think 30% of the CapEx of a project.
And that's why you see it in offshore wind because it's so dang
expensive for offshore wind. But this, so the same set of rules is
gonna hit both of those, right?  Phil Totaro: Yes. And,
regardless of the executive order, Joel, the, it, the changes in
the law that they just made in the tax and budget bill, they passed
these changes in the law, actually potentially preclude. The Mar
Wind project in Maryland and the New England one and
two [00:10:00] projects, in, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
et cetera. that general vicinity where, multiple states are gonna
be off taking power, those projects may not be able to get their
construction finance in place and. Meet the start of construction
threshold,