Clean Energy’s Ever-Changing Policy Risk [Special Content From CohnReznick]
Energy Gang
Wood Mackenzie
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2019
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is a branded podcast made in collaboration between CohnReznick Capital and GTM Creative Strategies.
Britta Von Oesen knows risk.
As an intern in Lehman Brothers’ global energy unit in 2008, she watched the collapse of the investment bank in real time.
Later, she watched European markets grind to a halt after feed-in-tariffs were reversed.
And in the U.S., she’s monitored the ever-changing tax policies and regulations that impact wind, solar and storage.
Today, Britta is a managing director at CohnReznick Capital. Her job is to help figure out how to get wind and solar deals done in the face of policy and financial risk.
In this special episode, produced in collaboration with CohnReznick Capital, we sit down with Britta Von Oesen to unpack some of those policy uncertainties and what they mean for renewables.
Go to CohnReznickCapital.com to learn more about how the company builds relationships, closes deals, and helps clean energy companies excel.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the summer of 2008, Brita von Oson took an internship with a major investment bank after wrapping up business school. |
| 0:07.0 | It was considered at the time one of the top places to work. |
| 0:10.0 | It was with a company called Lehman Brothers. |
| 0:13.0 | And it was actually a fascinating summer. |
| 0:16.0 | I was working in their global power group, |
| 0:18.0 | but focused on renewable energy. |
| 0:20.0 | And, you know, there was a lot going on at the time. |
| 0:23.6 | Tax equity was really ramping up. |
| 0:25.7 | People were figuring out how the structuring was going to work with that. |
| 0:30.3 | There were a couple IPOs that were right on the horizon. |
| 0:33.0 | So it was a fascinating summer from a renewables perspective and also what was going on at Lehman. |
| 0:40.0 | It's been an unnerving week for U.S. financial markets, and now the potential collapse of Lehman Brothers, |
| 0:47.0 | once the fourth largest investment firm in the U.S. |
| 0:50.0 | At that time, Lehman Brothers was a top investor in renewables. |
| 0:53.4 | It had bought big portfolios of wind and solar projects. |
| 0:56.4 | It was a leading tax equity investor and it was helping take companies public. |
| 1:00.4 | It was an exciting time, but as the summer wore on, market conditions worsened, investors got nervous, and things got grim for Lehman. |
| 1:07.8 | Analysts say the bank's future is in doubt after it reported a loss of nearly four billion dollars in the last quarter. |
| 1:14.0 | Lehman Brothers has suffered heavy losses as a result of the US housing slum. |
| 1:18.0 | You know while I was there it was just constant reassurance that these cycles are normal and you know |
| 1:25.5 | financial markets go through this occasionally and and everything was going to be |
| 1:30.1 | fine. Of course it was not fine. |
... |
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