Chris Smith

“Collaborative Capital: The Multiplier Effect for Clean Energy” frames a working forum on coordinating investment across public, private, and philanthropic sectors and addressing systemic clean-energy financing challenges. The program combines plenary discussions, facilitated small-group problem solving, and breakouts. Small-group topics include state policy blueprints, low- and moderate-income financial access, tax-credit monetization, the clean-energy capital stack, virtual power plant valuation, local alignment to reduce soft costs, financing data-center growth, solar finance in low-incentive markets, resilience and outage avoidance, first-of-a-kind project financing, turning small projects into investable portfolios, liquidity for CDFIs and green banks, Indigenous and rural capital access, early-stage geothermal exploration, and utility capital for flexible capacity with equitable benefits. Breakouts address how state and local green banks use public seed funding to attract private lenders; philanthropic impact investing and program-related investments; community ownership and retaining wealth locally; philanthropic guarantees and credit enhancements; financing grid modernization, battery storage, and microgrids in disaster-prone regions; and clean-energy finance amid AI-driven growth. The program also includes innovation spotlights. David Crane, CEO of Generate Capital, gives the opening keynote; Amir Kirkwood, CEO of Justice Climate Fund, gives a keynote; and Elizabeth Mahony, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, gives the closing keynote. The forum follows the Chatham House Rule, and solicitation of funding is not permitted.

The program examines Texas power policy, market design, infrastructure development, project investment, and operations. Shared plenary sessions address the 90th Legislative Session and SB 6, PUCT rulemaking, ERCOT’s Batch Zero large-load interconnection process, load growth, data-center power supply, 765-kV transmission, siting and permitting, and local engagement. Headline speakers include State Representative Todd Hunter of the Texas House of Representatives (District 32) and Commissioner Courtney Hjaltman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Day Two has concurrent ERCOT Market Reforms and Investment & Asset Optimization tracks. Topics include resource adequacy, transmission cost allocation beyond 4CP, data-center development, battery state-of-charge rules, cybersecurity and energy security, renewable project strategy, dispatchable generation, electricity affordability, demand response, distributed energy resources and ADER, and inverter-based resource ride-through requirements. Other sessions examine battery project economics, powered-land siting factors such as water and cooling, and strategies for optimizing assets in changing market conditions. The closing plenaries cover advanced nuclear, geothermal and other low-emission dispatchable generation; project finance amid tax-credit, FEOC/PFE, procurement, interest-rate, EPC-cost and tariff risks; and energy-asset M&A and deal trends.