Infocast NY Energy Summit 2026: Soundbites

The Infocast NY Energy Summit took place April 14–16, 2026 in Albany, New York, bringing together developers, financiers, policymakers, and contractors to discuss the state of the New York clean energy market. The audience was the largest yet for the conference with 330 in attendance. The soundbites below are drawn from select panels attended on April 15 and 16, covering topics ranging from the tightening conditions in the tax credit finance market and the procurement challenges created by tariff uncertainty, to the technical and policy dimensions of battery storage.

Moving Forward Through Tax Credit Challenges

Tax credit finance panelists addressed a market under pressure — with foreign entity of concern (FEOC) supply chain uncertainty reshaping tax credit buyer behavior, a tightening insurance market driving up costs and exclusions, compressed fair market values, and a reckoning over the exuberance that followed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

"We transfer all of our credits — approximately $7 billion since transferability started." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"We have found a sweet spot where retaining credits is advantageous to us and the sponsor. The problem for us as the investor is that it does not allow us to recycle our tax appetite the way other tax equity investors are doing." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"We have a structure where we keep 25% of the credits and transfer 75%. The buyers take comfort in that because an IRS audit adjustment would apply to the retained credits first." — Managing Director, Global Investment Bank

"A tax credit transfer agreement for $2 billion crossed my desk. It involved one seller and one buyer." — Partner, Global Law Firm

"Buyers are going to gobble up legacy Section 48 credits before going for Section 48E credits due to FEOC uncertainty." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"Some sponsors have cleaner FEOC fact patterns than other sponsors." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"Due to FEOC and projects being larger, we are layering in more restrictions and focusing on clients we have known for longer." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"We are going to see more volatility in the tax credit market, particularly as FEOC comes into play." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"Historically, safe harboring has been a bad move — either because the tax credits were extended or because prices of modules declined over time. But how are you not going to safe harbor your solar project with that risk in front of you?" — Senior Developer, Solar Development Company

The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), enacted into law on July 4, 2025, imposes an end-of-2027 cliff on the investment and production tax credits for wind and solar projects, adding further urgency to safe-harbor decisions for developers with projects in the pipeline.

On tax credit monetization for merchant storage projects:

"In terms of tax credit monetization, merchant projects are almost always relegated to the transfer market with insurance — as opposed to tax equity — and that is an expensive product." — CFO, Integrated Renewable Energy Company 

On the tightening tax credit insurance market:

"Insurance used to charge a premium of 2% of the policy limit; now it is 3 to 4 to 5%. On a $2 billion deal, we had to build an insurance tower [(i.e., use additional insurers)], and it was a painful process." — Managing Director, Global Investment Bank

"Some of the preferred structures had 40% step-ups, and the insurers are not willing to insure them." — Managing Director, Global Investment Bank

"Everyone is seeing belt-tightening in fair market values." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"Insurers want to understand the step-up. What is included in the hard costs? What SG&A [(i.e., salary, general and administrative costs of the developer)] is included in the costs?" — Managing Director, Specialty Finance Company

"Tax credit insurers have started to exclude investment tax credit recapture coverage from the project suffering casualties due to weather. That's a hard pill to swallow for tax investors." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"We've gone from 2% to 5% in premiums for tax insurance, depending on the market. Exclusions are going from a handful to many handfuls and many nuances." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"We have seen a tightening in the insurance market. We are seeing higher insurance premiums for DG than utility scale because it is more work for the insurer." — Managing Director, Specialty Finance Company 

On market-wide conditions and the IRA hangover:

"We are seeing consolidation among developers on the horizon." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"We had too much incentive come into the system via the IRA and too much exuberance." — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

"These insolvencies [of solar sponsors] are making me think carefully about my limited liability company agreements (LLCAs) — particularly the definition of 'Manager.'" — Managing Director, Super Regional Bank

Equipment Procurement Challenges: Tariffs, Transformers, and Safe Harboring

Panelists grappled with a procurement environment turned upside down by tariff uncertainty — debating how to structure supply agreements, whether to safe harbor, and where modules will ultimately come from.

On tariffs and supply agreement structure:

"The existing tariff level is built into the price. For increases in tariffs, there is sharing between the customer and the supplier up to a point. Above that point, there is typically a provision that the supply agreement is renegotiated." — Chief Development Officer, EPC and Project Developer

On module sourcing and domestic manufacturing:

"We are actively diligencing every module manufacturer in the US. But it is irrational to build domestic module capacity because there is more supply than demand in the world. I hope US policy ends up somewhere in the middle where we again buy Tier 1 modules from Chinese manufacturers." — Senior Developer, Solar Development Company

On transformer availability:

"I think there will be a lot of transformers available that don't have homes. The market is more likely to be short on projects ready to go than it is to be short on start-of-construction transformers." — Chief Development Officer, EPC and Project Developer

On safe harboring battery energy storage systems (BESS):

"Safe harboring is such an unnatural act for BESS." — Senior Developer, Solar Development Company

On solar repowering economics:

"The economics of repowering solar have not worked for us, unless you are willing to write down the value of the project to reflect the fact that it is underperforming." — Chief Development Officer, EPC and Project Developer

Energy Storage Development: Grid Value and Policy

Panelists made the case that battery storage's value to the grid goes well beyond time-shifting — touching on grid utilization, frequency regulation, and transmission constraints — while also highlighting the policy gaps that continue to hinder storage deployment in New York.

On the grid value of BESS beyond time-shifting:

"BESS's value is thought of as time-shifting, but the biggest technical value is frequency regulation and addressing intermittency on the grid." — Founder, EPC Firm

"The grid is only about 50% utilized because it is built for peak demand. Storage allows use of more of the grid's capacity. Even if you didn't care about clean energy, you would want energy storage on the grid for this reason. Storage supports affordability and reliability, in addition to facilitating clean energy." — Executive Director, Industry Association

"In New York, job one for storage is grid reliability, not energy shifting — because there is not the level of wind and solar in New York that there is in Texas or California that creates the duck curve effect." — Vice President of Commercial Strategy, Renewable Energy Developer

"Capacity is an insurance policy to keep the lights on, but the capacity markets were designed for the technology that existed at the time — fossil plants." — Executive Director, Industry Association

"The majority of the need for reserves for the grid is short-term, and batteries are ideal for that." — Founder, EPC Firm

On the physical density and scale of storage:

"On a quarter acre, you can fit five MWs of batteries." — Co-Founder, Battery Developer

"What happens if we have six GWs of batteries that all decide to charge at the same time on a grid with a peak load of 10 GWs? That is what ConEd is considering. The obvious answer is that all six GWs would not charge at the same time." — Co-Founder, Battery Developer

On the transmission system and grid utilization:

"The transmission system is designed for short-term peaks. The biggest issue in New York is to use the transmission system better. The way the system is geographically set up leads to poor utilization because the high loads are all in small areas." — Founder, EPC Firm

"A lot of solar PV plants are designed with capacity in excess of what they can dispatch at the interconnection point. That creates an opportunity for charging BESS behind the meter." — Founder, EPC Firm

On storage safety and community acceptance:

"There have been three fires at storage projects. No one died. No one was injured. No homes or businesses were damaged." — Chief Development Officer, Renewable Energy Developer

"New York leads the nation in moratoriums against batteries, and that is a bad thing to lead the nation in. New York needs to work on community acceptance of batteries." — Executive Director, Industry Association

On New York's policy gaps for storage:

"Most energy equipment gets a sales tax exemption automatically in New York State under the tax code, but not storage. Storage can get one by going to the development agency, but that is a slow and expensive process. Storage should be on equal footing and be entitled to a sales tax exemption under the New York tax code." — Co-Founder, Battery Developer

"In our view as a developer, the sales tax exemption is more important than a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) for property taxes." — Vice President of Commercial Strategy, Renewable Energy Developer

Financing Energy Storage

The challenges of financing storage projects with merchant exposure drew commentary from the storage development panel, with panelists noting the difficulty of attracting capital to projects without contracted revenue streams.

On financing storage with merchant exposure:

"It is challenging to find attractive financing on storage projects that have a merchant component. Investors tend to like merchant risk as an upside piece to a contracted asset." — CFO, Integrated Renewable Energy Company