CIBC’s Ines Serrao and James Wright recap key takeaways and hot takes from the Infocast Solar + Wind Finance & Investment Summit 2026 – covering current trends in the renewable energy sector, priorities for the year and the outlook ahead.
Intro: Welcome to The Energy Shift, a podcast series focusing on the rapidly evolving energy landscape with hosts Ines Serrao and James Wright.
James Wright: Good morning, Ines. Welcome back. Did the airlines cooperate with your return journey last night?
Ines Serrao: Thankfully, yes, no travel drama for me this time, which is surprising given how travel has been lately. How about you?
James Wright: Yeah. Seven hour delay getting out, but thankfully much better getting back last night. So yeah, thank you very much. And with that, hello to our listeners as well. Yes, Ines and I have just made it back from Infocast Solar and Wind 2026. I'd say adrenaline levels are returning to normal and we're catching up on some sleep now. As always, we had a very large CIBC contingent at the event, hosting many of our clients in lots of great discussions around what we're all seeing in the sector, priorities for the year and outlook head. So Ines and I thought we'd push out a hot takes pod to digest some of the themes that have resonated with us whilst it's all fresh in mind. And you'll hear a few sound bites from some of our senior clients as well. So Ines, I'm guessing you're also in post-Infocast recovery mode.
Ines Serrao: Definitely in Infocast recovery mode. It's crazy what a intense days of fun in meetings does to you. The conference was extremely well attended. And it's always very nice to see everyone from the industry in one place. And the mood was excellent. Michael Rucker from Scout shared this sentiment when we asked about his hot takes. So I'm here with Michael Rucker, CEO of Scout Clean Energy at Infocast. And Michael, would you like to give me your hot takes from the conference?
Michael Rucker: Well, this is always one of my favorite conferences of the year. It's a fantastic opportunity to get together with our financing partners, CIBC included, which we really appreciate. And also, it's a multifaceted event. So we have several tracks in our company that we follow here. Primarily, it's a finance related conference, but we have the opportunity to engage in M&A activities. So we're meeting with our counterparties who have projects, portfolios that might be for sale. It's even a procurement conference as well. It's not a trade show, so to speak, but we're meeting with some of our key suppliers in the various technology we use: wind, solar and storage. And we even meet with particularly data center developers and hyperscalers. The new centers of demand for our industry that are really driving demand for the product, that allows us to be successful at these markets. And the atmosphere this year is remarkably upbeat. When you look at how challenging, particularly in the policy environment, has been at times in the United States in the last year. But the fundamental reason is the demand for our product is stronger and more robust than it's, frankly, ever been. So that drives the activity, the interest, the excitement and everything that really comes together at this conference. So I always look forward to it every year.
Ines Serrao: Awesome. Thank you Michael.
Michael Rucker: Yeah. Thank you.
Ines Serrao: So James, with that, let's get a pulse check. What were your buzzwords from this year's client discussions that have logged in your mind? And then maybe we’ll unpack a few of those between us.
James Wright: Yeah, great idea. Let's think about that. So a few words that came up repeatedly in my mind: powered land, data centers, billions, and bridge financing would be some of my buzzwords. What about you, Ines? What lodged in your mind?
Ines Serrao: Yeah, you definitely hit the big ones. Instead of billion though, I would add trillion. I mean, why think in small billions, James? You need to keep up. I would also add M&A, tax credits, and behind the meter.
James Wright: Those are good ones. So let's unpack a few of those together. Do you want to touch on M&A to start with maybe?
Ines Serrao: Yeah, that sounds great. So on M&A, we're seeing a very active market. I'm sure everybody felt that around the conference and just in general as things stand. And this is both at the platform and at the asset level. And at the asset level, this includes minority interest changes, control interest changes, and full acquisitions as sponsors execute on their strategies. And this was flagged by Thomas De Swardt when we got his hot takes.
James Wright: So I'm here with Thomas De Swardt, the President of DESRI. Tom, how’s Infocast been for you?
Thomas De Swardt: It's been exhausting as always. But a couple of things really jumped out at this time. First, deal sizes are really getting a lot bigger. And that's both on the supply and demand side. So we're seeing it and we're hearing many of our other sponsors in the space are doing big billion dollar plus deals. That's new, that's interesting. That's fun. And banks are hungry to underwrite them. So that's exciting. And then the second thing I would say is we've heard a lot of chatter about platforms being marketed again. Very interesting to see how many of those close, but, we will be watching.
James Wright: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, Ines. And then what about tax credits, you mentioned as well?
Ines Serrao: That's a great question. With respect to tax credits, there's still a lot of conversations around this, believe it or not. And maybe in not so distant future, we will not have tax credits to talk about. But right now, sponsors are still very actively trying to place large amounts of credits in the market. And there was a lot of chatter about different strategies. I would flag committed versus uncommitted financing, which has been the flavor of the market. Floor versus no floor when you're talking about uncommitted tax credits or tax equity and the availability of buyers for 48E before FIOC guidance just to name a few of the conversations we had at the conference. And finally, on my final buzzword, behind the meter, there has been a lot of focus on immediate solutions for power demand and how to finance it. This should be clear to everybody that attended Infocast. And people have been focused on what structures work for both debt and equity to feel like the risks are properly mitigated in these structures. And behind the meter is gaining traction outside of the prior usual distributed generation space into the utility scale world. And that will be very interesting to work through in the next few months.
James Wright: Yeah, yeah, fully agree.
Ines Serrao: I think we both lost count on the number of meetings where powered land and data centers came up. It’s definitely on our bingo cards. What was your take on those conversations?
James Wright: Yes. Okay. So really interesting. I feel like to some extent, everyone on the developer IPP side felt like they have to be thinking about powered land as a thematic for their businesses. And maybe it's just worth, I think we should spend like 30 seconds just on what we even mean by powered land. And on the most basic level, it refers to a parcel of land that's already has, or maybe will have, a guaranteed supply of power that will come with the land when the land is then developed by the end user, i.e. a source of the load. So most often in this context, the plan has been a data center developer. And the interesting thing is that when you then take that down a level, how are developers thinking about either monetizing that land can vary widely depending on whether that land ends up becoming a behind the meter solution for the customer in front of the meter, purely renewables or some combination of renewables and batteries or conventional gas generation. And how real real that all is being heavily dependent on things like location, interconnection positions and local fiber connectivity coupled obviously with the load store itself. So there's a lot to unpack in that powered land buzzword. I think we heard a lot during the conference and it can translate into a variety of monetization options for developers in terms of a straight land sale, powered shell development, or even a full blown JV with a data center partner. And what also struck me, Ines, was that many of the folks have a feeling, maybe rightly so that if all those ingredients aren't somewhat there already or in process, you could have kind of missed the boat here. This space is moving really fast. So in summary, we had this thematic coming up, it felt like in almost every conversation you and I had. And I think for next year, we're going to be sporting some I Heart Powered Land t-shirts at Infocast 2027. What was your take on that?
Ines Serrao: Yes, let's please get those I Love Powered Land t-shirts going and I'll proudly wear one of that t-shirt next year at Infocast.
James Wright: Done.
Ines Serrao: That was a great summary. I'm very interested in seeing where we will be next year with all of these developments and I would guess there will be some winners and losers in the powered land race as you mentioned and that will depend on the ability to get equipment and gas interconnection to make the powered land a reality and how quickly, sponsors can do it. And I think you're right. For people that haven't started the process, they may be coming in too late to the game. And the other important point is that capital-rich companies will have an advantage on this space as well. Then at the same time, we also heard from many of our clients the importance of a clear, defined strategy and staying focused, be that powered land, purely renewables play, or other combinations. And there's definitely value in all. I don't think the only path is the powered land path. But the importance of a focused strategy is key. And that was covered by Matt Ptak on his hot takes. I'm here with Matt Ptak, EVP of Finance and Capital Markets at Swift Current Energy here at Infocast. So can you share some of your hot takes from the conference with us, Matt?
Matt Ptak: Wow. There were a lot of people at Infocast this year. I think this might have been the largest Infocast in Phoenix to date. A lot of great energy here after a very volatile year. You know, I'm hearing that folks really have an understanding of their strategy. And from our perspective, at Swift Current Energy, a lot to do going forward. Last year we set up what we want to do going forward for the next five years. Can't wait to do it with CIBC.
Ines Serrao: Awesome. Thank you Matt.
James Wright: That was a good take from Matt. So switching gears a bit, it always feels that these events, at least in the past, that you have to kind of pass through the real real versus corporate marketing, if you like. And I'm thinking here in particular about development pipelines and what we joke about Braggle Watts versus Gigawatts, right? It really struck me this year that we heard a lot less about early stage pipeline monetization. What was your take on that, Ines?
Ines Serrao: That is very true and a clear change from prior years. Companies are rightly focused on near deliverable power given it feels like as a country we're in danger of becoming short power very rapidly. And related to this also the point about the importance of being well capitalized in moments like this. It's what allows companies to carry projects through the development cycle as was very well pointed out by John Clapp on his hot takes.
James Wright: Okay, so I'm with John Clapp, the CEO of Deriva. And John, how's the conference come. What are some of your takeaways?
John Clapp: Hey, James, good to see you. You know, a lot of interesting discussions, but it really seems like now in this environment there's a lot of have and have nots in the space. You know, those with the balance sheet to really take large portfolios forward. And, you know, this time of high uncertainty, increasing carrying costs and those who are looking to shed assets and free up liquidity. So a lot of good discussions.
Ines Serrao: This was a great week, and I propose we close it out in the traditional manner. What has shifted your week this week, James?
James Wright: Yeah, very simple for me this week, Ines. It was the heat. I think it was record temperatures for an Infocast. It hit nearly 105 one day. So definitely the first year I was sporting polo shirts at the event. Some of my unnamed colleagues were making fun of me, but I think when the heat came up, I was the one laughing. So definitely the hottest Infocast I can remember. What about you?
Ines Serrao: So yeah, it was fun to see the diversity of wardrobe, not just the blue suits that we're used to. Well done pioneering the polo conversation. So for me, we did a very interesting hike, the Camelback hike, for those familiar with the region.
James Wright: Very jealous, that sounds amazing.
Ines Serrao: And I think we're going to do it every year. For those who don't know it, I guess this depends on the level of how informed each of us is. But it's a quite strenuous hike, the Camelback Mountain. We started at 5 AM and we saw the sunrise from the top. It was very informal. We saw a lot of groups doing it. And yeah, James, you need to join next time.
James Wright: So I think we have a plan. We're going to be all wearing our I Heart Powered Land t-shirts on next year's hike.
Ines Serrao: (laughs) Exactly.
James Wright: That sounds like a plan. Okay, that's it, Ines. Big thanks to our unscripted, hot mic client victims for their thoughts they've shared. Thomas De Swardt from DESRI, Michael Rucker from Scout, John Clapp from Deriva, and Matt Ptak from Swift Current. That's a wrap on Infocast 2026, and no doubt we'll be back this time next year discussing what we've all heard. Have a great day, Ines
Ines Serrao: Have a great day, James.
James Wright: All right.
Outro: Please join us next time on The Energy Shift as we continue to tackle some of the hottest topics in the US energy transition landscape, providing fresh insights and viewpoints to help you shift your perspective.
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