North American Wind Sets Sights Offshore: The Challenges and Opportunities of a New Industry

• A review of the current state of the North American offshore wind market, benchmarked with more mature European development activity
• An overview of the influence state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and provincial policies have on offshore wind development in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Great Lakes Markets
• An review of the pricing and permitting challenges that must be overcome in the development of the North American offshore wind industry

Matt DaPrato, Analyst, North America Wind Energy Advisory, IHS Emerging Energy Research

CASE STUDY: Michigan - the fallout of the global economic crisis, the uncertainty of a change in governor, yet a hot bed of offshore wind activity

• Listen to the expert on offshore wind in Michigan and board member of the Great Lakes Wind Council (GLWC) give the unedited update on the state's progress
• Learn how the results of the onshore and offshore research tests have shown through conclusive analysis that the region is primed to take onward steps in its offshore wind test sites
• Get the full insight into what financial impact there has been, what funding is available and how Michigan's state government is promoting the offshore wind industry to local and national companies in an effort to drive economic growth in this expanding market

Soji Adelaja, Director, Land Policy Institute, MSU Land Policy Institute

What can be done to shorten the time that projects spend waiting to be approved, while still ensuring proper checks are rigorously undertaken

• A state by state discussion from Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, New York and Ohio on what they plan on doing in the next 6 months to 2 years
• Hear from senior officials from state government and local associations on what each state's view is towards the technology and which promises the strongest backing
• Find out which US and Canadian states are providing the best help currently for permitting and what strategies are being undertaken to handle the future boom so you're developing in the right region

Panelists include:

Soji Adelaja, Director, Land Policy Institute, MSU Land Policy Institute

David Nash, Regulatory counsel to the Cuyahoga County offshore wind power project

Uwe Roeper, President, ORTECH

Legal experts discuss the permitting process in the United States: How to manage the complex, federal and state permitting process to achieve project operation in the shortest time

• Lessons learned from pending offshore wind projects and how you can use them in your own
• Understand the agencies that you will need to persuade (such as the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Minerals Management Service) and how to work with them from the outset
• Learn how to integrate technical, legal and business planning to enable you to progress rapidly toward generating and selling energy
  

Robert Lawrence, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Feasibility studies: Defining, Identifying and Solving the challenges faced in successful site selection and project conception

• Get the full understanding of the environmental feasibility a project has to look at from bird or bat wildlife and site screening exercises to ensure your project is based on more than wind and wave measurements
• Learn what the long term financial implications will be on your project and how the price points will be affected by the development of other projects in the region to ensure that you’re aware of costs impacts and the bigger picture of project feasibility

• Technical feasibility: Lake navigation issues, ice issues, low regional energy prices, access to transmission, availability of ports and vessels and local skilled labor - get the full understanding of what is needed to conduct an economic survey your project

Bruce Bailey, CEO and President, AWS TruePower

Risk & Interface Management for Successful Offshore Delivery

• How can interface and risk management tools applied correctly in multi-contract scenarios reduce a projects overall risk exposure and improve its profile?
• Learn why not having a thorough risk assessment is a risky business you never want to have in your offshore wind farm

• Get real world cross industry examples of great success stories where time was at a premium, money was tight yet the project stayed on track and added value to the finish

• How do you develop the ‘capability to perform’ so that innovative risk management techniques can be successfully applied?

Lita Cuen, CEO, LC RISQ

Trillium Wind Power Corporation: Considering implications for long term project success

• Get the inside track on the benefits of using a turnkey solution as execution risk must be considered a top priority if you are to secure investment and transform your project into a power plant
• Understand that in order to secure the amount of finance necessary for the size of a wind farm that will provide solid ROI to investors the project must be viewed with the lowest possible risk
• Find out the latest information on why developing strong regional relationships will enable you to ensure long term achievements based around these collaborations
  

John Kourtoff, CEO, Trillium Wind Power Corporation

Factoring in Insurance: setting up your whole project with a view to securing investment

• Bring confidence to the whole financial process by benefiting from hearing expert opinion on risk transfer and how to mitigate and reduce through contract arrangement
• Benefit from an international firm with a base in London and Toronto and learn how to handle this expensive component of an offshore wind project
• Understand the practices of getting your project on the path to a reduced insurance costs and make your project appealing to investors by clarifying the insurance setup

Thomas Mcbeath, Vice President, Aon Reed Stonehouse

How to structure your project to improve the chance of securing financing

• Discuss the unique risks of financing offshore wind projects and some means of allocating and mitigating risk
• Understand how early investment in structuring your team and securing commercial arrangements can help you to achieve your financing and business goal
• Review the legal arrangements that are needed to finance and build an offshore wind project

Chris Moore, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Update from Ohio's pioneering project: securing long term finance, working with the community and securing permits

• Receive key industry insight from Cuyahoga county's offshore wind project on how they went about getting the community on board

David Nash, Partner, McMahon DeGulis LLP

Long term financing for offshore wind projects; Expert knowledge from the project team behind Windstream's PPA

• Discover how long term financing is joined with risk management (technical risk, design risk and construction risk) and learn how to best mitigate it for a success outcome
• The developer's point of view: how to undertake a proper resource assessment and gather other such legitimate information to bring credibility to your project to attract investors

Uwe Roeper, President, ORTECH

Case study - Lake Erie; Hear from North America’s turbine experts on what it takes to generate power offshore

• Learn from the leading US turbine OEM on how the future of offshore wind requires dedicated turbine technology
• See what freshwater offers a developer in terms of EPC and O&M benefits to reduce your overall CAPEX and OPEX
• Why was Lake Erie chosen? What benefits can be found in standardization and what learnings are expected to be found from the flat bottomed lake

Lorry Wagner, President, LEEDCo

Great Lakes Ports and Harbour suitability for an offshore wind industry- the results of the comprehensive survey

• Exclusive insight into the findings from Tetra Tech, the current go to EPC firm in offshore wind energy, about the regions around the Great Lakes primed to handle the demands on ports and harbours
• Learn how project development hinges on a solid supply chain analysis of lake and coastal capacity to ensure you maximize project ROI
• Get an overview of Lake Erie's suitability as a national offshore wind energy hub over the next decade and see how you can tap into this market from the beginning

Joe Marrone, Senior Project Manager, Ocean Coastal Consultants

Offshore installation vessels in the Great Lakes – working around the Jones Act with tested techniques and experience

• Discover how offshore wind turbines will need to be installed in the Great Lakes (as whole unit vs. in stages) to eliminate expensive incorrect vessel contracting
• Understand how to bring vessels over to the Great Lakes, what harbour facilities are necessary and what the time taken for construction is to increase your chance of planning success
• Learn how turbines have been installed in Europe from a global leader and discover what can be used effectively in the Great Lakes

Thomas Arensbach, CSO, A2SEA

Building an robust installation vessel internally - Circumnavigating the Jones Act by working alongside the Department of Transport

• Discuss the latest designs for a robust vessel installation, operations and maintenance program and learn why a pioneering offshore wind energy developer is banking on it to maximize their project's long term ROI
• See how the offshore wind industry is providing real jobs and business opportunities in supply chain assembly and manufacturing
• Understand that projects have to be run in a timely fashion and that securing finance can only happen with an strong concept of insurability to make your project a winner

Mike O'Brien, Great Lakes Regional Manager, Bluewater Wind / An NRG Energy Company

Subsea cable installation: European Lessons Learned

• The offshore wind market has been underway for over a decade in the North Sea. The experience gained over there can have a direct impact on improving projects in North America
• Get full understanding of common cable related pitfalls that can face an offshore wind project from route planning and design through to installation and maintenance
• Discover how attention to detail in the cable laying planning stage can ensure feasibility at project construction stage keeping your project on time and on budget

Joel Whitman, Vice President Strategy & Marketing, Global Marine Systems Energy

Grid connection and integration of offshore wind energy to the surrounding Great Lakes shores

• Hear expert information from the group that has dealt with integrating numerous offshore wind projects around Europe to connect your project hassle free
• Get an exclusive view on the issues faced by projects wishing to connect into multiple jurisdictions and regimes from reliable global offshore wind industry connection experts
• Learn what the key challenges posed to offshore wind energy projects are then how to mitigate them through proper strategic direction and reliable contractors

Richard Cooke, Alstom Grid