New Project Media (NPM) Interconnections

On this week's episode, two partners at Troutman Pepper Locke, William Derasmo and Vaughn Morrison join Andrew Burnes to talk about the ongoing dynamics related to the storage landscape in the US. 

William and Vaughn go back and forth on where headwinds meet tailwinds, the potential for M&A in a capital strained environment, the role data centers are playing storage penetration, and whether the industry is peaking now or still has room to grow.

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

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In this episode, Crux CEO Alfred Johnson and newly appointed Head of Industry Coverage and Advisory James Wright speak with Heerea Rikhraj to review Crux’s 2026 Midyear Report and the future of clean energy finance. 

The discussion examines the rise of preferred equity and hybrid tax equity structures, evolving FEOC regulations, and the growing role of private credit in infrastructure financing. 

Johnson and Wright also explore how surging demand from AI, data centers, battery storage, and electrification is driving unprecedented investment across the energy sector, positioning clean energy markets for continued expansion despite ongoing policy and regulatory uncertainty.

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

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In this episode, Kyle Younker sits down with Hans Royal, founder of RP Energy and creator of the Compute Heat Rate (CHR), a new metric that measures the economic value AI data centers derive from electricity. 

Royal explains why AI workloads can justify power prices far above today's wholesale markets, how that changes assumptions about demand response and grid planning, and why not all data center loads are created equal. The conversation explores the growing role of data centers in electricity markets, the emergence of the Compute Heat Rate Dispatch metric, and how AI's willingness to pay for power could reshape investment in generation, flexibility programs, renewables, and grid modernization.

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

Download our mobile app.

On this week’s episode, we sit down Dominic Ward, CEO of Verne, an Ardian-backed UK-headquartered data centre developer specialising in colocation designs and infrastructure for intensive compute workloads.

Verne most recently revealed that the company was in talks with lenders for a capital raise to support the delivery of its 250 MW data centre development plans, with a view to bring the capacity online by 2030.

In this episode, we explore how Verne is scaling its platform across Europe, securing the power and capital needed to support that growth, and navigating the rapidly changing data centre market.

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

Download our mobile app.

Sven Hodges and John Tormey, partners in the law firm of Mayer Brown join the NPM podcast this week to discuss the obstacles and solutions to re-igniting the nuclear industry, as well as highlighting some of the developments in advanced nuclear technologies.

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

Download our mobile app.

Black & Veatch’s Rafael Frias III, Managing Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, joins the show this week to share his experiences of navigating grid bottlenecks, energy storage integration, data centre power demand and addressing ageing network infrastructure, all from an engineering standpoint.

Rafa, who in 2025 moved to the UK after a long stint in the US, also discusses with NPM’s Jon McNair the key differences between the countries’ energy markets and what lessons might be learned from one country to another. 

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

Download our mobile app.

Michael Albrecht, managing director of GCM Grosvenor, joins the podcast today to discuss ongoing trends in infrastructure fund investing today, with a focus on the obstacles and solutions in today’s environment.

Later in the program, Albrecht discusses state of play in digital infrastructure investing.

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

Download our mobile app.

On this episode, we sit down with Edgar van Essen, managing director of Switch Datacenters, an Amsterdam-headquartered data centre business with more than 18 years of experience developing and operating wholesale colocation and build-to-suit hyperscale facilities.

Van Essen discusses the importance of political acceptance for data centres and the need for adaptable designs during the construction period. Van Essen also explains why Switch is looking beyond the Netherlands for its next growth opportunities, what makes markets such as France, Germany and Switzerland attractive, and how the company is preparing for the growing demands of AI.

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

Download our mobile app.

On this week's episode, Soluna CEO John Belizaire joins Andrew Burnes to discuss the firm's unique approach to renewable-powered data centers.

Belizaire goes into detail regarding the firm's approach to own its generation assets and pursue projects in congested areas rather than the "Tier 1" load pockets that many data center companies are targeting today. Belizaire describes how this innovative tactic may be a harbinger for where the industry is going as more scrutiny than ever before is placed on the asset class by local residents and legislators alike.

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

Download our mobile app.

In this episode, Don Dimitrievich, Portfolio Manager and Global Head of Infrastructure Credit at Nuveen sits down with Jon Berke and Heerea Rikhraj to discuss how private capital is helping finance the energy transition and AI-driven infrastructure boom.

Don explains the growing role of preferred tax equity, Nuveen’s investment strategy through its Energy and Power Infrastructure Credit Fund, and the firm's involvement in major projects such as SunZia. The conversation explores opportunities across distributed generation, energy storage, data center power solutions, manufacturing, and energy efficiency, highlighting how investors are positioning to meet rising electricity demand while supporting the buildout of next-generation energy and digital infrastructure.

NPM is a leading data, intelligence & events company providing business development-led coverage of the global power, storage & data centre markets for the development, finance, M&A and corporate community.

Download our mobile app.