Commercial Offtake interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your background + commercial / offtake experience.
2. Tell me about a PPA, VPPA, or commercial transaction you've worked on.
3. Why renewables developer commercial vs IPP commercial, trading, or pure development?
4. Why this technology / market mix - the sector, solar vs wind vs storage vs hybrid, US vs international?
5. Why the firm?
6. What's your read on our portfolio + offtake mix?
7. Tell me what you understand about our commercial + tax-credit strategy.
8. Walk me through how you'd structure a corporate VPPA for one of our wind or solar assets.

Technical concepts to master

• PPA + VPPA structures + clauses

  Utility PPA · Corporate VPPA (Virtual PPA) · Sleeved PPA · Hybrid solar + storage PPA · PPA risk clauses + embedded options

• Capture rate + basis decomposition for intermittent generation

  Capture rate · Basis differential (node vs hub) · Shape mismatch · P50 / P90 / P99 generation · Curtailment drag

• Hedging instruments for renewables

  Hub-settled swap (fixed-volume) · Proxy revenue swap (PRS) · Volume-firming hedge · FTR / CRR (Financial Transmission Right / Congestion Revenue Right) · Residual risk taxonomy after hedging

• REC + environmental attribute markets

  Bundled vs unbundled RECs · Voluntary vs compliance REC markets · Green-e certification · State RPS structures · Additionality + 24/7 carbon-free debate

Practical drills

• A 300 MW solar asset in the sector is being offered into a corporate VPPA process. The corporate offtaker (IG tech company) wants a 12-year fixed price, hub-settled CFD, bundled RECs. Walk through how you'd structure the VPPA + price it.
• You operate a 200 MW merchant solar asset in CAISO. Q1 realised capture rate came in at 78% vs the 88% modelled. Walk through how you'd diagnose + respond.
• You're at financial close on a 250 MW wind project. PTC eligible. Domestic-content bonus likely qualifies (+10%). Choice: (a) traditional partnership-flip tax equity, (b) Section 6418 transferability sale, (c) hybrid (tax equity for base PTC, transferability for domestic-content adder). Walk through the decision.

Smart-question anchors

• Offtake mix evolution - corporate VPPA vs utility PPA vs sleeved share over last 24 months
• Tax-credit monetisation posture - tax equity vs Section 6418 transferability vs direct pay, bonus-adder strategy
• REC + environmental attribute philosophy - bundled vs unbundled, voluntary vs compliance focus, 24/7 hourly matching readiness
• Hedge book + capture-rate management - hedge ratio target, proxy revenue swap use, basis hedging tools
• Storage + hybrid commercial - how the firm prices co-located solar + storage, capacity-firm corporate products

Sourced from

Inflation Reduction Act (IRA, 2022) + IRS Sections 6417 / 6418 guidance · LevelTen Energy PPA Price Index + ACP corporate PPA market reports · FERC + ISO / RTO market design materials (CAISO, ERCOT, MISO, PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE) · Center for Resource Solutions (Green-e) + RE100 + SBTi guidance · Public renewables developer 10-Ks + earnings transcripts (sector-wide pattern read)