Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc (NASDAQ:AY) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Santiago Seage: Yes. So if you look at us over the last few years, we have been spending time building that pipeline and our expectation is that quarter after quarter that pipeline will continue increasing, and we do believe that there are — we have significant opportunities in front of us that should yield good returns, and therefore, our expectation would be to continue increasing that over time in both the pipeline and the percentage of our investments that would be coming from our own pipeline.

Rupert Merer: Thank you. And then finally, as a follow-up to Nelson’s question, your disclosures highlight that you’re working on procuring batteries for the Coso project. How are you seeing the cost and availability of batteries in the market today and do they meet the expectations that you had initially and are your costs going to be in line with your initial forecast?

Santiago Seage: Without getting into many details that might not be helpful in our conversations with suppliers, overall, we are finding and then we have been finding for the last few quarters, a market that I would say is normal in the current environment, meaning we do find suppliers who can deliver at the cost we expected within the time frame we expected. Obviously, you need to do realistically regarding those two things. So if your expectation is that you’re going to purchase something today for a delivery in the very short-term, that’s not going to happen. But the delivery time lines we are seeing are what you would expect in the renewable energy market in the U.S. where the market is growing significantly. So part of our business as usual, if you want.

Rupert Merer: Great, thank you very much. I will leave it there.

Santiago Seage: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Mark Jarvi from CIBC. Please go ahead, Mark. Your line is now open.

Mark Jarvi: Thanks. Hi, everyone. Just going back to the strategic review, I think the prior comments kind of insinuated that you thought the process could happen or wrap up a little quicker than the last strategic review. Do you still think that’s reasonable in terms of time lines and is there anything you’ve now ruled out as part of the strategic review or a direction that you’ve contemplated that no longer makes any sense?

Santiago Seage: So regarding the review, we have never given any guidance regarding timing, and I’m not going to do it either today. And as I mentioned at the beginning, there’s no update I can give you, so I wouldn’t be able to answer the second part of the question.

Mark Jarvi: Fair enough, okay. And then just in light of higher bond yields and where the market is and higher risk on, I guess, labor construction and project execution, have you changed your return hurdles at all across any of your jurisdictions?

Santiago Seage: The way we work in, let’s say, in investment policies, is we have a very dynamic methodology to calculate minimum returns and hurdle rates. And obviously, hurdle rates move with interest rates and with our perception regarding the market. So the short answer would be, yes, of course, we adjust our expectations as our investment committee believes we should be doing for in our methodology. But in general, returns today with the interest rates where they are and minimum hurdle rates should be higher than a couple of years ago, no question.

Mark Jarvi: That makes sense to me. And I’m just wondering with you changing your hurdle rates, do you still feel like you can find projects that meet that, I guess, ultimately, has the industry adjusted and/or your competition to the point where everyone is trying to achieve higher rates so that you’re not losing out on prospective projects?