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spk10: The conference will begin shortly. To raise your hand during Q&A, you can dial star 1 1.
spk01: Good morning and welcome to the Opal Fuels third quarter 2022 earnings call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. As a reminder, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Todd Firestone. Vice President of Investor Relations, to begin. Please go ahead.
spk07: Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Opal Fuels Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. With me today are co-CEOs Adam Camora and Jonathan Moore and Anne Anthony, Opal Fuels Chief Financial Officer. Opal Fuels released financial and operating results for the third quarter and nine months year-to-date of 2022 yesterday afternoon. And those results are available on the investor relations portion of our website at opalfuels.com. The presentation and access to the webcast for this call are also available on our website. And after completion of this call, replay will be available for 90 days. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that our remarks on this call, including answering your questions, contain forward-looking statements, which are called risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance, and actual results could differ materially from what is contained in such statements. These forward-looking statements reflect our views as of the date of this call, and Opal Fuels does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this call. Additionally, this call will contain discussion of certain non-GAAP measures, including but not limited to adjusted EBITDA. The definition of non-GAAP measures used in the reconciliation of these measures to the nearest GAAP measure is included in an appendix of the release and presentation. Adam will begin today's call by providing an overview of the third quarter results, recent highlights and update on our strategic and operational priorities. John will then give a commercial business development update after which Ann will review the financial results and full year 2022 guidance. We'll then open the call for questions. And now I'll turn the call over to Adam Kamara, Opal Fuels Co-Chief Executive Officer. Adam.
spk09: Thank you, Todd. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here for Opal Fuels' third quarter earnings call. Given this is our first public earnings call before discussing our results and providing a business update, I want to read a brief message from our chairman, Mark Kimora. We at Opal Fuels are very proud of what we are seeking to accomplish. Our mission is not only to generate profits, but also to leave the world in a better place than we found it. We are doing this by addressing two of the most significant contributors to climate change, capturing methane gas emissions and reducing transportation emissions. And we do this at a lower cost than diesel. Heavy duty trucks are the backbone of our economy. Every day they bring products to retail and industrial customers all over the country. These trucks are fueled by diesel, and diesel is a major producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Today, there is a big focus on reducing diesel in the transportation sector and the associated greenhouse gas emissions. People talk of electricity and hydrogen, which could be solutions in the future. We can use our RNG in the future for these new applications, but we are focused on addressing the issue now. Simply stated, we do it by displacing diesel fuel with renewable natural gas. Not only is it very valuable for us, our customers, and our investors, it is good for the planet. Thank you. With that message, I would like to move into what is truly a remarkable time, not only for Opal Fuels, but for our entire industry. We've achieved significant milestones over the course of this year. Chief among these achievements was Opal Fuels going public on July 21st. Opal Fuels is now one of the largest developers and operators in the renewable biogas space with 38 projects in operation, construction, or advanced development aggregating to over 19 million MMB2 years of production. All of these figures are representative of Opal Fuel's proportionate ownership share of the projects. Year-to-date revenue for the nine months is up 61% from last year. Year-to-date adjusted EBITDA is up 78% from last year. We are guiding to a 60 to 63 million adjusted EBITDA for 2022. Annual earnings power is approximately $190 million from our operating and in-construction projects, which we will touch on later in this call. RNG operating facilities have increased to six from two, bringing total annual RNG nameplate capacity to 3.9 million MFVTU. We have added a seventh project into construction. Together, our in-construction projects are designed to contribute an additional four 4.8 million MMBTU of annual RNG nameplate capacity. Our RNG dispensing network has grown to 123 fueling stations from 69, including 43 stations owned by Opal Fuels that are either operating or in construction. Our advanced development pipeline, those we reasonably expect can enter construction in the next 12 to 18 months, has grown to 16 projects, representing another 7.4 million MMBTU of biogas resource available. As is to be expected, we also experienced some challenges this year, primarily relating to unexpected drops in gas collection, as well as to delays in commencement and completion of certain construction projects. Although we have identified root causes for these challenges and have addressed many, we will be delayed in the timing of achieving the financial objectives previously disclosed as part of the going public process. We will provide updated guidance for 2023 during our next earnings release in March 2023. Despite these challenges, we feel quite positive about where we're headed. We view our existing projects in operation and under construction as a solid base for future growth. As we will discuss in more detail on this call, we view the annual earnings power from this group of projects to be approximately 190 million, which does not include numerous strengthening tailwinds that have developed over the year and we'll discuss during this call. Let me touch on annual earnings power further. Annual earnings power from our RNG projects in operation and construction is meant to provide visibility to the steady state earnings that are anticipated to be generated by these projects as they complete ramp-up periods and regulatory certification process. The annual earnings power metric helps normalize ramp-up periods and partial years of production, smooth out the potential lumpiness of large releases of stored gas after RIN and LCFS certification, and provide some visibility on the future contribution of RNG projects under construction. If you refer to the presentation materials we've posted, you can see the general assumptions that underpin the estimated annual earnings power. Our operating projects, when operating for a full year at a steady state, are anticipated to generate annual earnings power of approximately $90 million. When we add in our in-construction projects, the annual earnings power would be about $190 million. Importantly, this annual earnings power does not include additional growth from our advanced development pipeline, public policy initiatives that we intend to benefit from, or additional growth in our other business segments. The passage of the IRA, which will likely add significant profitability for the next five years in the form of new ITC credits, which should more than offset inflationary pressures, and the new biofuel tax credit known as the 45Z from the production and sale of renewable biofuels. The potential for a new eRIN pathway in the RFS could lead to incremental profitability in our renewable power portfolio and or our RNG projects. The increasing price of diesel, provides more upside potential in the pricing power for RNG as a transportation fuel. It is important to note that these four potential upside opportunities to annual earnings power would not require material incremental capital investment. We also continue to grow our earlier stage development pipeline, which we believe will support future growth of our annual earnings power, as many of them are expected to progress through the development funnel to become advanced development pipeline over the course of 2023. It is worth noting these earnings are long-term. Typically, our gas rights agreements are for a minimum of 20 years. To remind everyone, unlike traditional energy companies, we don't have to drill for our resource or incur material capital expenditures for our annual RNG production once these projects are in operation. I am also pleased to report we have the liquidity required in place to complete these construction projects, with room left over to fund additional developments. In addition to cash and short-term investments on hand, access to existing credit facilities, and future cash generated from the business, we are also confident in our ability to raise future capital to continue to develop and build projects from our pipeline. The upsides and optionality associated with R&G are a key reason we think it has been a good idea to minimize entering into fixed price contracts, which can be up to 50% lower than the transportation fuel market. Where fixed price contracts are today, you would lock in a RIN price at less than half the current market price. You would also lose the optionality associated with fossil gas commodity prices, pricing power of RNG, and other regulatory initiatives. One area I want to emphasize is the pricing power built into our vertically integrated business model. Current RNG prices to transportation fleets is nearly $3 per gallon below diesel prices. This discount is far higher than the $1.30 to $1.50 discount, which is typically needed to spur adoption. We view this price differential as potential incremental pricing power. Given the progress we've made and where the industry stands, we're very excited about the leading position we think Opal Fuels is in. With that, I'll turn it over to John. John?
spk03: Thank you, Adam, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to share a few key highlights of our performance for the third quarter. First, let me say we've done the math for you. All of our production and nameplate capacity numbers represent our proportional share. First, for the third quarter 2022, we reported adjusted EBITDA of $25.5 million, an opal share of R&G production sold of 0.6 million MMBTU. For the first nine months of the year, we reported adjusted EBITDA of 40.6 million and Opal's share of RNG production sold of 1.6 million MMBTU. Our positive performance was the result of bringing new RNG projects and new fueling stations online, along with strong market pricing of environmental attributes, natural gas, and electricity. As we look to the remainder of the year, We are introducing our 2022 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $60 to $63 million. We are also updating our full year 2022 RNG production sold guidance to 2.2 to 2.3 million MMBTUs based on OPWL's equity ownership of the underlying projects. As expected, our adjusted EBITDA and RNG production are showing an upward trajectory associated with bringing projects online getting certification for environmental credit sales as Adam said we think it's helpful to look at our annual earnings power we expect that our existing operating and construction projects have annual earnings power of about 200 million dollars this is where we stand today before accounting for putting more projects through our development pipeline into construction and operation and all of the tailwinds related to investment tax credits and eRINs, pricing power, et cetera. Underlying our annual earnings power assumption are assumptions regarding RIN prices of $2.70, LCFS prices of $100, and natural gas prices of $5 per MMBTU. Now some updates on projects in our portfolio. During the first nine months of the year, we commissioned three RNG projects. the Noble Road project in Ohio, the New River project in Florida, and the Pine Bend project in Minnesota. These projects join our existing operating projects of Imperial, Green Tree, and the dairy project Sonoma. Hopeful Fuel's proportionate share of annual nameplate capacity for these projects is 3.9 million MMBTU per year. Our first dairy project, the Sonoma project, has been operating for nearly a year now, and we continue to await CARB provisional certification for its LCFS credits. RIN credits in the brown gas are being sold, and LCFS credits are sold pursuant to the temporary pathway of negative 150 carbon intensity, while we wait for our estimated provisional certification of an expected minus 238 carbon intensity. Turning to the Noble Road project, this project was commissioned early in the year and received EPA certification for its RINs in the second quarter. This project was a significant contributor to the lower gas collection we experienced earlier this year. But these gas issues are being remedied, and we expect that Noble Road will grow to its full capacity during 2023. The New River project in Florida commenced operations ahead of schedule in the second quarter and is now through its shakeout period and operating in its full capability. The project achieved EPA certification in October after the end of the quarter, and all stored gas was sold and RINs monetized pursuant to contracts entered into months ago. The Pine Bend project is our latest project to be commissioned, having come online in August after a few months delay. The project is proceeding well through its ramp up period. We held a ribbon cutting there last month with some of our key stakeholders. The project will take a few months more to get EPA certification and start recording income, which we expect to occur in the fourth quarter. In the meantime, the product gas is being stored and the future earnings associated with the stored gas are being added to our adjusted EBITDA. Turning to our construction projects, we have added a seventh project in the Northeast to our portfolio of RNG projects in construction. In addition, we continue to make good progress with the construction of our three landfill projects, Emerald, Prince William, and Sapphire, as well as our three dairy projects Biotown, Hilltop, and Vanderscop. These projects will be commissioned beginning in the first quarter next year, and you regularly through mid-2024. Regarding our advanced development and other identified projects pipeline, as Adam mentioned, we've added to our advanced development pipeline and now have 16 projects in our advanced development pipeline representing over 7 million MMBTUs of biogas, 6 million of which is landfill, 500,000 dairy, and nearly 700,000 of food waste and wastewater. These projects are ones we have qualified and that are reasonably expected to begin construction within the next 12 to 18 months. In addition, our advanced development pipeline does not include nine renewable power projects, which produce 3.2 million mm BTU of biogas, which we are evaluating for RNG conversions or eRIN pathway. Being one of the largest RNG players in the sector, we tend to see most of the projects in the marketplace, all of which makes our pipeline dynamic and growing as we screen for the best opportunities. So there's been significant industry consolidation that we're seeing in our industry, and this activity in the RNG space we think is a validation of both the RNG as a renewable fuel and the Opal Fuels business model. The transactions represent an acknowledgement by some of the world's largest strategic and financial players that demand growth for renewable solutions, especially RNG with its obvious sustainability benefits and drop-in attributes is only fit to grow in the coming years, and companies that have secured production and which have a solution for getting that production to market are poised to come out ahead. Before I turn the call over to Ann, I want to reiterate that we have the best, most seasoned team in the industry with a long track record of disciplined capital stewardship and long-term value creation. With our portfolio of projects in operation and construction, as well as our advanced development pipeline, we continue our focus on executing and driving the annual earnings power of Opal Fuels while upholding continued operational excellence and remaining good stewards of the capital we employ.
spk06: Thank you, John, and good morning to all of the participants on today's call. Last night, we filed our third quarter 10Q, an earnings press release, which detailed our quarterly and year-to-date results for the period ending September 30, 2022. We saw strong growth across all three of our business segments, R&G Fuels, Fuel Station Services, and Renewable Power. The biggest driver of the quarter and year-to-date results is R&G Fuels, where we are starting to see the contribution from the RNG projects that have come online over the course of the past year. As a reminder, once a project achieves commercial operations, there is a period of time during which a project is storing gas while it waits for certification for RINs from the EPA and LCFS from CARB. RIN certification can take between four to six months, and LCFS certification is now running about 12 to 14 months. So during this time, the project is incurring operating expenses and storing its gas until certification is achieved. Then the gas can be dispensed and environmental credits generated and monetized. That is the backdrop. Let's look at the third quarter and nine-month results for 2022. We saw strong top-line growth for the third quarter, up 41% year-over-year, driven primarily by higher volumes produced and sold in the RNG fuel segment. as well as higher brown gas pricing and higher RIN pricing under forward sales contracts we had entered into earlier this year. On a year-to-date basis, revenue was up 61% compared to prior year. We generated net income in the third quarter of $5.4 million. As I just noted, we benefited from strong market pricing of environmental attributes, which we had locked in earlier in the year via forward sales, as well as higher brown gas and electricity prices. and gains from changes in the fair value of warrant derivatives. We also benefited from a one-time realized gain from an equity investment in the Biotown project. These benefits were partially offset by higher cost of sales due to higher electric utility costs and employee costs to support our growth, as well as higher royalties driven by higher R&G revenues. G&A costs for the third quarter totaled $15.8 million, reflecting transaction and other costs, of which $8.2 million is considered one time, principally associated with our going public transaction. For the nine months to date, we achieved net income of $560,000, reflecting the standalone results for Opal Fuels LLC and Arclight Clean Transition Corp 2 through the closing of our business combination on July 21st, plus the combined operations since then. Consistent with the results we saw in the third quarter, We've benefited from strong pricing for environmental attributes that we have locked in via forward sales earlier this year, coupled with higher commodity prices. The flip side to higher commodity prices is that this also results in higher utility costs and to royalties paid to hosts, along with higher dispensing fees to our fleet customers. Obviously, we've also seen significant transaction costs throughout 22, again, principally associated with our going public transactions. a significant portion of which is one-time. It is also important to note that the nine-month net income for 2021 includes the impact of a $19.8 million one-time non-cash gain related to the acquisition of the remaining interest in the Imperial and Green Tree projects from our project partner. We reported adjusted EBITDA of $25.5 million for the third quarter, and $40.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. Adjusted EBITDA benefited from the same drivers we discussed above, higher environmental attribute pricing and commodity pricing, offset by higher cost of sales and higher royalties. We also had a number of one-time costs during the third quarter and throughout 2022, which are excluded from adjusted EBITDA. Third quarter adjusted EBITDA also includes two line items which aggregate to approximately $7.6 million to capture the impact of steward gas from which we will generate RINs once we achieve certification in the fourth quarter, for which we have forward sales in place during the remainder of 2022. New River achieved QRIN certification in October, and we expect that Pine Bend will receive certification later this quarter. At the time of certification, the stored gas is released, and the RINs will be generated and monetized under existing forward sales contracts. A portion of the stored gas was produced in the second quarter, but the bulk of the gas was produced in the third quarter. As a reminder, under generally accepted accounting principles, revenue is only recognized when an environmental attribute is delivered and accepted by the purchasing counterparty. This presentation of adding the value of the stored gas to adjusted EBITDA better allows us to match the timing of environmental attribute revenue with the recording of production costs and demonstrates the value we would have recognized if certification had been in place. You will see the same approximately $7.6 million recorded in our gap revenue and net income in the fourth quarter, but then it will be removed from our adjusted EBITDA calculation. Now let's spend a minute on the balance sheet. As of September 30th, we had $217.1 million of outstanding borrowings, including $125 million of outstanding borrowings under our term loan A, as well as $77.6 million related to our renewable power project financing. The second term loan, which we closed on in August and which will finance a portfolio of RNG projects that are or shortly will be in construction, remains undrawn. As of September 30th, Our liquidity position was $328.6 million, including $25.3 million of cash and cash equivalents, $41.4 million of restricted cash, $146.9 million of short-term investments, and $115 million of undrawn capacity under our term loans. Between our cash on hand, our short-term investments, our future operating cash flow, and our existing credit facilities, our liquidity is sufficient to fund the company's construction commitments and anticipated development capital needs for the next 12 months. We also anticipate that significant capital continues to be available for deployment in the RNG space. As a newly public company, we are very focused on how best to attract long-term investors. Obviously, the most powerful way to do this is to execute and to also deploy capital effectively and demonstrably grow annual earnings power. Before turning the call over for Q&A, I'd like to discuss our 2022 guidance. I will note that all guidance is current as of the published date and is subject to change. We anticipate our full year 2022 adjusted EBITDA guidance range to be $60 million to $63 million. In addition, We are updating our RNG production sold guidance range to 2.2 to 2.3 million MMBTUs. As we've noted earlier, our production numbers are already adjusted for Opal Fuel's proportional ownership of the RNG produced. Finally, we are also assuming that we sell our environmental credits at an average price of $3.20 during the fourth quarter, again, under previously signed forward sales contracts. Don, I'll turn it back to you for concluding remarks.
spk03: Thanks, Anne. To conclude today's prepared remarks, I want to reiterate the sizable earnings power of our existing operating and in-construction projects, as well as our robust advanced development pipeline of projects that we reasonably expect can enter construction in the next 12 to 18 months. We have enormous tailwinds associated with IRA benefits, with potential ERINs, and with the pricing power of our low-emissions, low-cost renewable fuel. Our strategic priority is executing on bringing these RNG projects through development, through construction and online, leveraging our decades of operational know-how to deliver value to our stakeholders. In closing, we believe we are on track for OPAL's mission. to build and operate best-in-class RNG facilities that deliver industry-leading, reliable, and cost-effective RNG solutions to displace fossil fuels and mitigate climate change. And with that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for Q&A. Thank you all for your interest in Opal Fuels.
spk01: As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.
spk00: Our first question comes from the line of Derek Whitefield from Stifel.
spk05: Good morning, all, and thanks for taking my questions.
spk03: Good morning, Derek. How are you?
spk05: Good. Wanted to focus on your CapEx run rate relative to prior projections with my first question. Throughout earnings, we've broadly observed the trend of project delays across our coverage. And while your projects are advancing and you're adding in construction projects to your backlog, The rate of capital deployment is lagging.
spk07: This is you.
spk05: And Adam noted in your prepared remarks. With that said, are there one or two common themes that are contributing to the delays? And secondly, are you in a position to comment on the expected timing impacts for your in-construction projects?
spk03: Hold on one second. There seems to be some background noise that we're trying to eliminate here. John, if I need to repeat that, let me know. Sorry, no, I got the question. I'm just trying to deal with some background noise here. So, but again, thanks for that question. I would say, first off, overall, the earnings power targets of our business are still valid. However, we are indeed somewhat delayed in putting our projects into construction and completing those. And yes, you see that in our lower CapEx. There's really a couple key reasons for this. Starting in the mid to latter part of last year, we saw most of the major landfill owners and some of the dairy owners really take some time off to reassess their pipeline of projects, you probably have seen that there's been a number of RFPs that have been out there while these landfill owners have sought to really put some order around the development of their pipeline. Included in that is an evaluation of taking equity interests in some of these projects. And I think overall that process has really is the principal source of the delay. You see similar things on the dairy side. It's more fragmented, but there was a very high LCFS price, which prompted a lot of people to come in. That price is obviously much lower today, but the dairy owners still continue to seek the best You have people coming into the market who maybe don't have the skills and background of Opal Fuels with our 20-year experience in the industry trying to enter the field by offering higher value to the counterparties. We remain disciplined. In addition to the landfills and the dairies evaluating this, Some of our development activities have been delayed to a lesser degree related to permitting delays that we've been seeing. I think somewhat COVID related and pipeline interconnections where some of the pipelines seem to have adequate capacity but maybe didn't in the end and we've been going and trying to mitigate those issues, and most of them have been. Lastly, we have the IRA benefits, which are really a double-edged sword here. On the one hand, they have caused people to reevaluate really what the total projects can provide, which maybe has taken a little bit of time. But on the other hand, they provide tremendous value to our business. We feel the logjam is breaking here and that we're on track to get to where we need to in terms of getting our projects back into the queue of starting construction on these. And certainly, as I said, the IRA benefits provide significant upside to these projects and the industry consolidation. that we've been seeing is really validating the value of our business model and the value of our RNG. So as I said, I think our overall earnings power targets are valid, but somewhat delayed. And let me conclude by emphasizing that we feel our advanced development pipeline, which are really projects that we think can go into construction in the next 12, 18 months, It's stronger than ever, and we feel we're in a better place now than we were in the past, and we're really pleased with where we stand. So, thank you, Derek.
spk05: Terrific. And as my follow-up, maybe stepping back to the 30,000-foot level and touching on the comment you just made in your remarks there, we've also observed unprecedented levels of M&A for R&G assets over the last call it several months. In your view, what do these transactions imply about the value of your business, and how do they alter the competitive and operating environment for you? Seemingly, there are less agile players at the table at the moment who are well-funded, but I'd like your take on that as well.
spk09: Sure. Thanks, Derek. This is Adam here. And yes, we have noticed some of the larger financial and traditional energy players moving into the sector. And as John did say in his prepared remarks, we believe it's a validation of the attractiveness of RNG as a renewable energy resource. And more specifically for Opal Fuels, validating the business model that we've got down in terms of maximizing the value of the RNG and that sort of thing. I'll say this, and then I'll just chat on how we think it may or may not impact competitive dynamics out in the marketplace. But our focus is on building our platform and being a leader in the production and distribution of RNG. We're building a free cash flow machine. And it's interesting when we see the analyst reports talking about EBITDA multiples and that sort of thing. We think there may be another leg to this when people start looking at these businesses as free cash flow yields, given the extremely low capital intensity of our business after the plants are built. So we are absolutely focused on maximizing shareholder value. We think we do that by finding and investing in very attractive risk-adjusted return projects and running them efficiently. But make no mistake, this management team and our largest shareholder is focused and are focused on maximizing shareholder value, and we think we're building something here that will ultimately get recognized. And as it pertains to what's happening out there on the competitive dynamic, we think it's likely a positive as we move through some of these RFPs and bidding processings and that sort of thing, where consolidation likely helps. along some of those processes. And, you know, we think maybe, you know, there could be some digestion and integration as those are happening. So, all in all, we feel we've noticed it and we do think it's a good validation of what it is we're doing in building.
spk05: Helpful, Keller. Thanks for your time.
spk01: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. Our next question comes in the line of Matthew Blair from Tudor Pickering Holt and Company.
spk08: Hey, good morning, Adam, John, and Anne. Thanks for taking my question.
spk03: Hey, good morning, Matt. How are you?
spk08: Good, good. Thank you. So the 2022 EBITDA guidance, if we just do some simple math, I believe it implies Q4 midpoint at 20.9 million versus the Q3 number you just put up of 25.5. Could you walk us through the bridge, Q4, or sorry, Q3 to Q4?
spk09: Yeah, hey, this is Adam, and I'll take the first shot at it. So there were a couple of items in the third quarter that you should be made aware of. One is that we did have a gain of about $2 million from our biotown investment where they liquidated and monetized some in-the-money forward sales contracts at LCFS. So it was cash that came in, and we added it to our adjusted EBITDA, but that was about $2 million. I wouldn't necessarily consider that recurring. And in the third quarter, we've also tried to present, you know, our adjusted EBITDA by smoothing out or better matching, you know, the operating costs for RNG production and when we were waiting for RIN certification when we had those forward sales. In our third quarter number, there was an additional $1 million had we, from the second quarter, had we been treating it the same way in the second quarter. So there was approximately about $3 million or so in that $25 million in the third quarter.
spk08: Okay, and then the renewable power EBITDA in the third quarter, if we make some ad backs, looks pretty strong. Was that boosted by high natural gas and electricity prices in Q3 that might not reoccur in Q4?
spk06: This is Anne. Yeah, I mean, we've seen that actually across all of our businesses, but yes, particularly in that segment, we do get the benefit of higher prices. The flip side is you typically see it in higher utilities for operating the projects as well.
spk03: I think another, this is John, another factor is that we've been operating our River Hills Electric project flat out while we're building the Emerald R&G project. And the royalty associated with that project has gone down or been eliminated. So the project is showing much better profitability during this time period with a higher level of output and higher energy prices associated with it. So yeah, that would be a big driver of that attitude.
spk08: Got it. And then, Anne, I think you mentioned that 2022 results have been helped out by locking in some RINs at higher prices. Have you been able to do the same with 2023 RINs? Have any of that been locked in at higher prices? And if so, do you have any details on that?
spk09: Yeah, this is Adam Tamura here. We have not sold forward yet any 2023 production. There is some news that will be coming out at the end of this month from the EPA regarding their set rule and how they may manage obligated volumes for a period of time, whether it be three years or five years. And there's not a lot of volume trading yet in 2023s. And I think a lot of people are waiting for, you know, what that new guidance looks like out of the EPA. So as of now, we have been waiting and holding off some of that forward sale activity.
spk08: Great. And then last question. I thought the assumptions were interesting that you laid out for your annual earnings power. I believe the D3 RIN assumption you're using is a little bit more conservative than current pricing. So could you talk about that? Are you worried about, you know, potential impacts of ERINs on D3 supply demand? And then on the other hand, I think the LCFS assumption is a little bit better than current pricing. So perhaps are you constructive on some of this recent commentary from CARB And, you know, it looks like they're looking to tighten up the LCFS program.
spk09: Yeah, this is Adam here, and a couple of different things in there that I can address. The first is, you know, we've used a 270 RIN assumption in that annual earnings power, and it is below what we were able to achieve in sales in 2022. And, you know, if the EPA continues to manage the program as they have in the past, likely a good estimate for 2023, although it is yet to be seen, as you had intimated, how eRINs can play into that. And, you know, we think some eRIN guidance likely comes out at the end of the month as well, along with the set volumes. And, again, both of those things likely get finalized, you know, 180 days out from when they publish it, or maybe 150. you know, 65 days because they're 15 days late already. And the eRIN has a lot of interesting potential for our business where, you know, there could be incremental RINs created from our renewable power portfolio. Again, you know, just to create an eRIN, it has to be a cellulosic source. You don't get it from solar or wind. It would just be from biomass being or biogas converting into electricity. And, you know, that's what we've been talking to the, and the industry's been talking to the EPA about is, okay, you know, it's terrific to add this new pathway. How are you going to manage around, you know, those additional RINs that could potentially get created? And, you know, we've been, you know, talking to the EPA about different ways that they can manage that process. Net, I think it'll be a large benefit for our business. And, you know, we're hopeful that the EPA understands that they should be setting up mechanisms in place to handle the potential for additional rents that come out of an electricity pathway. And the last piece I think you asked about was the LCFS pricing, which we used $100 credit in our annual earnings power, which is slightly above the market. We think that's actually likely a conservative number as you look out over the balance and the length of these projects. We do believe CARB is looking to continue to incentivize new RNG production from dairy sources and continue to accelerate targets with what has been a successful program. You know, that'll likely play out over the next 12 months or so. You know, there is a space for them to potentially increase the demand for the credits starting in 2024. And, you know, we'll see how that plays out. But it does feel like, you know, a card could be supported and constructed there. And, you know, there are other LCFS markets opening up, you know, between Oregon and Washington. You know, I've seen estimates that that could be as much as 20% or 30% of the total credits being used in California right now. So that could be an interesting one. And, you know, just the last thing I would say on LCFS pricing is I know a lot of investors, you know, really look at dairy projects and low CI projects here in the U.S. and really tie them into the LCFS price in California to judge, you know, what that project can really generate. I would just say that markets are evolving all over the world, and we think that that negative 250 CI gas may find additional value in different markets, and there are ways to transport it overseas. Now you have to look at that, whether or not you're giving up the RIN and the RFS when you do that here, but there are other markets that are developing, so we certainly understand and use the LCFS price in California as really our benchmark, but there are other options, you know, for this gap as you move forward.
spk06: I'll just add as well, I mean, clearly, as Adam just said, there's a lot of moving parts to this, right? It's all very fluid, and we're trying to make, I think, conservative but realistic assumptions with this annual earnings power, you know, target, because, again, it's long-term. There's no specific date on it. But I will just add, for Sonoma, we actually do have a collar in place with a $100 floor for LCFS. Obviously, as dairy projects come on over time, that quote-unquote becomes diluted as more comes into our system, but it's an important underpinning for the assumptions to be mindful of.
spk08: Great. Thanks for all the commentary.
spk01: Thank you.
spk00: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Joshua Cohen from Westbury Capital Group.
spk10: Good morning, guys, and thanks for taking my questions. An additional question on the M&A environment in the sector. Can you speak to the interest you're receiving from potential buyers right now, and how do you think through staying independent versus selling?
spk09: I'm not going to answer that question. I will tell you this. You know, we feel like we're in a really strong position to build this company, this platform with the team that we have. And, you know, really think, you know, we've got terrific opportunities in front of us to continue to win new business, continue to develop more projects, continue to operate them efficiently, and continue to maximize the value of the RMG specifically how the market currently sits in transportation fuel. And that annual earning power really translates into predominantly free cash flow. And we've got a long history here at our sponsor company and within Opal Fuels of figuring out what to do when we're generating significant amounts of free cash flow to enhance shareholder value. You know, we see many, many different ways to win here, and, you know, I appreciate the question.
spk10: Okay, got it. I appreciate that. I mean, it's a good situation to be in, having a strong trajectory independently, but I'm sure also having quite a few phone calls, just seeing what's going on in the industry right now is pretty incredible. Just as a quick follow-up, can you talk through the potential benefit in more detail from the IRA and specifically the new ITC, both on magnitude of savings on your plan CapEx, but then also on those kind of additional opportunities it's now opening up?
spk09: Yeah, I'll step into that one. This is Adam again here. And, you know, that's one of the things that we'll likely highlight in terms of granularity when we do provide guidance in 23 and beyond. And it should be noted these IRA benefits have at least five years of life of them between the IPC, which, you know, is stated it's about 30% of the capital cost of the tax credit that you get back after you complete commissioning of the plant. There likely will be some friction costs when you try and monetize those tax credits, but you are able to sell them. And, you know, there's still some guidance coming out of Treasury to further nail down what qualifies as biogas projects and that sort of thing. But it looks like it's about 30% of your hard costs And the rules around that are it has to not be in operation by the end of this year. So it's all of our construction projects and anything that enters construction by the end of 2024. So you can bet we're going to be sprinting as fast as we can. If we weren't already motivated to get these projects into construction, that's how that ITC works. There's also a 45Z, which is a tax credit for production and sale of renewable biofuels. And the guidance out of Treasury likely will come a little bit later. Those don't kick in until 2025 through 2027, but those could be significant adders. I mean, if you look at our portfolio of projects and look at the language in there, there is room for between $1 or $5 a gallon of tax credit. It's also interesting why, you know, one of the reasons why we like to sort of hold our RNG open to the transportation fuel market so we can take advantage of these additional incentives as they come up over time. So we believe those two are really significant. And then we're investigating some others as well. There are some carbon capture credits available. We're looking at potentially doing some carbon capture on our projects. There is also a clean hydrogen production tax credit, which we believe if you use RNG in a production, you can qualify for hydrogen. You know, we didn't really talk about it in our prepared remarks. We're still building renewable hydrogen fueling stations. Still think it's an interesting potential end market, but, you know, haven't really seen yet the commercial, you know, whether or not it could replace what we could get in the transportation sector.
spk10: I guess just as a quick follow-up to that, if – I mean, I agree that the Treasury will almost certainly come out with favorable guidance for the ITC in regards to biogas. And so if that's the case, when you think through the capital on balance sheet plus your ability to raise project-level debt, I mean, to what extent if we assume that 30% would be applicable to your, what's in construction and your development pipeline, to what extent would that capital extend further than you currently expect?
spk09: Yeah, it would absolutely have an additional benefit. You know, we've, I'm looking at Ann right now to see if we provided the remaining capital.
spk06: We have not, we have not. I mean, again, what we've stated is that from a liquidity and access to capital perspective, clearly we see a runway for at least the ability to build out everything that's currently in construction and start development. We do anticipate that we would need additional debt capital. But again, we're still evaluating, obviously, what we will get from the IRA. clearly it extends, you know, it extends the runway, but until we have more guidance, I don't think we can really put a number on it. But again, it's a positive tailwind for us. Absolutely.
spk09: And the, you know, the other way to think about it is it is definitely been helpful offsetting any inflationary cost pressures that we've seen on, you know, build multiples still look pretty good in our, in our advanced development pipeline.
spk10: Okay. Well, thanks for taking my questions. Yes.
spk01: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Todd from Piper Sandler.
spk04: Good morning. Great, thanks. Good morning. Maybe a follow-up on that last question. As you think of the pace of your development over the coming years, over the next few years, is the pace at which you're able to progress projects What are the primary gating factors there? Is it permitting and just normal project execution? Is it capital availability? You have a strong depth of pipeline. So what determines eventually the pace at which you're able to progress and execute projects here?
spk03: This is John. Thank you for your question. I appreciate that. You know, development is characterized by projects that surge forward and those that fall backwards. A lot of, you know, elements of project development have to do with items that are not strictly under our control, but dealing with third parties. It is not capital availability, it's really just getting hurting all the caps, if you will, and getting all of it together in a discipline condition where we can reasonably start construction on a project. Once a project goes into construction, it's just a matter of time to get that project through the construction period and into operation. But it is development that has some of that uncertainty associated with it. We feel very, very good about our pipeline, as I said before. It's in better shape than ever. We have many new opportunities that were not in our pipeline at the beginning of the year. And as a reminder, when we talk about advanced development pipeline, these are projects which have been qualified by us and which we feel reasonably likely to enter construction in the next 12 to 18 months. Meaning that, you know, we see with the third parties that we're dealing with, reasonable opportunities to get these into construction. Many of them are really just subject to getting, say, partnership documentation together. Others might be subject to finalizing the biogas rights associated with it, and others might be associated with getting pipeline interconnections. But once you really have those basic parts, and I'll add permitting to it as well, that you have the basic parts that you need, along with the construction contract itself, to get a project into construction. Does that help answer your question?
spk04: yeah that's that's helpful maybe on as a follow-up on construction i mean you have you have roughly five million mmbtu of rng projects under construction at present the seven seven projects i think you you said can you provide any i know you're going to provide more specific guidance um you know not not too far down the line but can you provide any clarity on how you think about the cadence of these volumes coming on stream throughout 2023 and 2024 you know, back-end loaded, rateable, any overall kind of rough way to think about when those volumes come online?
spk03: Sure. So you're right. We're not going to be providing guidance here, and this is not in the form of guidance. And, you know, as said earlier, I really feel, we all feel that our earnings power targets are valid if somewhat delayed, and the IRA tailwinds, and the industry consolidation is really validation of what we're doing. But in terms of the projects themselves, we think that the biotown project, some of those digesters may be coming online now, but we think the project officially goes commercial in the first quarter. We think our large landfills through the course of the next year, Emerald and Prince William mid-year, Sapphire towards the end of the year, and then the BS Hilltop Digester projects and the new Northeast project through mid-2024. We think it's going to be fairly regular in terms of the cadence as to what you see, and you're right that the construction portfolio is about 4.8 million MMBTUs of in-play capacity. So that is what we're looking at.
spk07: So I hope that helps.
spk04: Yeah, that's very helpful. Maybe one last one. Can you talk about what you're seeing, you know, whether it's at a national level or regional level or even, you know, kind of a direct-to-consumer corporate type of inbound or relationship level? you know, what you're seeing on CNG transportation demand growth and how you think about kind of the pace of that growth over the next few years?
spk09: Yeah, this is Adam here. Thanks for the question. You know, it's funny. We've got what I think is a pretty interesting business embedded in our RNG business. And there is really some traction happening right now. And I think if you look at our fuel station service business, you'll see that there's been some growth there exhibited. And there's a number of things driving it. The price of diesel, number one. When we look at this part of the business, the elevated diesel prices, it's getting a lot of attention and the economic benefits of RNG. You know, quite frankly, just E&G can make a lot of sense for some of these companies. We're seeing a lot of interest in this company that's introducing a 15-liter engine. There'll be some test units out there in the beginning first quarter next year, and people will be testing those trucks throughout next year, and it goes into earnest commercial production by the end of next year. And, you know, people are really excited about that, and... You know, we think there is a very strong chance that we're going to see accelerating deployments of these natural gas combustion engines running on RNG, and that's going to put us in a very unique position to, A, build out large-scale national deployments for those fleets, and B, be vertically integrated so that they can get visibility and reliable renewable natural gas. And, you know, you couple those two things together, and if they're really going to be using this fuel to achieve their sustainability targets, that's where you start thinking about where there could be potentially pricing power. And, you know, with $5 and $6 diesel, that's a pretty big, you know, sort of ceiling for growth.
spk07: Perfect. Thank you.
spk01: Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the conference back to Adam Camora for closing remarks.
spk09: All right. Thank you very much for participating in Opal Fuels' third quarter earnings call. We look forward to continued engaged dialogue. If you want to learn more about Opal Fuels, please reach out to Todd Firestone, our VP of Investor Relations. And everyone have a great day.
spk01: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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