Uday Varadarajan

Uday Varadarajan is a Principal in CPI’s Energy Finance program. He focuses on strategic analysis of clean energy policy, finance and business structures. Prior to joining CPI, Uday was a program examiner in the U.S. White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). At OMB, he oversaw the $2 billion budget for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. He was also responsible for overseeing the assessment of the cost to government of the first $8 billion in loans of DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. Prior to joining OMB, Uday was a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, working first as an advisor on carbon sequestration programs to the Under Secretary for Science at DOE and then on detail to the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. Uday was also a postdoctoral fellow in theoretical physics at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley, and his undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University.

Uday’s relevant recent projects include:

• Working with institutional investors and asset owners as part of a global effort to set up a low-cost investor’s club focused on efficiently financing renewable energy assets tailored to investor needs
• Strategic analysis for Swedish Growth Analysis of potential shifts in policies, market structures, and business models needed to cost-effectively drive a transition to a low-carbon electricity grid dominated by variable generation sources
• Project and portfolio financial analysis of the potential for new business models—Master Limited Partnerships, YieldCos—to reduce to cost of capital for renewable energy in the United States and European Union
• Financial modeling of the comparative potential impact of several legislative proposals to reform the U.S. tax code on the cost of wind, solar and gas generation for the Bipartisan Policy Center
• Detailed financial and economic modeling of the potential reduction in financing costs that could be achieved by alternative renewable policy and procurement mechanisms for New York state
• Financial analysis resulting in a proposal to U.S. congressional staff of an alternative to the U.S. use of tax credits that would reduce their cost to government by 40% while providing the same level of benefit to wind developers and investors
• In-depth financial and policy case studies of several U.S. and E.U. renewable project financings (Ivanpah Concentrating Solar Power []CSP], Milford Wind, and Greater Sandhill PV in the United States, and Villanueva Wind, Rovigo PV, and Anholt Offshore Wind in the European Union), resulting in quantitative assessments of the impact of alternative policy structures on financing costs
• Detailed OMB review and assessment of cost to government of $8 billion in loans made by the DOE to Ford, Tesla, Nissan and Fisker
• Support for OMB review and assessment of cost to government of several loan guarantees made by the DOE Title XVII Loan Program, including loans to Solyndra, First Wind, Shepherd’s Flat Wind, Solana CSP, and Ivanpah CSP.