Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Brookfield Renewable Second Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Connor Teskey, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, everyone, for joining our Second Quarter 2025 conference call. You can find a copy of our news release, investor supplement, and letter to unitholders on our website. We may make forward-looking statements during this call that are subject to risks, and our future results may vary. Please review our regulatory filings for more details. We will review our second quarter performance, followed by comments from Wyatt Hartley about our Hydro Framework Agreement with Google and our position as a leading partner for major power buyers. Patrick will then discuss our operating results and the favorable financing environment we are experiencing. After our remarks, we’ll take your questions. This quarter was successful, marked by strong financial results and progress on our growth initiatives. Our large hydro fleet and development activities, which have added 7.7 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity globally in the last year, significantly contributed to our results. Notably, our Nuclear Services business, Westinghouse, performed well amid rising momentum for nuclear power, positioning us advantageously in the sector. With recent policy clarity from the One Big Beautiful Bill in the U.S., we have enhanced our readiness for changes in tax credit eligibility for renewable projects, allowing us to confidently implement a strategy to secure credit eligibility for almost all our U.S. projects through 2029. We remain committed to our development approach, ensuring we maintain a clear understanding of our costs and revenues while minimizing capital risk and aiming for expected returns. The outlook for our diversified business is very strong, driven by robust energy demand growth and significant supply-demand imbalances across our operational regions. There is a clear need for expanded energy generation, and we believe low-cost, rapidly deployable renewable technologies will play a crucial role. Our pipeline, which includes over 230 gigawatts of projects and significant battery storage solutions, positions us well to meet this demand and support grid reliability. In terms of quarterly performance, we achieved strong financial results while executing our commercial strategies and maintaining a healthy balance sheet. Our funds from operations per unit rose by 10% year-over-year, and we remain on track to meet our target of over 10% FFO per unit growth for the year. We advanced our commercial initiatives by securing contracts for an additional 4,300 gigawatt hours per year of generation and progressed our development activities, commissioning about 2.1 gigawatts this quarter, with plans to add approximately 8 gigawatts in 2025—a record for us. We also moved forward with asset recycling initiatives, selling assets for anticipated proceeds of around $1.5 billion, netting $400 million to Brookfield Renewable, with strong returns. We expect total asset sales proceeds in 2025 to surpass last year's figures, maintaining returns at or above our targets. This showcases the value of asset monetizations as a highly effective way to fund future growth. Our business outlook is solid, fueled by strong power demand that requires the advancement of all energy forms. Our diversified global portfolio in hydro, wind, solar, nuclear, and battery storage presents great opportunities to strengthen our relationships with major power buyers, reinforcing our belief that our best days are ahead. Now, I’ll hand it over to Wyatt for an update on our Hydro Framework Agreement with Google and our strategic position in the renewable sector.

Thank you, Connor, and good morning, everyone. This past quarter, we reinforced our position as the energy solutions partner of choice to the global technology players with the signing of a first-of-its-kind agreement with Google to deliver up to 3 gigawatts of hydroelectric capacity across the United States. This framework agreement follows on our landmark framework agreement with Microsoft that we signed last year to deliver over 10.5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity and is a testament to our unique capabilities while also demonstrating our credibility with the largest buyers of power in the world. The agreement is also notable as it reflects a trend in how the hyperscalers are procuring power. Historically, they were focused on contracting new build, wind, and solar. However, in the current environment, we have seen them extend their procurement of power to include hydro and nuclear generation at scale as a complement to their continued strong demand for low-cost and quick-to-market wind and solar. We have already signed the first two contracts under the Google Framework Agreement for 670 megawatts of capacity from our Holtwood and safe harbor facilities in Pennsylvania, securing 20-year contracts that deliver strong all-in prices and provide a near-term path to up financing, which will generate significant proceeds to deploy into further accretive growth. We also have another 300 megawatts of hydro capacity we are presenting to Google this year that we expect to contract at similarly attractive terms that should provide additional up-financing opportunities. For the remaining capacity under the framework agreement, we will explore additional contracting opportunities within our existing hydro fleet as well as pursue potential new hydro investments. Stepping back, as Connor spoke to in his remarks, there is incredible growth in energy demand that will require any and all solutions to deliver the electricity needed in the market. At the same time, there is also an increasing requirement to match the needs of the grid with the right mix of technologies to maintain reliability. In light of this, we continue to expand our capabilities in low-cost wind and solar generation while also placing emphasis on critical technologies that enable and support broader development of these renewables namely hydro, nuclear, and batteries. By continuing to grow our capabilities in these technologies, we are further positioning ourselves for large-scale partnerships that deliver the needs of our customers while at the same time, earning strong risk-adjusted returns in line with our expectations. Furthering our strategy of growing in critical technologies to provide clean baseload power to support the grid, in July, we reached an agreement to invest up to $1 billion to acquire an approximately 15% incremental stake in our Colombian Hydro platform, Isagen. This accretive transaction enables us to increase our interest in an irreplaceable fleet of primarily hydro assets that generate 24/7 baseload power and deliver significant, stable, and contracted cash flows. The business generates almost 20% of Colombia's electricity, and we continue to identify opportunities to drive performance improvements by leveraging our commercial relationships, marketing expertise, and building out incremental renewable generation in the country. The investment is anticipated to be approximately 2% accretive to our FFO in 2026. In addition to our growing hydro fleet, we own Westinghouse, which services approximately 2/3 of the world's nuclear power fleet and whose technology is the basis for approximately half the operating nuclear reactors globally, providing us exposure to another critical technology required to meet the needs of today's grid. Beyond Westinghouse core fuel and reactor services business, Westinghouse provides design and engineering for new build reactors without taking on certain nuclear-specific new build risks. The U.S. government recently announced executive orders to significantly grow nuclear capacity in the country, and Westinghouse as the U.S. nuclear champion with the most advanced utility-scale reactor technology that is operating today is well-positioned to help deliver on these objectives. Lastly, in the first quarter, we closed our acquisition of Neoen, which significantly expanded our battery capabilities and made us one of the largest operators and developers of battery storage solutions globally. This enhanced the suite of energy solutions we can offer to our customers and is leading to more opportunities across our business, both in terms of M&A opportunities but also within our existing fleet. Going forward, we will continue to be active investing in the critical technologies that are required to support growing energy demand and the reliability of the grid, in addition to low-cost wind and solar, and expect to expand our partnerships with the largest buyers of power on large-scale framework agreements, like the ones we executed with Google and Microsoft to date, as well as on a project-by-project basis. With that, I will pass it on to Patrick to discuss our operating results and financial position.

Thanks, Wyatt. And good morning to everyone on the call. Our business performed well this quarter, delivering funds from operations of $371 million or $0.56 per unit, an increase of 10% year-over-year driven by strong hydro generation and execution of our growth initiatives over the past year, which more than offset the impact of asset sales we completed in the last year. Our hydroelectric segment delivered strong growth with FFO up over 50% from the prior year on strong performance from our U.S. and Colombian fleets with hydrology that was above the long-term average. The outperformance reflects a rebound from a challenging prior year for hydrology and is in line with our expectation of a reversion to the mean over the long term. The strong performance of our hydro facilities bodes well for our overall results in 2025 and going into 2026, given the typical multiyear cycle we see in the hydrology of our fleet. Our wind and solar segments performed well with FFO essentially flat compared to the prior year. As newly commissioned capacity and the closing of our investment in National Grid's renewables business in the U.S. during the quarter, was offset by lower FFO due to asset dispositions and gains on the sale of development assets in the prior year. Our distributed energy, storage, and sustainable solutions segments delivered strong performance with FFO up almost 40% year-over-year, driven by strong results from Westinghouse, as the business continues to benefit from the growing global demand for nuclear energy. Turning to our financial position, we ended the quarter with $4.7 billion of available liquidity across the business, providing strong financial flexibility for the franchise. Our balance sheet continues to be top tier in the sector, and we remain committed to a prudent financing approach, enabling us to pursue growth opportunistically. In light of the exceptionally robust demand for our assets and businesses we are seeing today in the capital markets, we continue to proactively pull forward financings across our business, including a number of up-financing opportunities. This should provide additional liquidity earlier than expected to fund accretive growth across the franchise. Year-to-date, we have successfully completed $19 billion of financings across the business extending maturities and optimizing our capital structure with a couple of noteworthy financings in the quarter. In June, we were successful in issuing CAD 250 million of 30-year hybrid notes at the tightest corporate hybrid new issue spread ever in Canada in an offering that was several times oversubscribed. The issuance aligns with our strategy of conservatively accessing the market to optimize our capital structure as our cash flows increase. Also during the quarter, we successfully executed Brookfield Renewables' largest-ever project financing, raising EUR 6.3 billion for our offshore wind development project in Poland. Lastly, we further demonstrated the strong demand for our high-quality assets, raising a $435 million long-term fixed rate private placement for a strategic U.S. hydro asset at our lowest spread in 5 years for this type of financing. This again was an offering that was multiple times oversubscribed. These financings are indicative of the strong support from lenders for our derisked infrastructure assets and indicates how our significant access to capital continues to be an enduring competitive advantage. In closing, we remain focused on delivering 12% to 15% long-term total returns for our investors, while remaining disciplined allocators of capital and leveraging our strengths to access unique opportunities in the most attractive technologies and regions. On behalf of the Board and management, we thank all our unitholders and shareholders for their ongoing support. We are excited about Brookfield's Renewables future and look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year, including at our upcoming Investor Day in Toronto on September 25. That concludes our formal remarks for today's call. Thank you for joining us this morning. And with that, I'll pass it back to our operator for questions.

And our first question comes from the line of Nelson Ng from RBC Capital Markets.

Congrats on a strong quarter. So the first question is like, I think it's already well known that there is a big demand for power and the lack of supply. But in light of the results from the recent PJM auction and the high capacity payments, are you able to accelerate the pace of development in that area? Or are you making any changes in the U.S.? And are you able to further kind of leverage your footprint in that region?

And thanks for the question, Nelson. In terms of what we saw recently in the capacity auction in PJM, we would simply say it's indicative of that supply-demand imbalance that we're seeing in most of the regions we operate around the world, just with the capacity auction, the results get published, it creates a really formal portrayal of a dynamic we've been seeing on the ground in a number of places that we think is going to continue for years to come. In terms of how we leverage our existing position and look to pull things forward, two comments to be made there. Make no mistake, in this market where there is a supply-demand imbalance the shortage is not capital. The shortage is not demand. The shortage is having availability to build projects, and we are tackling this three ways. One, everything we can, we are pulling forward as quickly as possible. That has very much been true for a couple of years now, and we'll look to continue to be true for the foreseeable future. Secondly, we will continue to use our M&A capabilities and our access to capital to add more projects and more pipeline in the regions where we are seeing the greatest amount of demand. And then thirdly, I would highlight our framework agreements and partnerships with the largest buyers of power around the world because what those partnerships allow us to do is get a very intimate knowledge of where those buyers of power where their future needs are. And really, what it does is it gives us a hunting license, if you will, to either develop or acquire with greater confidence in regions where we essentially know there is a backstop level of demand. And therefore, we're already pulling everything forward as fast as possible, but we're looking to use the growth levers as our franchise to look to do more in those markets where we see that supply demand imbalance persisting in the longer term.

So just to follow up on that. I noticed in your development pipeline that the amount of projects being commissioned in North America in 2025 is, I think, roughly 2.7 gigawatts that reduces a little bit to 2.4 in '26, and then it more than doubles to 5.4 gigawatts in 2027. Is that just purely timing? Or are there kind of other forces at work in terms of that profile?

That's purely timing. Our development pipeline consists of specific projects with various interconnection and commercial operation dates. While the overall trend in our North American region is consistently upward, the specifics from one year to the next depend on when individual projects come online.

Okay. Got it. And then just one last question. Just based on your discussion with big tech companies and the big hyperscalers, like how do they balance the need for baseload versus intermittent renewable energy?

The large technology companies are the biggest consumers of power, significantly contributing to the rising demand due to the expansion of AI and data centers globally, especially in the U.S. They are indeed striving to secure as much power generation as they can. While it's common to consider them as a single industry, it's crucial to recognize that the demand spans a wide range of sectors. Although tech companies are the primary drivers, we're witnessing similar trends across the entire economy. Furthermore, we're observing a growing sophistication and demand for solutions beyond traditional pay-as-produced generation. We fully support this trend as it enhances Brookfield's position. There's an increasing need for continuous power, and contracts are shifting from purely pay-as-produced to include both the power and renewable energy credits. More contracts are now incorporating capacity components, which aligns with our strengths, given our diverse technologies and our large flexible operating base that can adapt to the changing market demands. This trend is certainly rising, and we view it as a vital opportunity for Brookfield Renewable to distinguish itself.

And our next question comes from the line of Sean Steuart from TD Cowen.

First question, Connor, you touched on feeling pretty good about your U.S. pipelines tax credit eligibility through 2029. And I guess the question is, I suppose that's the read relative to the reconciliation bill. Do you have any thoughts on the Trump's executive order? And if any potential changes to FIAC criteria might change the parameters of tax credit eligibility for your pipeline?

We are actively monitoring the ongoing review and feel very confident about our position. Importantly, if any unexpected outcomes arise from this review, we are optimistic that we are well positioned to utilize our global supply chain and relationships to adapt as necessary. We are confident that we will secure tax credit eligibility for essentially our entire U.S. pipeline through the end of the decade. Sean, I’m not sure if this was part of your question, but after you mentioned our focus extending to 2029, it's crucial to recognize that, given the current supply imbalance in the market, we can adjust construction costs—whether those are capital expenses, changes in tax credits, or funding costs—while maintaining our development margins. We can pass on both increases and decreases in costs to our customers by modifying the price of the Power Purchase Agreement. The visibility we have up to 2029 allows us ample time to accommodate any necessary price increases for projects that are more than five years out, giving us confidence that we can maintain our development margins in our U.S. business for the foreseeable future.

That's useful. Connor, regarding Wyatt, to fulfill the full 3 gigawatts under the Google framework agreement, you mentioned it would require some mergers and acquisitions. Can you discuss the current hydro M&A environment in the U.S. and how you plan to navigate those opportunities moving forward?

So we're actually seeing the hydro market after I would say, an extended period of inactivity becoming more and more liquid. And obviously, hydro are scarce assets. But it's also hydro operating capabilities are scarce as well. And we've been buyers, owners, and operators of hydros for 4 decades. And really, I'll use the same word again. What our arrangement with Google does is it gives us a hunting license, if you will, to pursue opportunities in hydro when they become available when they fit the parameters of that framework, we can pursue those opportunities with confidence. And one thing we would highlight is there is the opportunity, but not the obligation to deliver those incremental megawatts. So we will continue to be disciplined. But I would say it's certainly another competitive advantage for us as we look to grow our strategy.

Yes. And Sean, it's Wyatt here. The only thing I would add is that with that additional capacity, it could be fulfilled with our existing fleet. We do have that capacity available for contracting. Really, it's just a matter of whether it's in the right region that Google would want it as an offtake. So it's not necessary for us to engage in mergers and acquisitions to fulfill it. We have the flexibility. It's ultimately about meeting Google's needs and collaborating with them over the next few years to determine the best approach; we can either utilize the existing fleet or consider M&A.

Our next question comes from Mark Jarvi from CIBC.

Just returning to the discussion about PJM, the pricing signals are promising, but they also highlight the difficulties in getting assets connected in certain areas. I'm curious how your team is addressing some of the challenges in the U.S. market while engaging with your large customers. Are you beginning to focus more on regions where transmission, land acquisition, and construction are more feasible? For instance, are you shifting your attention to areas like Texas, where major data center projects are looking to advance?

Mark, thanks for your questions. To respond, I would emphasize that we are continuously considering the speed of connection in our development efforts and our interactions with customers. For example, in the PJM market, which may now seem a bit outdated, we acquired the Urban Grid platform several years ago specifically because of its advantageous interconnection queue positions in a congested market. This is not a reaction to a newly identified problem but rather an acknowledgment of an ongoing dynamic that will persist. We are incorporating this understanding into both our growth strategy through mergers and acquisitions and our development efforts to meet our customers' expanding needs. This is a practice we've maintained for years and will continue to uphold. It’s important to note that in some markets, initiating a project currently does not allow for timely completion for customers.

Something like the Urban Grid platform, is that something you can continue to lean on? Or have you sort of exhausted, but largely taking advantage of their preferential interconnection queue and siding positions? Or is that a business that continues to create more upside on the competitive advantage in the PJM market for now?

I think acquiring businesses and development platforms that understand how interconnection grids operate and how queue positions translate into developing assets is important. These capabilities are vital. In that case, we believe we were acquiring an undervalued asset due to their established connections, and our various platforms continue to generate projects in the most lucrative markets across the United States. This is what enables us to develop multiple thousand megawatts each year, based on strategic decisions we made years ago.

Okay. And then maybe turning to Europe. It seems like a cost decline on batteries and solar creates some tailwinds on the economic case for deployment there. We've heard some other developers ramp-up activity just with Neoen and other platforms you have in Europe, are you able to grow faster on the organic side? Or is M&A something you'd have to look to more in Europe to take advantage of potential economic tailwinds there?

Battery capital expenditure costs have decreased by over 60% in the past two years. Concurrently, the increasing integration of renewable energy has heightened the demand for more grid-stabilizing services. This creates a situation where costs are decreasing while revenues are rising in nearly every global market. As a result, the financial justification for batteries is quite compelling today in most markets we consider. Consequently, we have adopted a battery strategy across all of our development platforms at Brookfield over the past year. We are also exploring battery acquisitions or platforms focused on energy storage, which was a significant factor in acquiring Neoen, the world's largest utility-scale battery developer. It's worth noting that while Neoen is a French company, we privatized them from the French Stock Exchange, and they are a truly global developer, enabling us to drive organic growth in regions beyond Europe.

So if you say today where you think the best rate of change in terms of growth on batteries can really accelerate development activities or capital deployment activities, how would you rank the markets that are really starting to lead your focus right now?

If I could frame it slightly differently, I think this will be helpful. Batteries are the fastest-growing technology within our platform today. In terms of areas where we are seeing batteries deployed at scale, candidly, I think the U.S. would probably still be #1 for us, but we continue to see opportunities in other markets, in particular areas where there's very high radiation and very high renewables penetration. So parts of the U.S., obviously fit that bill. Australia obviously fits that bill. Places in Europe, storage is increasingly becoming of interest in Southern Europe. The other place that I would highlight is we're actually seeing a growing number of opportunities in the Middle East as well.

And given that economic case, would batteries be at the top end of your target IRR range for now?

Yes, absolutely. It probably won't stay there forever. But right now, the returns on batteries are very attractive.

And our next question comes from the line of Mark Strouse from JPMorgan.

I wanted to ask a couple of questions about your safe harbor business, Connor. With the executive order from July 7 and potential changes to safe harbor, we should find out what the Treasury says in the next couple of weeks. You mentioned that you have safe harbored nearly all of your U.S. projects through the end of 2029. Can you share how much of that was safe harbored in 2024 and earlier? Our understanding is that the potential rule change will apply to safe harbors for 2025 and beyond, if there are any changes. Can you break that down? Additionally, how are you planning for 2025 regarding spending money now to secure your credits while ensuring that you don't overspend, particularly if the rule changes are significant?

There are a few points to clarify. Regarding our safe harbor strategy for our U.S. platform, we expect that we will have safe harbor for almost all of it, and most of the work is already completed. While I can't provide a specific date, the majority is done. Some projects in our pipeline, like certain battery initiatives, may not need safe harboring due to more favorable treatment under the latest rules. Concerning the execution of our safe harboring strategy, we remain committed to investing capital only when we can secure both revenues and costs simultaneously. This strategy has proven effective through different market cycles. Therefore, when we implement our safe harbor strategy, we primarily rely on the offsite/on-site physical work test, and only consider accelerating capital expenditures afterward. This approach allows us to minimize the required capital expenditures. In the context of our overall organic development spending, the additional costs associated with safe harboring these projects are not significantly impactful.

And our next question comes from the line of Jon Windham from UBS.

I would just be interested in hearing your thoughts on what the key milestones are over the next year for nuclear development, things we should keep an eye on for the Westinghouse business.

So in terms of the Westinghouse business, and perhaps I'll start and then Wyatt, the developments in the U.S. are certainly the most interesting, so perhaps hand to you. But the way to think about our Westinghouse business is when we made the investment, we really think of it as two components. One, it has an existing product services and technical capabilities to the existing nuclear operating fleet around the world and that provides incredibly long-term stable inflation-linked cash flows as nuclear reactors simply run, refuel, refurbish lifetime extensions, things like that. And all of that is, of course, trending in the right direction right now given the existing nuclear fleet around the world. What is the new dynamic that has accelerated in the last 3 to 4 years is new build nuclear. And the joy for Westinghouse is it plays an absolute leadership role in that activity as well. That's new build of large reactors, SMRs or even microreactors as well. And what we're seeing around the world is governments and corporates increasingly looking to large-scale nuclear to meet their electricity and their baseload demand. And in particular, we're seeing that activity most dramatically, I would say, in Europe and the United States. And what you saw in our results this quarter is while the ongoing business, the core services business of Westinghouse is very, very stable and growing as we do more Westinghouse activities related to the growth of new nuclear, that will provide significant upside in our financial results as they execute on some of those types of activities. And it was certainly growth of new nuclear in Europe that drove the successful outperformance this quarter. In terms of key milestones, while I'll hand to you, but I do think that the one to look for is growth in the United States as the government has been very vocal about their intention to start the build of 10 new reactors before the end of the decade, with Westinghouse as the U.S. nuclear technology in the global champion, it certainly looks to be on the front foot of that. And we would expect that demand to come from both governments and from corporates which is probably the most notable inflection change we're seeing in the industry.

I want to emphasize the point about the U.S. As Connor mentioned, we are witnessing significant demand globally. Westinghouse has made excellent progress in Europe, particularly in Poland, and there is strong momentum in Bulgaria. Our technology is also being utilized in the Czech Republic. Overall, we are making substantial strides worldwide. However, as Connor noted, the U.S. is where we see significant focus from the current administration. Recently, an executive order was issued aiming to initiate the construction of 10 gigawatt-scale reactors by the end of the decade. This places Westinghouse as a highly credible provider of the necessary technology, allowing us to benefit greatly. At the energy innovation summit recently held in Pennsylvania, attended by President Trump and the Pennsylvania Senator, the emphasis on these large-scale reactors is crucial for the administration's goal of becoming a leader in AI. Therefore, our business and our shareholders, including Brookfield and Cameco, our investment partner, are collaborating closely with various stakeholders, which include government entities, utilities, and primarily the hyperscalers. We are actively working to advance developments that will soon highlight the potential impact on Westinghouse and the broader advantages for Brookfield.

And our next question comes from the line of Jessica Hoyle from Scotiabank.

So just to start, you touched on this a little bit, but just given the CapEx increases that we're seeing from the tech companies, how have discussions regarding new facilities or contractual frameworks changed in recent months?

What stands out most to us is the continued rise in numbers, demand, and quantum. However, there are a couple of key points to note. Firstly, we are observing a greater interest in new technologies extending beyond just wind and solar. Our hydro framework exemplifies this shift, and discussions about nuclear energy are becoming more prominent. Additionally, it's clear that major tech companies and hyperscalers are placing a strong emphasis on developing broader relationships. The procurement of power has become a critical challenge for the growth of their cloud and AI businesses, and they increasingly seek to mitigate risks by collaborating with the largest and most capable partners. Our hydro framework with Google is an exciting development, but it also represents just one part of a larger, more integrated relationship that includes wind and solar. Our retail power agreements with various tech companies are expanding and becoming more interconnected. This has been the most significant change we've observed recently. Thank you very much for joining our call and your interest in support of Brookfield Renewable. We look forward to updating you on our Q3 results in 3 months' time, but hopefully, we'll speak to you at our Investor Day at the end of September. Thank you, and have a great day.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.