During this call, we will discuss historical as well as forward looking information. When talking about the future, there are a variety of risk factors that have been listed in our different filings which can materially change our estimated results. These documents are all available for consultation on CEDAR. In our webcast presentation, the disclosed results are both on a consolidated and a combined basis. Please note that combined is a non GAAP financial measure. And does not have standardized meaning, under IFRS. For more details, see the non IFRS and other financial measures section in the MD and A. Mr. DeCottes will now start with his comments. Please go ahead, Patrick. Thank you, Colleen, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure for me to present our results and achievements for the first quarter of twenty twenty five. This quarter, we observed significant variability in resource availability impacting our financial results. The strong performance of our wind assets in Canada only partially offset unfavorable wind conditions in France. Total combined production was down 1% in the first quarter compared to 2024. EBITDA on a combined basis was 199,000,000 which is a decrease of $19,000,000 compared to Q1 twenty twenty four.

This change is due to a lower wind resource in France and anticipated lower power prices in short term contract for wind farm in France than in the same period of 2024. Bruno will cover later in more detail our first quarter financial results. During this first quarter, we continued to make strong progress toward our growth and diversification strategies. Particularly with the commissioning of our Lyonkin wind farm in Scotland, our first operating asset in The United Kingdom. An important milestone a very promising market for Boralex. We now have over 3.2 gigawatts of assets in operation in our four key geographies and six sixty megawatt of project in construction and ready to build phase with commercial operations planned in 2025 and 2026. Looking ahead, we look forward to present our twenty twenty five-two thousand and thirty strategic plan at our Investor Day, which will be held in June on June 17 in Toronto. We're very positive on the future of our business and will continue to be ambitious in our growth and diversification strategies. Regarding market conditions, the demand for renewable energy in our targeted targeted markets remains high, driven by different factors. Such as favorable government incentives, population growth, industrial and digital expansion, creating new opportunities for our development activities.

In Canada, following their recent victory in the federal election, the Liberal Party led by Mark Carney has committed to maintain maintain the clean energy investment tax credit. And doubling the indigenous loan guarantee program to 10,000,000,000 Consequently, Quebec and Ontario remain strong potential growth markets for Boralex. Our local expertise and good relationships with First Nations and communities provide a solid foundation for preparing incoming upcoming bids in both geographies. In The United States, ongoing uncertainty surrounding potential policy changes and the implementation of tariff has led to near term upwards pressure and economic volatility in the first quarter of twenty twenty five. Still, power demand in The United States remains strong, driven by growth in U. S. Manufacturing and the expansion of data centers. It is therefore particularly important to stay focused on our long term strategy of growth in The U. S. Market as we believe that renewable energy projects, particularly solar and onshore wind projects are well positioned to meet this rising demand. In New York State, the government will have to rely more heavily on onshore renewable energy to meet its climate goals following a federal order to stop the development of offshore wind facilities.

In this market, we're still waiting for the final results of the NYSERDA 2024 request for proposals expected to be announced in the coming weeks. While I have already highlighted the operation of our Limekine wind farm, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Boralex UK team for their hard work and efforts in bringing this project to completion. The successful commissioning of Limekian is also due to the valuable consultation work with local communities carried out by our team, who has been present on the ground since the first stages of the project. The operation of Limekiln enables us to strengthen our strategic position in The UK, where we have strong growth ambitions for the coming year. We're now preparing ourselves to submit bids in the next AR7 RFP expected this summer. During the first quarter, we also continued to progress with construction our of our project in Canada. The commissioning of our Apuid project is expected this summer. Nearly all of the 34 turbines are now installed, despite the later than anticipated start of operation and cost overruns, the internal rate of return of the project remains in line with our targeted range. In Ontario, the construction of our two battery storage projects, Ayersville and Tilbury, are advancing as planned.

With commissioning scheduled by the end of this year, 2025. Our Denege Sud project wind farm is also progressing on schedule with commissioning planned for the end of twenty twenty six or beginning of twenty twenty seven. In France, we also have three projects under construction, all located in the region Eau De France. Projects Fronten Leboulon and sales Felipe Balfard totaling 29 megawatt will start operating in the coming months, while Les Saint Montcaudet project just entered the construction phase with the commissioning scheduled next year. With these projects, Boralex strengthening is position in this historically significant region where the company operates more than 500 megawatt. I will now rapidly review the main variances in our portfolio of projects under development and growth path. The increase in the pipeline was mainly due to the addition of wind and solar projects in Europe and North America. In early stage. The increase in capacity of wind and solar projects in Europe and North America in early and mid stage And in total, our pipeline of early, mid and advanced stage projects now consist of projects totaling nearly 7.1 gigawatt of wind, solar, and storage projects.

In the first quarter, the gross pass represents a of eight eighty seven megawatt, a decrease of 104 megawatt compared to the previous quarter mainly explained by the transition to operational phase of the Limekiln wind farm. This completes my part. I will now let Bruno cover the financial portion in more detail and will be back later for the question period. Bruno? Thank you, Patrick. Good morning, everyone. This quarter, total combined production was down 1% compared to the same quarter last year and 11% lower than anticipated. Due to unfavorable weather conditions in France. Our combined EBITDA amounted to $199,000,000 down $19,000,000 in consolidated AFFO amounted to 74,000,000 down only $4,000,000 compared to the first quarter of twenty twenty four. I will now provide a more detailed overview of our quarterly financial results starting with production. In North America, total combined production for the quarter was 8% higher than the same quarter last year and in line with anticipated production. Production from wind assets in North America was 15% higher. Compared to the same quarter last year and 6% higher than anticipated for comparable assets. Production for the hydro sector was 29% lower than last year and 13% lower than anticipated, mainly due to unfavorable weather conditions in The United States.

Production from solar assets in The U. S. Was 17% higher than the same quarter last year and 12% higher than anticipated.

In Europe, total production was 16% lower compared to the same quarter last year, and 28% lower than anticipated attributable to unfavorable wind conditions in France. As mentioned by Patrick, the good performance of wind assets in North America only partially offsets the lower contribution from wind assets in Europe. The decrease in production along with the impact of less favorable power prices in our short term contracts in France affected our revenues and EBITDA. AFFO was impacted by the decrease in EBITDA, partially offset by lower distributions paid to non controlled shareholders in Europe, compared to the same quarter last year, and higher distributions received from our joint ventures. This quarter, our balance sheet remains strong with $5.00 $4,000,000 in available cash resources and authorized financing. And $388,000,000 in cash and cash equivalent as of March 31. Total debt increased to $4,100,000,000 with project debt representing 89%. During the first quarter, our finance team successfully extended the term of the company's revolving credit facility until February 2030, improving our financial flexibility to continue to support our growth. In April, the letter of credit facility guaranteed by EDC was also increased from $350,000,000 to $470,000,000 until April 2027. Lastly, for this quarter, we have continued to make good progress on our CSR targets.

For more information on our CSR strategy, I invite you to read our 2024 CSR report released in February. In conclusion, we continue to develop and execute our projects in attractive markets maintaining a solid balance sheet and good financial flexibility. We are focused on delivering value to our shareholders as we optimize all aspects of our business and capitalize on our project pipeline to produce cost competitive renewable energy at rates of return in line with our targeted returns. Thank you for your attention. We are now ready to take your questions. Thank you. 11 again. Once again, please press 11 on If you wish to ask your questions via the webcast, please type them in the question box and click Submit. Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our first question. The questions come from the line of Rupert Mira from National Bank. Please ask your question.

Hi, good morning everyone. If I can can start with your My money.

Cons Good morning. If I can start with your construction act activities, you report some higher costs largely at Appuet. Can you talk to us about what drove the cost increase there? And how are you feeling about the costs on the rest of your pipeline?

I'm sorry, Rupert. We missed a the first part of your question. Could you please repeat the question?

Yes. Yeah. You saw some higher costs at Appuet, in this quarter. I think the costs are mostly in there. But can you talk to us about what drove the cost increase there and how you feel about the costs on the rest of your construction pipeline?

Yes. Good morning, Rupert. It's Patrick. Essentially, the cost have been driven by difficulty with the BOP supplier contractor and which postponed the project during the winter. So we had higher than expected burn rate with cranes on-site during the winter, and we have had very tough winter in Quebec this year, with deep snow and freezing rain. So that's one point. The second point is on the commissioning part, the finalizing of what we call the mechanical completion on the site and commissioning. We are experiencing some more difficulty or we have had been experiencing some more difficulty. No, it's more online. We have put a new kind of framework with Boralex, which is controlling the contractor on-site for us. To be sure that the right activities are done to finalize these MCC mechanical completion in time And no, there is nine mechanical completion that have been done. End of next week, it should be around 14. So, are progressing. But and looking to that. So these this is the main driver of the cost. On the other project, the cost side on the storage project Eaglesville and Tilbury is going very well. This is These projects are well advanced.

Eaglesville, everything is on-site. All the containers and batteries are already on-site. On Tilbury, they are in Canada, but they are we are finalizing some work on the foundation. But no expectation of cost increase So, is a good project. And on Dene Eshud, we are working to maintain the cost where they should be. And we're again working with the same contractor in Quebec, Boralex that has built many sites in Quebec and specifically Saint Louis De Beaupre in the past. So they know the site. So So that's the situation. I think as I mentioned, I think the last quarter, we restart the Quebec wind industry construction and with a project on the North Coast that creates some difficulty, but we have learned a lot and we have optimized our the way we're working to to take the opportunity of the learnings.

Okay. Excellent. Thank you. And secondly Thank you. We saw some legislation in Texas SB seven fifteen that's proposing backup generation for all renewable projects. How do you see that playing out? And if it does make its way into law, what would be your contingency plans for dealing with that?

Hi, Rupert. It's Boralex. So we've, yeah, we've recently seen this proposed this new proposal in the budget of the government [indiscernible] started making representations around this to certainly lower the impact It would start in 2027 and then escalate on the You're speaking about TSP in Quebec, but I think Rupert was asking about TechSaaS backup and train. Okay. No. We will the team is looking to this point, but we have to see what will be the impact on our project and come back to you.

Okay. I know it's early and may not get anywhere as it stands in any case, but I just thought I'd check-in I'll leave it there then. Thank you.

Thank you.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the questions come from the line of Mark Jarvi from CIBC. Please ask your Yes, good morning everyone. Just in terms of some of advanced stage projects, was a notice in the and A about some discontinuations. Can you just give more color in terms of projects those are and what's forcing those projects essentially discontinue at this point?

On the early in the advanced stage, you mean? Or in Yeah. The advanced stage projects. Yes.

There was 220 megawatts roughly of advanced stage projects that were discontinued.

Yeah. There some some of these projects where project that the delay to obtain authorization was too long in France. Then we had difficulty on lease finalizing. This is Bordeauxiliary, I think, the lease on one of these [indiscernible] And then there was a difficulty and a miss mismatch between the size of the available turbine and the size of the permitted turbine. And so, we have to say stop the project because it was not meeting our investment criteria.

Got it. And then maybe Patrick, you said you're still hopeful that NYSERDA comes out and awards these projects that were bid last year. Obviously, a bit more positive news on the tariffs this week, but just the house bill that came through earlier this week or the proposal, some maybe harder criteria on foreign content, in service dates, sunsetting a bit quicker. Just viability of the solar projects in New York and how do you think NYSERDA handles some of these changing criteria? Will there be sort of clauses and mechanisms to make developers whole if there's any changes that are negative for companies like yourselves or your peers?

Yeah, it's a good point. Essentially, are as I mentioned, waiting for the final announcement from Nicerda. The project that we bid and this will definitely depend on when Nicerada will give or not a green light, but we are in line to be in service before the due date of when it will start to decrease in 2029, the ITC in The U. S. So normally, should be safe if Narserda is not coming in with a a normal delay. So we are also we have also take some action to safe harbor part of the equipment to be sure that if there is any change, we we would be protected. And last but not least, connection we have decided to put the necessary LC, which are not at risk, but which were guaranteeing our position in the queue So we're working on this and we're working on the the procurement of the solar panel within The U. S. And also we're working on the balance of system contractor. We are presently in RFP for this part of the job. [indiscernible] come late and award us, we will be ready to start early. So that's how we are playing with that.

I think we should take into account strategically is and I feel bad for them, but the situation of Empire Wind will affect the generation in New York and the supply. And so they will have to rely to some other project because demand is growing there. So certainly, we will be well positioned for that.

Would the contract structure have some sort of pass through mechanism depending on what finally comes in terms of tariffs or any sort of higher costs on meeting domestic content requirements?

There is no specific mechanism in the contract that we have seen at the RFP time. That is the only thing I can tell you today. There was no specific mechanism in the contract. Got it. Okay. Thanks for the time today. Thank you.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. The next questions come from the line of Anel Ng from RBC Capital Markets. Please ask your question.

Great. Thanks. Just a quick follow-up on Mark's question. So Patrick, mentioned that the solar projects in New York, if if selected would be in service before 2029. You can you also have the option of safe harboring. So based on your initial read of the the latest legislation, could you essentially just put a lot of deposits down prior to 2029 and safe harbor for the next call it, four years. Is is that how how you see it? That what you meant by safe harbor?

I'm I'm I'm specifically saying that for the project that we bid in the 2024 RFP And that we think are very competitive projects we have taken some risk of safe harboring essentially a equipment transformer that are equipment that are needed in the world of power in The US. So we're not taking a big risk because if there is any big difficulty, we will have someone who will be ready to buy this transformer should we have a difficulty. So, that's the point practically and concretely on this project. On other projects in the future that could be bid in the potential RFP of NYSERDA, it's very difficult to comment today because it will really depend of NYSERDA's position on these decrease of the tax credit in The U. S. Should this legislation go ahead. So there is a lot of if in my point and a lot of conditional but just to say we're very cautious and prudent on that. But practically, again, if nursery die is not too long, to award project we could have competitive project safe and profitable in New York. I see. Just to add to this point, and as soon as about NYSERDA, I think we are told that in all the announcement is expected shortly.

So it's not a it's like imminent. So we never know it's not in our control. So let's let's keep this in mind when we are thinking about safe harboring.

Okay, thank you. And then next question that just relates to capital allocation. I noticed that you bought back a little bit of stock, I think, 24,000 shares in in q two. Can you just talk about your intentions on buybacks going forward? Like, was that purchase mainly just opportunistic due to the market volatility, or should we expect buybacks to continue?

Thank you, Nelson. This the the program is in place. We're actively looking at the market changes and as you've seen, we've bought back some shares in April. And the program stays in place. We're going to remain active as long as we think our stock price is not at the right level. Thinking about the same time that as I mentioned last time, our capital allocation is still focused mainly on our growth projects and financing of that. So, think we've sent a strong signal that we believe our stock price is underpriced. And we'll continue to buy back opportunistically, but also in organized way.

And invest in our growth.

We see also a lot of interest right now from many investors. We've had very constructive discussion a lot of people in the past few weeks, so there's definitely strong appetite for Boralex.

Right now.

From different regions? Yep.

Yep. Great. Thanks. And then just one last question. I'm not sure whether you'll have an update or not, but I think last quarter, [indiscernible] talked about the high interest in your hydro assets and the sales process. Do you have any updates in terms of expected timing?

Process is proceeding with high level of interest. That's all we can say at this time.

Okay.

Thanks, Bruno. I'll I'll leave it there.

Thank you, Nelson.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the next questions come from the line of Robert Hope from Scotiabank. Please ask your question.

Good morning, everyone.

We recently saw Hydro Quebec relatively do a good pivot to solar for the guess, to 02/1935. How do you think about your capabilities And how do you pivot to capture that opportunity?

Yes. Good morning, Rob. I I'm not convinced that for us, it would be a good allocation of development capital to develop solar project in Quebec due to the resource the different constraint and more the alternative of lots of wind potential in Quebec that will certainly bring lower price at the end for Hydro Quebec. So, I think this is this is my view of the Quebec RFP. There will certainly be from other players. It's a little bit different in Ontario, where the resource is different, the constraints are and the potential alternative in wind are definitely lower. So, think Ontario and New York are the good place and France are the good place for solar. For us.

Alright. Thanks for that. And then maybe just on on the battery stride. This moving forward. You know, how do you think about where the best opportunities are in the various geographies how does kind of The U. Tariffs layer onto that?

The tariffs?

The the battery. Yeah.

Battery. Essentially, we have significant capital deployment presently with Acresville and Tilbury. Was very well [indiscernible] unrisked contract because it's as you remember, it's a twenty two year contract covering 70% of the revenue. We have been awarded a third contract, the same type of 125 megawatt with the project. The FID, the final investment decision has not yet been taken, but we're making progress on finalizing the work around this and we should be ready take this decision in the next quarters. And so that's one thing. So lots of opportunity in Ontario specifically. And the other market where we're seeing opportunity somewhere on the smaller scale for each project, but on a very big scale, as a market is The UK. The UK is is an island, Great Britain is an island, but it's also electrically an island. So there is a lot of need of frequency response mechanism and load management. And so there is lots of opportunity. The type of contracts are different. So we have not yet taken any finance investment decision, but this is also something interesting because the size of the market today, I think there is five gigawatt installed capacity in The UK, already in storage and they're planning in the next five years to go to 25 megawatt gigawatts.

So lots of opportunity in The UK. So no we have to be sure that the the business plan is the risk reward of the business plan there will be acceptable for Boralex.

And I would add, in Canada, the additional benefit is the ITC, which we expect will remain in place.

Just also that we are preparing ourselves for the upcoming bid in Ontario. So there's in December, there's a capacity bid. There's two bids coming like one for sorry. Do you wanna Yeah. One one for energy and one for storage.

And we're preparing for both different projects that is called LT2.

Excellent. Thank you.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the question comes from the line of Benjamin Pham from BMO. Please ask your question.

Hey, thanks. Good morning.

You mentioned some of the cost overruns that you're experiencing at [indiscernible] I'm wondering, we're seeing some of these Ontario storage projects tracking perhaps below budget costs. Are you seeing that at at all at your projects, or is that that already built into your initial cost estimates. Are you then referring to other projects showing lower CapEx and the industry in general? Is that what you're referring to? Yes. No. We yeah. I I don't I like to talk to other companies specifically, but we we saw, like, Northland's on NATO project come in a hundred million below budget. When they commissioned it. So, you you see any similar trends in your storage projects in Ontario? Or you've already factored that in already as I So I'll I'll just track into Yeah. What is okay. Okay. Okay. That's clear. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. Yeah. What is clear is it's a different situation. If you look with some high level look, the cost of battery and the technology and are improving quickly and the costs are going down. So that's one thing. That we experienced in the past a lot in wind, we're still experiencing that in solar. And so battery and solar are somewhere similar.

So, [indiscernible] and the cost of lithium has also gone down between the RFP assumptions and the procurement on our side. So, is improvement on this. We have taken our investment decision a little bit after on AIDA. I think one year after them, we would be delayed at the end, the delay would be six months, because we have taken some risk on ordering transformer and circuit breaker earlier. But to come back to your point, I think if the technology is continuing to improve and the way battery are produced, And if there is not too much reshoring pressure, the cost will continue to go down and there would be room for improvement. I'm not sure that it's still possible in wind today. Because of the size of the turbine and the constraint of transportation of plates.

Okay. [indiscernible] You also talk about the sale process with the hydro assets, what you've learned so far, at which stage in the process, and and the timeline going forward.

As I Ben, as I mentioned, we're we're going to the process right now, and we have strong level of interest We're not we're not sharing more more information to to competitive process.

Okay.

Got it. And then may may just put the last one. In Canada, specifically, you you mentioned Quebec and Ontario. I don't think you mentioned BC at at all. There's been some positive news on permitting and focus on clean energy and and and all that that could set well for renewal energy is is that a market that you're thinking about a bit more these days? Or is still Ontario and Quebec is the focus?

Yeah, I would say Ontario and Quebec are the focus, but we have some development in BC, but it's not advanced like in Ontario and Quebec.

Alright.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. The next question comes from the line of Sean Steuart from T. D. Cowen. Please ask your question.

Thank you.

Good morning. Just one follow-up question. The 2.2 gigawatt advanced stage [indiscernible] I think we have a pretty good sense of where you stand with respect to New York and I guess my question is with respect to The UK piece of this, can you give us a sense of what you're expecting to submit to the the AR7 process and timeline for advancing that? And if you can give us a sense of what the return differential spread looks like between these advanced stage opportunities moving them up into the ready to build segment of your your development pipeline.

Yes. On the return side, I would say that we have an investment guide, which is precise on the level of return we are asking depending on the type of contract, the duration of contract, the technology and the jurisdiction where we develop So, this is not changing. This has been increased. As you remember, we are seeing between 10 to 12%. We will and I will not say in which jurisdiction and which technology it's standing which jurisdiction and which technology it's 12 or over. But definitely, what I can say is that in The UK, the good news is we will have we're working on a handful of projects to be bid in the next AR7. We don't know yet the budget of the AR7 and exactly what will be the exact rules. But if we copy paste what was AR6, we will have a chance to bid a handful of projects. And when we have different projects, as we're doing in France for the last many years, and we have done in New York, we have a strategy of some must win projects, some nice to win projects and some very nice to win projects with the a kind of ladder of the different return that we're putting there.

And we're taking into account the fact that some projects are on the critical path to be built or some project have room due to grid connection, for example, to be rebid the year after, so we're a little bit more aggressive on the return expectations there. So, So that's a lot of the strategy we are taking on this project.

Got it.

Okay. That's all I had. The rest of my questions have been answered. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Sean. Thank you.

We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the next question comes from the line of Nicola Bojczyk from Cormark Securities. Please ask your question.

On the supply chain, you comment at all on the availability and the timelines that your vendors are providing you, as you're having these conversations to you know, pre purchase solar panels and to prepare for that for turbines Are you seeing availability costs increase materially?

Essentially, what is I think on the main equipment, battery, wind turbine, and solar panel, It's not there that there is the more pressure presently in the market. Where we are seeing difficulty, it's more transformer, circuit breaker, bushings and all those things, which are due to lots of investment all over the world in HV or very high HV transmission system. So, that's where we are really looking and working with suppliers Sometimes the purchasing team or the development the execution team is coming. So we have a big alert there and they solve it in one week. So we have many alerts during the last months, but so far touching wood we have solved all of them. That's where is the constraint today.

Okay.

Understood. Thank you. And then on the main components, like, will you solar panels as an example. Are you seeing an increased demand for domestic or at least North American or Western produced material versus something coming out of Southeast Asia?

Yeah, we're seeing this trend in The U. S. Definitely, and we have worked specifically for the NYSERDA project we are working for with the with local domestic supply chain. So that is something. On battery, there was I had a meeting some weeks ago with a big Chinese company, but who is specifically investing in The U. S. To produce batteries there at a very competitive cost. So I think there is the things are moving in this direction. And I'm not convinced it will move definitely to very, very higher cost. There is the time for the market to adjust. But yes, it's moving. The situation in Europe is completely different because there is less limitation to Chinese goods today in Europe. So the price of solar panels, for example, are are almost one third of what it is in The U. S. Per watt. Which is a little bit crazy situation, but that is the situation.

Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you.

We have no further questions on the phone line at the moment. So I'll hand back to you for any webcast questions that you may have. Thank you. Thanks everyone for your attention.

As part of our strategic plans presentation, a site visit is scheduled on May 16 in Haglesville, Ontario. Where Boralex is pursuing the construction of its 300 megawatt battery storage project. The Investor Day will take place on May 17, at Lumi's Toronto offices will also be streamed live for remote participants. An official invitation will be distributed via the press wire tomorrow. Should you need more information on this event, please contact me or Stephane Millow.

Our next conference call to announce second quarter results will be on Friday, 08/08/2025 at 11AM. Have a nice day, everyone.

This concludes today's call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.