Solar finance in Emerging Markets course

Green Power Academy’s Solar Finance in Emerging Markets course will present the tools you need to analyse, optimize and structure solar energy projects of all sizes, both on and off-grid. Solar systems come in all sizes, from small roof-top installations to utility-scale power plants. Hence, financing models and structures must be adopted accordingly whilst risks must be considered carefully.

Course objectives

• Understand the characteristics and challenges of solar energy projects on- and off-grid
• Learn about business models as well as financing instruments used in solar power projects
• Learn about the key factors in project finance, the rationale of sponsors, investors and lenders and key success factors for project finance in solar energy
• Understand the legal and contractual framework and purpose that is central to any project finance structure
• Undertake comprehensive risk assessment and discuss strategies to switch, avoid, mitigate, finance and monitor risks, and how to reflect them in a financial model

Agenda at a glance

During the past decades the power market has experienced waves of ups and downs. Regulatory uncertainties, liberalisation policies and volatile oil & gas prices have made investors and debt providers very wary. Driven by demographics, need for economic growth and concerns about climate change, renewable energy assets are seen increasingly favourably by investors. Thanks to massive decline in costs some of those technologies, especially solar, can not only compete head-on against conventional technologies. Due to the distributed nature of applications of solar energy, it is also challenging the business models of traditional utilities and enables access to electricity for millions of people worldwide who are far removed from existing grid infrastructures.

Programme

Day 1

Technical Aspects of Solar and Hybrid Systems

• Characteristics and applications of solar power
• Annual energy production and uncertainty
• Hybridization with diesel generators, batteries, wind turbines and hydro power
• Sizing components in off-grid applications: curtailment, fuel consumption, unserved energy

Day 2

Business Models and Financing Instruments

• Revenue models in solar: pricing models in regulatory markets, savings as revenue stream, pay- as-you-go; the power purchase agreement;
• Financing instruments and structures: Equity, loans, bonds, leasing, guarantees, tax credits
• Sources of finance: Multilateral agencies, bilateral agencies, etc.
• Introduction to non-recourse finance of large-scale solar projects.

Trainer

Your renewable energy trainer this year will be Joachim Baumgaertner (pictured above) who is founder and managing director of Green Rhino Energy, an independent specialist consultancy advising companies in clean energy across the value chain and technologies.

Joachim brings project ideas to fruition by bridging complementary areas of renewable energy technologies, project finance and experience in project development. Joachim has been involved as both consultant and developer in utility-scale solar and wind power, solar greenhouses and waste to energy plants with a focus on Africa, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Egypt, and Namibia.

Joachim has been part of a team winning project competitions held at Making Solar Bankable in Amsterdam and the Africa Energy Forum in London 2016 for the development of a solar portfolio in Sierra Leone. Joachim was featured on 21st Century Business TV shown on CNBC Business and Fox Business. He has been guest speaker at conferences, e.g. “Utilityscale PV� in Milan 2011 and Envirotech Summit 2013 in London.

Contact details

Ouaise Abdel-Razig
Training & Development Consultant

• Email: ouaise.AR@greenpowerglobal.com
• Tel: +44(0) 203 355 4223

Official website