Online example shown below, based on 5 x 3-4 hour sessions.
For questions or customisation requests contact: info@greycellsenergy.com
Course objectives – is this for you?
This course is intended for those seeking a time-effective, wide-ranging and independent perspective on solar power.
You will leave with a clearly explained, business-focused summary of solar PV technology and its cost determinants, utilising learnings taken from a global perspective. You want to gain a good understanding of the key factors in the solar power business from an integrated, multidisciplinary and commercial viewpoint, including: resource assessment, technology trends, economic competitiveness, channels-to-market, financing influences and risk, project development processes and best practices.
Session 1: What makes a solar power plant?
Solar farm components and performance
Reviewing the infrastructure that makes up a utility-scale solar power project
An up-to-date review of PV technologies and performance
System losses: the key sources and the impacts on energy output
Identifying key areas of project underperformance and output risk
Considerations in capacity and project sizing, including the inverter and the grid
New technology and solar power plant trends
New and emerging trends, from module to balance of system components
Solutions and systems to optimise performance, operations and maintenance
Adding battery storage to solar power plants: where and how?
Floating solar
Hybrid renewable power projects
Session 2: Solar resource assessment & project design
The importance of understanding the solar energy resource
A business person’s guide to solar data gathering, terminology and variability
Quantifying the energy (and revenue) available in contrasting locations
Initial resource prospecting: illustrated using online tools and calculators
The processes in undertaking a bankable solar resource assessment
Identifying the key business case uncertainties in solar resource assessment
From solar resource to energy output (and revenue generation)
Exploring solar ‘variability’: its timescales and revenue implications
Quantifying the impacts of solar module orientation and tracking
Revisiting power plant design and considerations such as capacity and storage
How market factors are driving alternative module layout trends
Illustrative exercise: calculating the expected outputs from a solar array
Session 3: Solar power ‘on the ground’: project development and delivery
Processes, milestones and location choice
Development, Construction & Operations: timelines, processes and risks.
Key planning and permitting issues, including local content
Stakeholder identification and management (illustrated example)
Resource and site assessment, including grid access
Environmental impact assessment
Key contracts and risk transfer
The Requirements for bankability and financial close
Off-takers and power purchase agreements (PPAs)
Turnkey construction and EPC (engineering, construction & procurement)
Grid interconnection
Operations and maintenance (O&M) and service provision
Illustrated with contract and template examples
Session 4: Selling solar power
Selling utility-scale solar electricity: the growing channel-to-market options
Policy, pricing, risk and the business case
Auctions and tenders: comparing examples from international markets
Direct sales: corporate buyers and PPAs
Electricity markets (‘merchant’ sales)
Multi-channel and mixed revenue stream business approaches
Understanding the changing value of solar electricity
Key policy and subsidy drivers and trends (including the differences between ‘subsidy’ and ‘support’)
Curtailment, negative prices and the myth of “free solar electricity”
Value cannibalisation risks at increasing levels of solar power penetration
Capturing capacity-based revenues from solar power projects (including contracting examples)
New business models for solar power project, including participation in virtual power plants (VPPs)
Session 5: The economics and financing of solar power projects
Project financial analysis
Quantifying the key financial variables (costs, revenues, risks and returns)
Reviewing the cash flow and risk/return variables behind a successful solar power project business case (Excel model illustration)
Key uncertainties around costs and revenues (and sensitivity analysis)
The sources and costs of finance (and their impact on energy price competitiveness)
Arriving at a bid price in a competitive auction
Examining key trends and future resilience from a financial perspective
The economics of integrating solar + storage: balancing costs, risks and revenues
New technologies, project flexibility and bankability (factors to achieve it)
How project development processes reduce financial risk
Assessing the future prospects for solar power: high growth, low profits?
A checklist for undertaking opportunity and risk analysis for solar power projects
Further inquiries to: info@greycellsenergy.com