Financing Solar at Scale

Cleantech Forum XXVI panel discussion

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00:49:53 - Uploaded by Song Essinova, LLC on March 26, 2010

There is a long-established infrastructure for financing energy projects. We saw the development of a nascent infrastructure for wind in the 1995-2005 decade, but little else in cleantech has a track record. 2004-2009 has been an explosion in venture investments in solar, many of which are now being consolidated. Who will scale up these business and how?

At the Cleantech Forum XXVI in San Francisco on February 26, 2010, a panel of renewable energy experts at the intersection of financing, technology and public policy discuss the funding challenges of scaling renewable energy development, and potential solutions for a financing framework.

Speakers:
William Lee, VP, Finance and Corporate Development, Sun Editon
Boyd Carano, Partner, Vinson & Elkins LLP
Scott Son, Director of Finance, Suntech America
Ullas Naik, Managing Director, Globespan Capital Partners

Moderator:
Dan Adler, President, CalCEF Clean Energy Fund

Topics:
00:33 Self introduction; impediment on scale
12:09 Lessons from the past two years
21:52 The most likely and helpful path to exit
24:52 Innovative financing approaches
27:40 The acquisition trend
32:11 Financibility of companies and projects
35:27 Opinions on the California proposal
45:38 (Audience question) Pricing for installed solar megawatt
47:00 (Audience question) Solar venture valuation and strategic corporate partnership dilemma

Tags: solar, renewable energy, financing, partnering, scale, Cleantech Forum

COMMENTS

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  • Agostinho Miguel says:

    April 6, 2010

    Fit and PPA are great investments. Scaling up is not a problem, actually decreasing the costs and making this a different business is the issue as it was pointed out in this debate. The comments were pretty wise and came from professionals who live and have lived through many of the details of this business. Mr. "Venture Capital" was right, but there are more to Renewables than venture capital. No one talked about the pension funds and those are the main interested parties in these projects. Regarding scaling up, there are many groups interested in taking companie sto the next level, but they must be sound and understand what they are doing. Not many qualify. In any case we have seen substantial growth and the entry of giant players.

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