PUTTING NEW PV ON THE MAP
Has the low-hanging solar fruit gone? Where will the biggest primary markets be in 2017 and 2018? This event will connect developers and financiers to find out how to work in new emerging PV markets. Split across two streams, we will investigate both bankable projects and how companies improving access to energy can attract capital for growth. We’re in the middle of a transition in the energy market from centralised to decentralised driven by solar, storage and micro-grids not to mention digitalisation, automation and the ubiquity of the internet. Maturing technologies and investors’ increasing competence with renewables has driven the market forward bringing us to nearly 300GW of installations and solar is the cheapest new source of energy as of 2016.
The Emerging PV Markets Finance Summit will bring together the investment community focused on new project development and financing innovative clean-tech.
MARKETS OF INTEREST
KEY TOPICS FOR DEBATE
- Identify political risk and see where its higher and lower
- See which governments are putting the right frameworks in place
- Find out which markets are overheated and which are still hot
- What are the common traits of successful projects
- What kind of capital is moving into these markets and which regions is it coming from?
- Finding partners in new countries
- Cost of capital review – what are financiers building into their models and how does this change country-to-country
- Policy round-up – where are the strongest frameworks for solar PV and where might your political risk increase?
- Energy pricing update – how high are prices currently and what can each market absorb?
- Fundraising case studies – how did companies demonstrate long term value?
SPEAKERS INCLUDE
- Adel Baba-Aissa, Director, London and Algiers, Renewable Energy Partner
- Chana Gluck, General Counsel, Gigawatt Global Coöperatief
- François Sonnet, Co-Founder, ElectriCChain
- Giles Clark, CEO, Primrose Solar
- Jean Billant, ECODEV Programme Officer - Research Advisor, Geres
- Leslie Labruto, Global Energy Lead, Acumen
- Mikael Schoultz, Vice President, Business Development, Sub-Saharan Africa, Lekela Power
- Nico Tyabji, Director of Strategic Partnerships, SunFunder
- Pablo Otin, VP, Emerging Markets, 8minutenergy Renewables
- Rohan Singh, Managing Partner Asia, FinerGreen
- Takehiro Kawahara, Frontier Power Team, Bloomberg New Energy Finance
DRAFT AGENDA
Day one: Monday 19 June 2017
08:30 Registration and coffee
BANKABLE PROJECTS IN EMERGING MARKETS
09:00 Opening remarks from the chair
09:10 WHERE ARE THE NEXT GW MARKETS?
Analysts update the audience on deal flow, policy and pipeline, priming attendees for interactive round tables on countries of their choice later in the day.
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- North Africa
- Middle East
- South East Asia
- India
- LatAm
- New Europe
- Old Europe: France, Ireland and secondary markets
AUDIENCE VOTE & FEEDBACK: which are the top 3 markets?
09:40 HOW ARE INVESTMENT OPTIONS CHANGING?
- Where are new investors coming from?
- What’s changed after COP22
- How has the work of multilaterals changed?
- Frontier markets funds
- Green bonds
- How do we close the equity gap we’re seeing in some markets?
- Commercial off-takers – when will the market take-off?
10:20 REPATRIATING CASH & CURRENCY RISK
- What issues might you encounter when repatriating cash
- Getting the right legal documents in place
- Ensuring you’re hedging currency fluctuations effectively
10:40 Networking refreshment break
11:10 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE – HOW DO DIFFERENT MARKETS AFFECT PERFORMANCE AND YIELD?
- How are assets performing in different environments?
- What can be done to contend with extreme weather conditions?
- Taking a broader view beyond solar – how does weather affect battery storage?
- Bringing it all together – examples that show you how to include weather impact into your modelling
- Are manufacturers creating product specifically for different environments?
12:10 TARIFF REVIEW
- Analysis of tariffs in new solar markets
- Are we seeing a race to the bottom with some recent tenders?
- Is the rise of “mega solar” projects in Asia driving price reductions?
- How quickly is the equipment curve dropping?
1:00 Networking lunch break
2:00 DERISKING YOUR PPA
- Understanding your counterparty and their creditworthiness
- Credit enhancements
- Developer examples of recent PPAs
2:40 ROUND TABLES BEGIN
Attendees can select two round tables in this session. They will be paired with round table hosts with experience in specific regions. The discussions will look at market-specific challenges that have arisen and update attendees on solutions to them. The last 10-minutes will see round table hosts update the audience on the discussions.
Each round table host will open with a summary of:
- Amount of solar installed
- Policy and support mechanisms available
- Who are the major market players (Energy Commission, Grid, Utilities, Developers and Lenders/Investors)
- Technical issues and working with the grid
* Please note we are seeking feedback on markets now
3:30 Networking refreshment break
4:00 COST OF CAPITAL
- How low are providers willing to go?
- At what price can everyone get returns?
- What expectations are investors coming to projects with?
- How are multilaterals helping to reduce cost of capital?
- Are we seeing enough innovation in new financial products?
4:30 KEYNOTE: WHY THE GLOBAL TRANSITION TO RENEWABLES IS UNSTOPPABLE
- Energy returns – how are investors managing carbon risk?
- Economics – is the tide turning on fossil fuels?
- Scale in solar: how is 2017 looking in terms of installations?
- Maturing tech and cost curves – outlook for the future
Barbara Buchner, Executive Director, Climate Finance, Climate Policy Initiative
5:10 Networking drinks reception
Day two: Tuesday 20th June 2017
CORPORATE FINANCE FORUM
09:00 BUSINESS MODEL DESIGN THAT ENABLES SCALE-UP
There are a lot of businesses doing interesting one-off projects, how can we make sure their work is able to scale up so that it really makes a positive impact?
- What elements do companies need to have to be able to scale up?
- What kind of partnerships might be useful?
- How do you avoid plateauing?
- Examples of global off-grid businesses, what features do they share?
10:00 BEYOND SOLAR: STORAGE AND MICROGRID CASE STUDIES
- Designing projects in areas of weak or no grid access
- How are projects being financed?
- Are we going to see a shift towards flexible demand first, solar second from governments?
- Where’s the capital coming from for these projects?
10:30 Networking refreshment break
11:00 SECURITISATION – IS THE SOLAR IPO DEAD?
11:40 HOW WILL TECHNOLOGY MATURATION AFFECT TECHNICAL RISK?
- Fast forward to 2025: what kind of products will we see in the market?
- Given current technologies in circulation, what’s failing where?
- Where are opportunities for collaboration and what kind of companies should be working together?
- How are macro technology trends (e.g. internet of things, big data, electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous vehicles (AVs)) going to impact the market?
- Bringing it all together: solar PV, storage, IT, data, EVs and AVs
- What’s going to disrupt the market next?
12:00 ARE WE UNDERESTIMATING THE ROLE OF OFF-GRID DEPLOYMENT?
- How big is the off-grid market and what’s it worth?
- How are companies scaling up cross-border
- Where are we starting to see bigger players getting involved in distributed projects?
- Case studies – World Bank in the Philippines
- Engie in Senegal
- E.On – Rafiki Power
- Community energy financing models – are the exportable?
12:30 Networking lunch
1:30 CREDIT ENHANCEMENTS AND GUARENTEES
- How is the role of the Export Credit Agency (ECA) evolving in the market
- Political risk and commercial credit risk coverage
- Premiums and products for borrowers
3:00 Networking refreshments
3:30 RATINGS UPDATE
Which markets are triple A, which are not? This session will look at how the markets for renewables are assessed and will help you make an investment decision. We will look at:
- Jurisprudence and revenue repatriation
- Energy prices and consumer demographics
- Political risk
- The impact this will all have on your cost of capital
4:30 BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER – HOW ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE YOUR PROJECTS BANKABLE?
Be ready with questions for this session, we’re using slid.o so attendees will be able to submit anonymous questions to our final speakers and live questions on the mics.
