Jonathan McClelland

Posts by Jonathan McClelland

Why Solar Power International Matters

By


This week the solar world descends on Orlando, Florida for the 2012 Solar Power International (SPI) conference.

For three days, an estimated 25,000 solar industry professionals will promote their products, make connections, and learn from their colleagues about the latest thinking and design. This year, more than any other, the theme of this conference will be project finance; how deals are getting done and who is doing them are the largest questions facing the industry in the post-1603 cash grant world. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 10, 2012 at 9:40 AM

Financial Education for the Solar Industry

By


Each month we see dozens of solar projects; most of them will never get financed. Quite simply, the economics do not support the deal. For promising projects, we perform a detailed viability analyses but in most cases this is not necessary; it does not take much to spot an un-financeable solar project. Why then do they keep coming?

The lack of knowledge regarding a project’s financial viability is not only widespread in the solar community, but it is costing the industry terrific amounts of time and lost opportunities as projects are pursued (sometimes for months) before a check on project economics points out their unsuitability. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 1, 2012 at 8:30 AM