Hot on the heels of bringing on our new CFO, Justin Passfield, Solar 350 can announce we’ve signed agreements with 3 major independent power producers, all of which are exchange-listed entities and of Chinese origin.

Obviously we can’t say too much at this point, but we are pleased to confirm we have signed NDNCNS (that’s non-disclosure, non-circumvent, non-solicitation) agreements with a view to developing, building, financing and refinancing utility-scale solar energy projects in Chile and various prime solar locations round the globe.

This news means we’re now able to action our Solar 350 staged development & value creation model:

• Stage 1 – Project development: We identify strong prospective project opportunities, complete initial due diligence on the projects and then proceed to acquire the project in concert with our Chinese Partners through a joint venture company.
• Stage 2 – Operations & delivery: With our Chinese Partners, (who supply the panels in most cases) we build and commercialise the projects. As a rule of thumb, we build for roughly $1.6M per MW and on completion, the asset values-up at circa $2M per MW. This creates a 25% – 30% increase in value for the JV company.
• Stage 3 – Refinancing: We facilitate the refinance the operational facility, with a target to refinance 100% of the build cost via our London and New York based re-financiers.

Solar 350’s gains come from a variety of sources in this value-creation model (and we would be happy to explain about our gain/fee structures subject to your interest in becoming a EIS Shareholder of Solar 350) but for now, it is has to remain as required by Rory Breaker in Lock Stock and James Bond 007 – depending on your generation – revealed on a strictly need to know basis 😉

Our relationship with the Chinese energy market began in 2010 through Carbon 350’s work to offset millions of tonnes of CO2 from over 30 environmental projects in China, working for Chinese companies through either The United Nations “Clean Development Mechanism” or now more recently, China’s rapidly growing domestic Emission Trading Scheme. China’s ETS is set to become easily be the biggest in the world and it’s one where Carbon 350 is deeply involved and investing heavily.

We have built on these relationships and our experience in US and UK financial markets to synch our renewable energy experience with our team’s financial know-how. The result is a very strong proposition, which unites the objectives of both 350 and our partners into a structure where all of our objectives are completely aligned.

Our strategy at 350 has always been to create solid process-based partnerships which lend themselves to volume transactions, and through this volume provide a more attractive proposition to those focused on individual projects and margin.

As such, it has always been the case that once the partnerships are established, high volume business follows.