"With so many renewable projects out there, you’ve got to apply some pretty strict criteria to separate out the best opportunities from the riskier ones. That’s our challenge..." This week I managed to pin down our busy Business Development Director, Bill Goldie to get a run down of the 350 projects we’re engaged with. In between trips to China, India and Mexico, he explained his number one priority for selecting a renewable energy projects: “Generally, the projects we work on are exceptionally high quality in terms of their development potential, and based in countries that are transitioning from developing to [...]
Read MoreWe’re delighted to announce we’re making the last few preparations to launch our first Deal Stream 2 project, planned to break ground mid-2016 in Chile’s South Atacama desert. The project is for a sub-50MW solar energy facility that meets all the requirements for delivering a high quality, profitable solar park with excellent long term revenue potential. The key to building high quality renewable energy assets that deliver both effective carbon reductions and offer long term value creation for investors is defining the right kind of project. This first Atacama solar development is an excellent example: Location: [...]
Read MoreSolar 350 is pleased to welcome onboard two very experienced project procurement experts to lead our South American business development programme. Axel Schmid will be heading-up our growing deal stream in South America, assisted by Jennifer Rivera Opazo. Together they bring with them the expert local business knowledge and contacts that are essential for operating projects like ours. Our team now brings together Chinese solar industrial partners (led by Bill Goldie) European and American financial partners (led by CFO Justin Passfield) and European engineering and carbon trading services (led by Nick Dimmock and Doug Marett of Grue [...]
Read MoreWith our NDNCNSA (Non-Disclosure, Non Circumvent, Non Solicitation Agreement) and Term Sheets detailing the scope of our relationship with a major Infrastructure Fund now signed, Deal Stream 1 is coming online. Deal Stream 1 will consist of 6 projects, with the first now being submitted for acquisition. We’re progressing with development of Deal Stream 2, beginning operations with our Chinese solar manufacturers, codenamed CSC (Chinese solar conglomerate) 1 & 2. Which brings us to consider that facet of Chinese culture known as guanxi (pronounced ga-wan-chee and sometimes written guangchi). There’s no direct translation, but it’s a fundamental part [...]
Read MoreSolar 350 is delighted to announce David Burns' appointment as our new Chairman. Having been an early investor and independent director of the company in its initial stages, David is taking on the leadership of the board to oversee a critical phase in our expansion. His appointment is another step forwards for Solar 350’s plans for 2015/16, building a senior management team experienced in both developing and financing multiparty renewable energy projects. David is the right candidate to help us knit together our Chinese solar conglomerates, large infrastructure fund clients, equity/debt providers and local JV partners. His background in [...]
Read MoreFollowing-on from last week’s announcement of our partnership with a major Peruvian engineering firm, we’re pleased to formally announce our new plans with Tecnicas Metalicas, headquartered in Lima. Founded in 1979, Tecnicas Metalicas is a heavy engineering firm with a long standing track record in metal (especially steel) fabrication, with both the delivery capacity and resources to make it a leading player in Peruvian infrastructure... and soon to extend their reach (with us) into Peruvian solar development. With a 52,802 sqm fabrication plant (and a processing capacity of 2,400 tons steel per month) they’re firmly established as a major player [...]
Read MoreAfter a successful trip to Lima earlier this year, we’re excited to announce we’ve partnered with a large Peruvian engineering firm ($100m turnover) to begin operations within Peru’s nascent solar energy industry. Our role is to take the backing of our partner’s enterprise-scale industrial build capacity and establish a local solar development company focused on small-scale solar parks facilitating rural electrification. Currently, there is significant Peruvian government support for these initiatives, high local electricity prices and geographically speaking, Peru receives the highest solar irradiation in the world (a function of global position, altitude and cloud cover). Therefore, we anticipate [...]
Read MoreHot 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 [...]
Read MoreWe’re coming up on the end of January in a year that will mark some major new developments for 350PPM and its family of companies. 2015 will be a groundbreaking year for us, quite literally, as we’re poised to break ground on our first SuperSol solar park project in Chile’s Atacama Desert. As you might already know, back in 2012 Solar 350 - our renewable energy development company - received SEIS / EIS accreditation from HMRC, laying the groundwork for investors to come on board with our solar energy projects. We also secured the rights to develop [...]
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