Originally posted on BusinessWire.
SAN FRANCISCO – kWh Analytics, the market leader in solar risk management, today released the “2020 Solar Generation Index” (SGI) in collaboration with ten of the industry’s fifteen largest solar asset owners. In parallel, the company announced that it issued the industry’s first Solar Technology Asset Risk (STAR) Comps reports with leading sponsors and asset owners, including New Energy Solar and Captona, to use industry data to validate solar production estimates on more than 1GW of solar assets.
The 2020 SGI report is the largest industry-wide energy validation study. The report analyzed over 30% of the market’s non-residential systems in the U.S. and found that on average, systems underperformed their initial estimates by 6.3% on a weather-adjusted basis. The report concluded that performance estimates are systemically over-estimated and that assets are often not yielding the expected returns.
Every mature asset class requires market data to improve the accuracy and certainty of investment returns. To address this need, kWh Analytics released the STAR Comps reports to provide an objective standard to assess solar performance for solar asset investors.
STAR Comps leverages the industry’s largest database of solar performance to validate or invalidate performance estimates and loss assumptions for similarly designed systems. The STAR Comps report supports deal teams by improving efficiency and accuracy of asset diligence for projects under construction or under consideration for M&A. It also provides asset managers with context on asset performance to identify addressable versus exogenous performance issues.
“The STAR products are an innovative set of tools that combine analytics and industry data to offer unique insight into our systems' performance. Our asset management team can now validate and contextualize what we see in the field with industry metrics and more accurate weather analytics to inform our O&M strategies,” said Paul Whitacre, Director of Asset Management at New Energy Solar Manager.
“kWh Analytics has data on production results that were previously 'best guess' estimates. It was only a matter of time that we began using market data to validate those numbers,” said Captona Founder and Partner Izzet Bensusan. “The STAR Comps product helps bridge the gap between the Independent Engineer reports and actual performance of projects and provides insight into what we can expect as the future owner and operator of a project.”
“Although underperformance impacts multiple stakeholders, the long-term equity investors are the most exposed to inaccurate energy forecasts. Change won’t happen on its own. It is up to us as an industry to collectively allow hard data to overcome opinions, however well-intended,” said kWh Analytics CEO and Founder Richard Matsui. “We look forward to the shared work of improving our solar industry and accelerating the clean energy transition.”
Equipped with objective data and comparables through STAR, the solar industry can course correct and improve accuracy and certainty of its investment returns.
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Sarah Matsui
About Solar Technology Asset Risk (STAR) Comps
kWh Analytics leverages the industry’s largest database of solar assets (>30% of the U.S. installed base) to develop representative market comps and objective metrics to benchmark system performance, weather factors, and underlying loss assumptions against your development or operating asset.
About kWh Analytics
kWh Analytics is the market leader in solar risk management. By leveraging the most comprehensive performance database of solar projects in the United States (30% of the U.S. market) and the strength of the global insurance markets, kWh Analytics’ customers are able to minimize risk and increase equity returns of their projects or portfolios. kWh Analytics also provides HelioStats risk management software to leading project finance investors in the solar market. kWh Analytics is backed by private venture capital and the US Department of Energy.
About New Energy Solar
New Energy Solar was established in November 2015 to invest in a diversified portfolio of solar assets across the globe and help investors benefit from the global shift to renewable energy. The Business acquires large scale solar power plants with long term contracted power purchase agreements. In addition to attractive financial returns, this strategy generates significant positive environmental impacts for investors. Since establishment, New Energy Solar has raised over A$500 million of equity, acquired a portfolio of world-class solar power plants. The Investment Manager, New Energy Solar Manager Pty Ltd, has a deep pipeline of opportunities primarily across the United States and Australia.
About Captona
Captona is a North America-focused investment company specializing in power generation and energy infrastructure assets. The Firm seeks to acquire operating and development assets within the North American power sector and aims to create value through technical and financial restructuring.