Full Climate Fintech Report available at New Energy Nexus.
“The Solar Revenue Put is a credit enhancement that guarantees the performance of solar assets. It was invented by kWh Analytics, a firm that conducts risk analysis and due diligence on solar project development. Over a 12-year period, kWh aggregated the performance of hundreds of solar projects around the country, resulting in enough data to create an actuarial model and price the risk of consistent solar revenues. With this vast amount of data in hand, they worked with Swiss Re, one of the largest reinsurance firms in the world, to create a product which would guarantee solar revenues regardless of the volatility of energy prices and varying production due to weather fluctuations. “These things take a long time, and the finance community hates new things. But if you can show that risk is mispriced, and offer a product that pencils for the end customer, there is tremendous potential to change how long these projects take,” explains Richard Matsui, CEO of kWh. “The Product improves lender terms by de-risking the asset with an insurance-backed production guarantee for up to 95% ofexpected energy output. This is the tip of the iceberg; there is still untapped opportunity for firms to look at insuring the floor of electricity prices as they drop, or wind resources hedging such as a proxy revenue swap. This space is ripe for additional product creation and innovation.” Investors have long sought assurance that solar power plants will perform as promised. With kWh Analytics and Swiss Re now protecting their investments, stakeholders are better able to deploy the hundreds of billions of dollars that the solar industry requires the coming years.”