SHOWCASES OF SUCCESSFUL RENEWABLE ENERGY FINANCING

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CASE STUDIES
SHOWCASES OF SUCCESSFUL
RENEWABLE ENERGY FINANCING
November 2015
A B O U T I E A - R E T D
The International Energy Agency’s Implementing Agreement for Renewable Energy Technology Deployment (IEA-RETD)
provides a platform for enhancing international cooperation on policies, measures and market instruments to acceler-
ate the global deployment of renewable energy technologies.
IEA-RETD aims to empower policy makers and energy market actors to make informed decisions by: (1) providing inno-
vative policy options; (2) disseminating best practices related to policy measures and market instruments to increase
deployment of renewable energy, and (3) increasing awareness of the short, medium and long-term impacts of renewa-
ble energy action and inaction.
For further information please visit: http://iea-retd.org or contact info@iea-retd.org.
Twitter: @IEA_RETD
IEA-RETD is part of the IEA Energy Technology Network.
D I S C L A I M E R
The IEA-RETD, formally known as the Implementing Agreement for Renewable Energy Technology Deployment, func-
tions within a Framework created by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Views, findings and publications of IEA-RETD
do not necessarily represent the views, investment recommendations or policies of the IEA Secretariat or of its individu-
al Member Countries.
Photos on the book reproduced with the permission of Thinkstock (page cover, page 12); Fotolia (page 4, 5, 7, 9, 14, 23);
Ecofys (icons in page 4); Ventolines (page 6); DBEDT (page 8); IEA-RETD (page 11, 18); Abundance Ltd. (page 10); EBRD
(page 13, 16); Siemens (page 15, 20); BrightSource Energy (page 17); Demeter Power (page 19); Deutsch Bank (page 21);
Mike Goldwater, Blue Cube Productions (page 22); Thüga Group (page 24) and IFU (page 25).
The definition in glossary was re-interpreted by the editors, based on our own knowledge and sources from internet.
C O P Y R I G H T
This publication should be cited as:
IEA-RETD (2015), Case studies – Showcases of successful renewable energy financing, [Mai Nguyen, et al., IEA-RETD Op-
erating Agent], IEA Implementing Agreement for Renewable Energy Technology Deployment (IEA-RETD), Utrecht, 2015.
Copyright © IEA-RETD 2015
(Stichting Foundation Renewable Energy Technology Deployment)
First edition
©tzsebok/Thinkstock

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A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
The Editors would like to thank the contributors for their support throughout the book’s process, as well as the supporting
colleagues.
Contributors
E D I T O R S
Lead Editor
Mai Thi Tuyet Nguyen
Contributing Editors
David de Jager, Sascha van Rooijen, Coraline Bucquet, Rolf de Vos
Abundance NRG Ltd United Kingdom
ASN Bank Netherlands
Atlantis Resources United Kingdom
Bettervest GmbH Germany
BrightSource Energy United States
Climate Bonds Initiative United Kingdom
Demeter Power Group, Inc USA
Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism Hawaii State, USA
Deutsch Bank AG Germany
DuurzaamInvesteren Netherlands
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Turkey & United Kingdom
European Investment Bank Luxembourg
EWEA - The European Wind Energy Association ASBL/VZW Belgium
Green Giraffe B.V France
Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) Denmark
Oxfutures United Kingdom
Thüga AG Germany
Thüga Erneuerbare Energien GmbH & Co. KG Germany
Windcentrale Netherlands
S C O P E
This brochure highlights innovative solutions for renewable energy financing and gives recommendations to Govern-
ments. The materials are provided by contributors who are working or have a direct contact with the projects. The tar-
get audiences of the brochure are policy makers, as well as private stakeholders such as: project developers, project
owners, financiers, consultants, etc.
The following renewable energy projects are included: all biomass, geothermal, solar, tidal and wind projects of diversi-
fied size, ranging from 0.2 MW to 600 MW, and across OECD countries, particularly in this book: Chile, Estonia, Germa-
ny, Latvia, Netherlands, Scotland, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States of America.
The projects are arranged alphabetically, based on the name of category and the name of the projects. The project allo-
cation into each category is only relative, some projects could belong to more than one category.

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Renewable energy (RE) already plays an important role
in today’s energy landscape. But its role will and has to
increase even further, if societies want to ensure future
sustainable energy systems and economies. Due to Go-
vernment incentives and the improved business case
for RE, global investment in renewable power and fuels
was 17%1
higher in 2014 than the previous year, and
renewable energy may become the first priority energy
source for investors in the future.
However, the business case for renewable energy often
differs from business as usual: through the current de-
pendency on government support, the relative high
specific upfront capital expenditures, the particular real
and perceived risks, the increased number and different
type of actors (like prosumers), to name a few. It is hen-
ce fair to say that the accelerated deployment of RE will
strongly depend on the success of new, innovative fi-
nancial structures. RE financing faces challenges, but
challenges bear innovation, and in many places in the
world, new, improved or truly innovative ways of finan-
cing are explored.
IEA-RETD, the implementing agreement under the Inter-
national Energy Agency dealing with policies and mea-
sures to accelerate the deployment of renewable ener-
gy, believes in the approach of sharing good examples,
which can pass the successful enthusiasm to more pla-
ces in the world. Governments, developers, financiers,
consultants and other parties may learn from each
other and get inspiration for solutions in their own re-
gion or domain.
In this brochure, we chose 20 renewable energy pro-
jects in OECD countries with a new or innovative finan-
cing approach. The brochure is expected to give rene-
wable energy policy makers a better understanding on
how to improve their policy instruments. Well designed
policy instruments that remove risks for investors can
reduce costs of capital significantly, hence the cost of
renewable energy, which in turn will accelerate its de-
ployment. Project developers and financiers may be
triggered to explore solutions for their own particular
challenges. We include the contact of the contributors
and please feel free to contact for more information.
The brochure addresses the following types of finan-
cing:
 Community funding
 Crowdfunding
 Private funding, and
 Public-private cooperation
We are happy to receive comments and contributions
from you, allowing us to constantly learn and improve
on financing practices, on their relation to policy instru-
ment design.
1
: Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2015, Frank-
furt School-UNEP Centre/BNEF, 2015.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Name of the project Type Category Page
Oxfutures Programme All Community funding 5
Westermeerwind Wind Community funding 6
Bettervest All Crowdfunding 7
Hawaii Green Bonds Solar Crowdfunding 8
Hellegatsplein Wind Crowdfunding 9
Oakapple Berkwickshire Solar Crowdfunding 10
Windcentrale Wind Crowdfunding 11
Zelfstroom Solar Crowdfunding 12
Efeler Geothermal Power Project Geothermal Private funding 13
Gemini Wind Private funding 14
Gode Wind 1 Wind Private funding 15
Graanul Invest Biomass Projects Biomass Private funding 16
Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System Solar Private funding 17
Nordsee 1 Wind Private funding 18
Tilburcio Vasquez Health Center Solar Private funding 19
Veja Mate Wind Private funding 20
European Energy Efficiency Fund All Public-private cooperation 21
Nationaal Energie Bespaarfonds All Public-private cooperation 22
Meygen Tidal Project Tidal Public-private cooperation 23
Thüga Erneuerbare Energien All Public-private cooperation 24
Vicuña Solar PV Solar Public-private cooperation 25
Glossary 26
FOREWORD
Matthew Kennedy
Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland, SEIA
Chairman of the IEA Implementing Agreement for
Renewable Energy Technology Deployment, IEA-RETD

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 Hawaii Green Bonds
 $150 million - Asset-backed securities
 DBEDT
 Gemini offshore wind
 600 MW - Project finance
 Northland Power (60%)
 Hellegatsplein onshore wind
 12 MW - Crowdfunding
 Qurrent
 Westermeerwind farm
 144 MW - Community funding
 Siemens
 Windcentrale wind farm
 Various projects - Crowdfunding
 Windcentrale
 Zelfstroom solar PV
 70 houses - Crowdfunding
 Zelfstroom
Netherlands
 Ivanpah Solar Generating System
 377 MW - Private funding
 BrightSource Energy
United States
 Vicuña Solar Project
 6.8 MW - Public-private cooperation
 Ecosolar and DCIF
Chile
 Gode Wind One offshore
 330 MW - Project bond
 DONG Energy
 Nordsee One offshore wind
 Northland Power (85%)
 Veja Mate offshore wind
 Highland Group Holdings
 Bettervest platform
 Various projects- Crowdfunding
 Bettervest GmbH
 Thüga Erneuerbare Energien
 207 MW - Public-private cooperation
 Thüga Erneuerbare Energien
Germany
 Oakapple Berwickshire solar
 1.44 MW - Crowdfunding
 Abundance NRG Ltd
 Oxfutures Programme
 Various project - Community funding
 Oxfutures
 Meygen Tidal Project
 398 MW - Public-private cooperation
 Atlantis Resources
United Kingdom
 European Energy Efficiency Fund
 €265 million - Public-private cooperation
 EIB, EC and Deutsch Bank
Luxembourg
 Tilburcio Vasquez Health Center
 0.2 MW - Private funding
 Demeter Power
 Nationaal Energie Bespaarfonds
 €300 million - Fund
 BZK, Rabobank, ASNBank
 Efeler Geothermal Power Project
 Gurmat Elektrik Uretim AS
Turkey
 Graanul Invest Biomass Projects
 AS Graanul Invest
Estonia & Latvia
Background ©..../Fotolia
Icons ©Ecofys

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OxFutures is a partnership among Oxford City Council,
Oxfordshire County and the Low Carbon Hub, co-funded
by the Intelligent Energy Europe programme of the EU.
Oxfutures is mobilising large-scale investment to devel-
op renewable energy and energy efficiency projects
across the city and county. The majority of investments
are through community energy projects supported or
delivered by the Low Carbon Hub.
The Hub is a social enterprise established with seed
funding from the city council. It works with corporate
partners to develop, finance and manage renewable
energy schemes for community benefit.
The Hub includes two organisations (Industrial & Provi-
dent Society - IPS and Community Interest Company -
CIC). This structure benefits from UK tax incentives and
arrangements for social enterprises, in combination
with the UK feed-in tariff scheme for small-scale solar
PV.
This business model was designed to be flexible and
respondent to feed-in tariff (FIT) degressions. To avoid
massive uncertainty for investors and huge inefficien-
cies in running a business, our recommendations for
government would be:
 Manage policy transition carefully by avoiding rapid
change.
 Continue to support community benefit models
which provide energy investment, and potentially
energy efficiency investment and demand manage-
ment services.
 Account for the wider benefits of community bene-
fit models for energy investment when considering
costs/benefits of policy.
 Chain of benefits: Under this model, projects gen-
erate cheap, green electricity for businesses; inves-
tors receive a fair return; and the Hub gains a sus-
tainable income stream. The income is used to sup-
port local communities to develop renewable
schemes, attract local investment and create an
income stream to help householders reduce energy
use.
 Local resources: The Hub makes use of local re-
sources, such as solar, biomass, farm waste, etc.,
which may be overlooked by commercial develop-
ers, as well as attracts new financing sources from
local investors, which not only creates benefits for
local economy, but also increases awareness of
climate change, helping scale up renewable energy
or energy efficiency projects in Oxfordshire.
Oxfutures
: Oxford, United Kingdom
: www.oxfutures.org
: Mairi Brookes
: +44 1865 252212
: oxfutures@oxford.gov.uk
INTRODUCTION WHAT IS INNOVATIVE? WHAT ARE OUR POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS?
Type: All renewable energy and energy efficiency pro-
jects
Size: £1.2 million (around €1.63 million) with 75% co-
funded by the European Union’s Mobilising Local Energy
Infrastructure programme
Location: Oxford, United Kingdom
Timeline: Run from November 2012 - November 2015
Financial structure: Community shares
Total investment: £18 million (around €24.4 million),
delivered within 4 years of initiation
Developer: OxFutures
Community funding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION
OXFUTURES PROGRAMME
©.../Fotolia

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Westermeerwind is the largest nearshore wind farm in
the Noordoostpolder, Netherlands. It was being devel-
oped for and by the polder: an investment model for
residents of the municipalities of Noordoostpolder.
The Westermeerwind project involves the first turnkey
agreement for Siemens, which will develop and operate
the project for a minimum of 15 years, with Eneco as
power off-taker through a 15 year Power Purchase
Agreement. The project will generate electricity as of
2016.
The engagement of renowned construction company
Siemens and the long-term contract for the purchase of
electricity with Eneco make the project attractive to the
banks. A consortium of Dutch Banks led by ING and Ra-
bobank, provide the non-recourse debt, whereas EKF
Credit Export Agency provide the guarantee facilities.
 Stable regime: The project benefits from the
Dutch stable framework regime, based on an SDE+
subsidized feed in tariff (contract for difference)
scheme. The long-term stability of this line of
scheme is essential for investors and project opera-
tion.
 Community share offer after construction: The
project company is aiming to involve as many local
subcontractors as possible. Once completed, the
project will issue shares and bonds to local resi-
dents, a major step forward to social acceptance
through community financing. The issuance will be
offered one year after completion of the wind farm,
which is why participants will run no financial risk
during construction of the wind farm.
 Ownership of wind turbines: There is a decree of
the region according to which some 32 residents
can become owners of approximately 1 MW each,
aside to the ones that will buy shares once the pro-
ject is operational. The idea behind the project was
that it is from the community and to the communi-
ty.
WESTERMEERWIND FARM
Type: Nearshore wind farm
Size: 144 MW
Location: Netherlands
Timeline: Financial close in July 2014, completed in 2015
Financial structure: Project finance for construction and
community funding after construction
Total investment: €450 million
Developer: Siemens (turnkey agreement)
INTRODUCTION WHAT IS INNOVATIVE? FURTHER CONTACT
EWEA - The European Wind Energy Association ASBL/
VZW
: Rue d'Arlon 80, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium
: www.ewea.org and www.westermeerwind.nl
: Ariola Mbistrova - Public affairs analyst - Finance
: +32 2 213 18 22
: Ariola.Mbistrova@ewea.org
Westermeerwind farm
WHAT ARE OUR POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS?
Community funding
PROJECT INFORMATION

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Bettervest is the world’s first crowd investment
platform where people are able to collectively invest an
amount of money (starting at €50) in energy efficiency
and renewable energy projects of established enterpri-
ses, NGOs and local authorities.
In return, the investors annually receive a part of their
investment plus a fixed interest rate until they have got
their investment (plus interest) back and the contract
period is over.
 Coherent laws across EU: The different laws and
regulations in each country with regard to crowd
funding (platforms) are obstacles for a European
expansion and in this case for the energy transition
in Europe. Therefore we advise the members of the
European Union to enact coherent laws for crowd
funding that apply in all countries of the European
Union.
 Public funds: The energy transition is the biggest
challenge of the 21th
century; therefore govern-
ments and private companies like Bettervest have
to give incentives in order to promote it. Public
funds for energy efficiency projects could be one
solution, though we know that public institutions
work slowly.
 Split the relatively high initial cost between many
single investors: Banks often require relatively
high collateral and small financing volumes
(especially <€500,000) are not emphasized by the
commercial interests of the banks. Whereas Better-
vest offers SMEs, NGOs and local authorities an
unbureaucratic financing instrument, it did not re-
quire further equity capital.
 Marketing tool: Bettervest offers the project
owners (companies) an added value for communi-
cations. Through social media the sustainability
engagement of the project owner is communicated
to the crowd, customers and employees. This com-
munication offers companies a benefit in market
research, engagement of the crowd in the project
and increase in awareness of the brand. Therefore,
Bettervest is an alternative financing instrument
and valuable marketing tool for companies.
Bettervest GmbH
: Wilhelm-Leuschner Straße 70, 60329 Frankfurt,
Germany
: www.bettervest.de
: Frederik Schleunes
: +49 69 3487 7347
: mail@bettervest.de
BETTERVEST
Type: Renewable energy & energy efficiency projects
Size: Various projects
Location: Germany
Timeline: Established in 2012
Financial structure: Crowd investment platform
Total investment: Various projects
Developers: Patrick Mijnals, Marilyn Heib, Torsten
Schreiber, Evgenij Terehov, Ingo Birkenfeld (founders)
Crowdfunding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION
©.../Fotolia

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Hawaii State issued green bonds which are used for
raising funds for solar projects. The bond is structured
as asset-back securities (ABS) and is backed by a Green
Infrastructure Fee put on utility electricity bills. This
implies that investors did not have to assess the cash
flows from the solar projects, but instead look at the
cash flows from the Green Infrastructure Fees. The fee
is offset by a reduction in the Public Benefits Fee, a fee
collected to pay for the state’s conservation and energy
efficiency programs, that is already on the bills to en-
sure no net increase in fees for most customers.
Hawaii’s use of this type of financing structure for re-
newable energy was pioneering, but importantly it’s a
tried and trusted structure used to finance power plants
and funds for storm recovery in the utility industry. This
meant investors were more comfortable with the struc-
ture, and allowed the issuance to achieve an AAA-
rating.
 Placing Green Infrastructure Fee on the bill: Green
Infrastructure Fee, a flat fee put on utility bills, is
collected to finance the State of Hawaii’s Green
Energy Market Securitisation (GEMS) programme.
Then, GEMS offers low-interest loans for people
who cannot afford the upfront cost or are unable to
secure a bank loan for green products.
After the bond issuance, there has been curiosity
from other states whether the effective green ABS
structure could be applicable elsewhere. The chal-
lenge is changing legislation to approve placing a
Green Infrastructure Fee on utility bills, but the
benefit is that once the structure is approved, com-
ing back to market for more is much simpler.
 Diversified investor base: The green bond is issued
successfully with a diversified investor base, includ-
ing retail investors. The investor base was a mix of
ABS investors, municipal bond investors and social-
ly responsible investors.
Tapping into retail investors can provide the crucial
benefit of building community support for renewa-
ble energy. The government (DBEDT) also provided
an additional investor incentive by making interest
on the bonds exempt from state taxes, which is
common in the municipal bond market in the US.
Besides, with a green label, the State achieved a
bonus of attracting different investors, as well as
marketing its pioneering efforts in renewable ener-
gy to the investment community and wider public.
 Lower cost of capital: AAA rating of the bonds pro-
vide Hawaii with a lower cost of capital for their
renewable energy investments.
Climate Bonds Initiative
: 40 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3UD, UK
: www.climatebonds.net
: Beate Sonerud - Policy analyst
: +44 75 3827 8855
Department of Business, Economic Development &
Tourism (DBEDT), Hawaii State, USA
: No. 1 Capitol District Building, 250 S. Hotel Street,
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813, USA
: www.dbedt.hawaii.gov
: Merissa Saduka - Clean Energy Solution pro-
gramme manager
: +1 808 587 9010
HAWAII GREEN BONDS
Type: Solar projects
Size: $150 million (about €135 million), two tranches
($50 million and $100 million)
Location: Hawaii state, USA
Timeline: Issued in November 2014
Financial structure: Green Asset Back Securities (ABS)
with $50 million tranche (8-year tenor, yield of 1.467%)
and $100 million tranche (17-year tenor, yield of 3.242%)
Total investment: N/A
Developers: Hawaii state, USA
Crowdfunding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION
Honolulu Solar Roof

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Hellegatsplein consists of four turbines of 3 MW each,
expected to generate electricity for more than 10,000
households. The investors buy shares of the project and
become the owners of energy generation assets.
With the ownership of wind energy generation, the
investors can reduce the energy bill (around 30% per
year if the price is constant) and acquire more energy
from the green electricty utility, Qurrent, if they do not
generate enough for their own.
Qurrent builds this wind farm in cooperation with the
municipality of Goeree-Overflakkee.
 Asset-light business model: Access to generation
assets used to be only for large energy companies
with big balance sheet, so there was a tremendous
barrier to enter for new competitors.
However, this ‘asset-light’ business model proves
that the energy companies of tomorrow don’t need
to own the energy generation assets. They can be-
come asset managers/power off-takers rather than
owners. And the owners of them will be a crowd of
flexible financiers.
By enabling Qurrent to use the balance sheet of the
crowd, this new - 100% renewable energy company
- can compete head to head with the energy incum-
bents.
The innovation is that the energy company is com-
fortable letting ‘their’ wind project being owned by
a large group of relatively smaller retail investors.
 Municipality support: The project received sup-
port from the municipality of Goeree-Overflakkee,
which realised the project from the beginning and
fully involved in project planning.
 Stable regime: This solution works within the cur-
rent energy and financial legislation in the Nether-
lands, so further exploration of this model is not
dependent on new, special government support.
DuurzaamInvesteren
: Singel 146, 1015 AG, Amsterdam, Netherlands
: www.duurzaaminvesteren.nl
: Enrique Aparicio - CEO
: +31 646 738 506
: Enrique@duurzaaminvesteren.nl
HELLEGATSPLEIN
Type: Wind park
Size: 12MW
Timeline: Completed in 2015
Financial structure: 85% bank debt; 15% acquisition
funding provided to the equity holder
Developer: Qurrent is the owner of the project
Wind turbines onshore - ©psalaverria/Fotolia
Crowdfunding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

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Oakapple Berwickshire has been set up to own and ma-
nage a set of roof-mounted solar PV systems to be in-
stalled on around 400 social homes owned by Ber-
wickshire Housing Association.
Abundance, the online investment platform, provided
the opportunity for customers to invest in these sys-
tems. It allows anyone in the local community, wider UK
public and Europe to invest in low risk renewable ener-
gy projects that benefit the local community, such as
Oakapple Berwickshire, from just £5.
Investors are issued debentures and receive a regular
income with an effective rate of return of 7.5% before
tax and after fees over just under 20 years. Income from
debentures is received biannually and consists of a capi-
tal repayment and an interest payment. The project
therefore gives people the opportunity to invest in so-
mething tangible and green without compromising on
their returns. It also helps to increase positive public
engagement with renewables and give people more
control over their money.
 The Feed-in tariff scheme has successfully helped
support the solar industry and drive down costs of
solar PV in the UK. While the eligible rates under
the Feed-in Tariff have been reduced, costs have
also fallen to keep returns to developers, installers
and investors roughly constant. This has helped
lower the risk to solar projects and bring solar ener-
gy closer to grid parity in the UK.
 Scale up solar projects because of good impacts:
The solar panels help the community see the finan-
cial, social and environmental benefits of renewa-
ble energy, thus making them positive advocates of
the technology and educates the public on the im-
portance of a low carbon future.
 Reduce electricity bill and freely install solar PV:
Solar panels are installed and maintained for free
on the roofs of social housing tenants whilst also
allowing residents to use as much of the solar po-
wer produced as they can for free. On average,
social housing tenants often spend a far greater
proportion of their weekly housing income on ener-
gy and this project could reduce electricity bills by
up to 30%. This helps some of the most vulnerable
in our society to move out of fuel poverty and thus
ease the strain of affording other necessities.
 Match the inflow and outflow: Renewable energy
projects, particularly those supported through go-
vernment initiatives like the Feed-in Tariff in the
UK, have high capital costs upfront, but long-term
stable revenue streams. Using the debenture struc-
ture, they were able to raise competitive finance
that matched the long-term income nature of rene-
wable energy projects.
Abundance NRG Ltd
: Threshold House, 65-69 Shepherd's Bush Green,
London W12 8TX , United Kingdom
: www.abundancegeneration.com
: Tom Harwood - Operations manager
: +44 20 3475 8666
: contactus@abundancegeneration.com
OAKAPPLE BERKWICKSHIRE
Type: Roof-mounted solar PV systems
Size: 1.44 MW
Location: United Kingdom
Financial structure: Income-growth debenture
Total investment: £1.7 million (around €2.3 million)
Developers: Oakapple Renewable Energy and Edison
Energy
Oakapple Berkwickshire project
Crowdfunding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

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The Windcentrale, a Dutch company, enables both
households and companies to co-own a wind turbine in
order to produce their own sustainable electricity. The
electricity produced is divided over all the wind-shares
and subtracted from the individual energy bills of partic-
ipant.
The windshares of Windcentrale are very popular. In
the past 3 years over 15,000 households bought
“Winddelen”. The participants have acquired in total 9
wind turbines for a total amount of over 15 million eu-
ros.
In September 2013 the Windcentrale crowd funded 1.3
million euros for a single wind turbine within 13 hours,
establishing a world crowdfunding record.
This innovative model does not exactly fit in the tradi-
tional regulations, especially with regard to the tax au-
thorities as well as the financial monitoring authority.
The Windcentrale is challenging this status quo, since it
is clear that regulations need to change in order to ac-
commodate new and innovative financing models for
sustainable energy.
We have two recommendations for the policy makers:
 Level playing field: It is important to create a level
playing field for producing energy. Once fossil
fueled powering stations have to pay fines for the
polluting emissions (>40 euro’s per MWh), there is
no need for subsidies anymore.
 Inform the public: It is important task for the gov-
ernment to both inform the public about dangers
of climate change and the importance of actions
against it.
 Low risk: One key benefit of the Windcentrale
model is the very low risk for the participants. Be-
cause thousands of participants own the wind tur-
bine, the financial risks per participant is very low.
But the main success factor behind the overwhelm-
ing demand for “Winddelen”, is the simple and ac-
cessible way they provide for people to produce
their own green energy.
 Cut out some players in the chain: For each wind
turbine, the Windcentrale sets up a new coopera-
tive organisation, with the end users of the energy
as the only shareholders.
Through this, a number of players are cut out of the
chain, such as project developers and energy com-
panies. The Windcentrale model creates about 2.5
times as much value in the exploitation of a wind
turbine compared to traditional exploitation.
Windcentrale
: Lauriergracht 116 R, 1016 RR Amsterdam, The
Netherlands
: www.windcentrale.nl
: Harm Reitsma
: +31 20 40 40 160
: harm@windcentrale.nl
WINDCENTRALE
Type: Wind energy
Size: Various projects
Timeline: Established in …
Financial structure: Wind shares (“winddelen” in Dutch)
Total investment: Various projects
Developer: Windcentrale
Crowdfunding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION
©IEA-RETD

12
Zelfstroom is a micro-lease company who owns solar
panel installations and leases to retail customers for the
period of 10 years. In return, customers pay the lease
fee which will be used to pay back the interest and no-
tional amount of bond, issued by Zelfstroom.
Setting up the micro lease company offers both great
value to customers interested in using a home solar
installation (lease vs buy) and offers investors looking
for a truly sustainable investment opportunity in fund-
ing the lease company.
Zelfstroom’s business model combines two new innova-
tions in renewable energy: leasing of home solar instal-
lations to retail customers and funding of the micro
lease companies, raised through crowdfunding.
 Flexible financing: This business model enables
home solar providers to offer a much better value
to customers (i.e. lease projects rather than buy
them, avoiding the high upfront costs) by using
flexible financing from private investors interested
in participating in this new economic model.
 Compete the larger incumbent energy companies:
Using the “crowd’s balance sheet” allows smaller,
innovative companies (without their own big bal-
ance sheet) to effectively challenge the larger in-
cumbent energy companies and accelerate the
transition to a more sustainable energy supply.
This is just the beginning of what renewable energy and
crowdfunding can do. There is a tremendous need for
further (financial) innovation supporting the transition
to renewable energy. However, the traditional financing
options are proving to be bottlenecks (e.g. project fi-
nancing is not available below €1 million), we recom-
mend the following:
 Promising crowdfunding: Crowdfunding we see as
a very promising alternative but in order for this
type of financing to grow as a mainstream channel,
interested investors need to be taken seriously and
be offered proper returns for their investment.
ZELFSTROOM
Type: Solar PV
Size: 70 home solar installations (Zelfstroom 2&3)
Financial structure: 75% senior debt (10 year, 5% inter-
est) from private investors; 25% equity from company
offering lease options to retail clients
Total investment: €400,000
Developer: Zelfstroom
INTRODUCTION WHAT IS INNOVATIVE?
DuurzaamInvesteren
: Singel 146, 1015 AG, Amsterdam, Netherlands
: www.duurzaaminvesteren.nl
: Enrique Aparicio - CEO
: +31 646 738 506
: Enrique@duurzaaminvesteren.nl
Sun shining over photovoltaic plant - ©hydyl/Thinkstock
Crowdfunding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

13
The project is the largest geothermal power complex in
Turkey and involves the license acquisition, develop-
ment and construction of the 123MW Efeler Geother-
mal power project and the refinancing of the existing
47MW Germencik geothermal plant.
It is by far the largest geothermal financing of any type
in the Turkish market to date. $720 million in senior
debt financing is equal to a 72/28 - Debt/Equity ratio.
This high leverage ratio was supported through the con-
tribution of an operating asset to the project company
(the 47 MW Germencik plant). This helped demonstrate
the resource and capability of the sponsor and provided
an existing set of stable cash flows to underpin the debt
service requirements of the project.
It shows excellent collaboration between multilateral
financial institutions led by EBRD and commercial banks
in support of a large-scale, complex geothermal power
plant and uses an arms' length, commercial structure
that will be replicated in subsequent financings.
A stable and predictable regulatory framework with an
independent regulator and clear market rules is critical
in providing investors with the certainty required to
extend this type of limited recourse project financing.
 Centralized mechanism: One idea could be to set
up a centralized mechanism to monitor geothermal
reservoir capacity and warrant the sustainable
management of geothermal resources to avoid
medium term depletion due to excessive use (avoid
the experience in the Geisers field).
 Mechanism for geothermal resources: The govern-
ment could devise mechanisms to address the Non-
condensable Gas (NCG) content in geothermal re-
sources and avoid the long-term CO2 emissions
coming from geothermal plants.
 Long tenor & merchant risk: This is the longest
maturity loan for any geothermal deal in Turkey
having a 15-year tenor including a 5-year merchant
tail. This was achieved through modelling of the
wholesale electricity market combined with a cash
sweep mechanism to partially reduce the duration
of the merchant tail.
 Size & critical mass: This is the largest renewable
energy financing in the Turkish market and is also
the largest geothermal power complex in Turkey.
The project establishes a critical mass of project-
financed geothermal projects in Turkey and esta-
blishes a bankable template for future deals.
 Technical complexity: The project relies on a com-
plex geothermal reservoir and employs two very
different geothermal technologies (dual flash and
flash binary). These risks were mitigated by ap-
pointment of a highly experienced Lenders’ Engi-
neer which carried out an independent recalcula-
tion of the geothermal resource and thorough ana-
lysis of the existing 47MW Germencik plant.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
: Büyükdere Caddesi, 185, Kanyon Ofis Binasi, Kat:2,
Levent, 34394 Istanbul, Turkey
: www.ebrd.com
: Andi Aranitasi - Senior banker
: +90 212 386 1100
: aranitaa@ebrd.com
: Mehmet Erdem Yasar - Principal banker
: yasarm@ebrd.com
: Robert Kesterton - Principal banker
: + 44 20 7338 7239
: kestertr@ebrd.com
EFELER GEOTHERMAL POWER PROJECT
Type: Geothermal power
Size: 170 MW
Location: Turkey
Financial structure: Project finance. $720 million senior
secured limited recourse loan to a special purpose vehi-
cle, Gurmat ELektrik Uretim A.S., provided on a parallel
basis by EBRD ($200 million), Turkiye Is Bankasi AS ($325
million), Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi AS ($130 million)
and Black Sea Trade and Development Bank ($65 million)
Total investment: $970 million (around €880 million)
Developer: Gurmat Elektrik Uretim AS, a 100% subsidiary
of a leading Turkish renewable energy company Güris
Holding
Private funding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION
Efeler Project

14
Gemini is a 600 MW offshore wind farm located
85 kilometres off the Dutch coast of Groningen in the
North Sea. The project reached financial close in
May 2014 and is the largest project for renewable ener-
gy terms of financing in the world to date.
The Gemini project was brought successfully to financial
close and construction by a very small team, with limi-
ted financial resources, that was able to raise close to
€3 billion in debt and equity, thanks to a clear strategy
(focused on raising non-recourse debt from the start), a
disciplined approach and flawless delivery, which con-
vinced 4 investors and 17 lenders to support the pro-
ject.
The project gets confidence from financial community
because of its solid structure, first from the Nether-
lands’ SDE+ subsidy programme, and second, from the
turbine supply and maintenance contracts with Siemens
and the project construction contract with Van Oord.
 Cooperation: The liquidity offered by the multila-
terals, the European Investment Bank (EIB) as well
as several export credit agencies, has been essenti-
al as well as the cooperative role of the Dutch go-
vernment.
 Good scheme: Although the SDE+ scheme can be
complex, it has very favourable features that pro-
tect the project from random variations in wind
levels.
 Stable policy: Having a consistent government
with a stable and transparent policy is essential to
raise funding and lower the cost of energy.
To reach the record amount of funding needed, it had
to tap a large proportion of the available capacity (i.e.
convince most banks already active in offshore wind to
support the project, and bring in a few more).
 Simple strategy: To succeed in raising large
amounts of funding, it had to stick to a simple stra-
tegy to build a structure based on existing prece-
dents, with delivery focused on identifying and mi-
tigating all risks upfront, and proposing fair solu-
tions to all parties while maintaining momentum
throughout.
The project benefited from improving liquidity con-
ditions in the lending markets and created a virtu-
ous circle as parties both wanted to close the deal
and worked hard to make it happen, because they
believed it actually could.
Green Giraffe B.V.
: 33 rue du Louvre, 75002 Paris, France
: www.green-giraffe.eu
: Jérôme Guillet
: +331 7577 3466
: j.guillet@green-giraffe.eu
GEMINI
Type: Offshore wind farm
Size: 600 MW
Timeline: Financial close 2014, completion expected in
2016
Financial structure: Project finance
Total investment: €2.8 billion
Developer: The project was originally developed by Ty-
phoon and sold pre-financial close to Northland Power
(60%), Siemens (20%), Van Oord (10%) and HVC (10%)
Private funding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION
©..../Fotolia

15
Gode Wind One farm consists of 55 turbines from Sie-
mens, which will supply clean energy for approximately
340,000 German households in completion.
The project follows a structure, whereby DONG Energy -
the Danish power producer owns a majority stake of
50%. The remaining 50% was purchased by Global Infra-
structure Partners (GIP) in a €780 million transaction.
GIP, an infrastructure investment fund, supported the
transaction through fundraising in the capital markets,
with a project bond structured by the German based
insurer Talanx. A group of institutional investors, with
Talanx as cornerstone lender subscribed to the project
bond, which also carries the label “green”.
 Good scheme: Gode Wind One benefits from the
accelerated German model of support scheme for
renewables, with an elevated tariff for the first
eight years and decreasing tariff thereafter for the
remaining years of operation.
Offshore wind projects tapping the liquidity in the
capital markets is further proof that the sector has
matured and turned into an attractive asset class
even for risk averse investors.
 Project bond issuance: This project presents an
innovative way of financing offshore wind projects,
beyond the corporate bonds or the conventional
debt from financial institutions. It marks the issu-
ance of the first non-recourse, investment grade,
certified green bond dedicated to part finance an
offshore wind farm asset under construction. The
experience gained with Gode Wind One will serve
open the road for other projects to come.
The reputation of the sponsors is a major factor in
the rating of a project bond. In that context, both
DONG Energy and Global Infrastructure Partners
brought credibility to the project with their excel-
lent track record in financing and developing off-
shore wind projects.
EWEA - The European Wind Energy Association ASBL/
VZW
: Rue d'Arlon 80, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium
: http://www.ewea.org
: Ariola Mbistrova - Public Affairs analyst - Finance
: +32 2 213 18 22
: Ariola.Mbistrova@ewea.org
GODE WIND ONE OFFSHORE
Size: 330 MW
Location: Germany
Financial structure: Corporate finance, public finance
Total investment: €2.2 billion (Gode Wind 1 & 2)
Developer: DONG Energy
www.siemens.com/press
Private funding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

16
The EBRD has engaged with AS Graanul Invest in ex-
tending three loans in 2011, 2013, and 2015 (phase I, II,
and III respectively). The transactions involved financing
part of the construction cost of six different biomass
Combined-Heat-and-Power (CHP) plants in Estonia and
Latvia.
One of the key characteristics of the transactions was
the need for long term financing as compared to what is
available in the Baltics market. The CHPs capital inten-
sive nature and long payback periods required a rela-
tively longer term financing. The EBRD was able to ex-
tend 10 years door-to-door maturity for phase II and III
after a detailed analysis and modelling of the future
electricity and pellet prices in the Baltics during the life
of the loans.
The transactions i) supported export-oriented compa-
nies and innovative producers of high added-value
goods, ii) increased the share of privately-owned elec-
tricity generation, and iii) helped Estonia and Latvia in
generating zero-carbon renewable electricity.
 Stable and predictable framework: What is recom-
mended is a stable and predictable regulatory
framework without retroactive changes to the sup-
port given to renewables.
 Create synergies: AS Graanul Invest operates pri-
marily in the wood pellet sector, and secondarily in
the generation of electricity and heat through its
CHP plants. The EBRD’s financed transactions were
structured on the premise that there are synergies
between the CHP operations and Graanul’s wood
pellet production. Specifically, the wood pellet
plants consume a large part of the electricity pro-
duced by the CHPs, and also the heat produced by
the CHPs allows Graanul to produce higher quality
pellets.
 Investments phasing: In structuring the EBRD
loans with Graanul Invest, one of the key challeng-
es was how to support Graanul during its growth
period and at the same time ensure borrowings
were taken in line with the company’s debt capaci-
ty. Therefore, the EBRD has collaborated with the
company on phasing the renewables pipeline over
4 years so that debt capacity which has grown sig-
nificantly over time following the successful imple-
mentation of each project is addressed at all times.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
: 1 Exchange Square, London, United Kingdom
: http://www.ebrd.com
: Julien Mauduit - Senior banker
: +44 20 7338 7568
: mauduitj@ebrd.com
: Ahmad El Mokadem - Associate banker
: + 44 20 7338 6452
: mokadema@ebrd.com
GRAANUL INVEST BIOMASS PROJECTS
Type: Biomass combined-heat-and-power plants
Size: 40 MW electricity & 108.8 MW heat for three
transactions
Location: Estonia & Latvia
Timeline: Phase I completed in 2012, phase II completed
in 2014 and phase III financial close in 2015
Financial structure: Three senior secured corporate
loans to AS Graanul Invest of €34.4 million (phase I), €24
million (phase II), and €42 million (phase III)
Total investment: Total project cost for the three trans-
actions was €130.4 million
Developer: AS Graanul Invest
Private funding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION
Graanul Invest’s project

17
The Ivanpah project, which is the largest solar thermal
tower power plant to date in the world, utilised the
project financing model for the project. In the project
financing model, the goal is to balance risks and re-
wards between project participants and to allocate risks
consistent with capability, risk appetite, and credit ca-
pacity of the stakeholders.
BrightSource first applied for a loan guarantee in 2006
and achieved financial close of the loan in April 2011.
Confirming the US Department Of Energy’s (DOE) judg-
ment, NRG and Google independently decided to invest
a total of $468 million to purchase a majority ownership
interest in the project, also based on the same merits.
Ivanpah was completely consistent with the US Con-
gress’ intention when it established the loan guarantee
programme – to support the commercialisation of tech-
nically innovative projects.
 Increase attention: As the penetration of renewable
energy increases globally, policymakers and utilities
have shown growing interest in technologies that
can ensure long-term reliability without increasing
emissions. Regulators, utilities and grid operators
are increasingly applying a “net system cost” meth-
odology when considering future energy portfolios
and procurement decisions; this approach considers
factors such as system integration costs and reliabil-
ity impacts under different scenarios.
 Scale up the technology: Concentrating Solar Power
(CSP) with thermal energy storage is one example of
a flexible resource to help address the supply varia-
bility introduced by rapidly expanding wind and PV
production. Recent studies show the technology can
play an important role in achieving global clean en-
ergy and climate goals by providing dispatchable
power when it is needed most, improving reliability
and reducing costs.
 Attract large capital by loans guarantees: The
DOE’s loan guarantee programme was instrumen-
tal in attracting the capital necessary to finance
this innovative project at commercial scale.
 Set up special purpose vehicle: The borrower un-
der the project’s $1.6 billion loan guarantee is the
special purpose project company (SPV) itself,
which is owned by NRG Energy, Google, and
BrightSource. The SPV holds the long-term, fixed
price power purchase agreement meaning that for
a 20 or 25 year period it has purchasers for all of
the energy it produces at a fixed price.
The SPV also owns the infrastructure that produces
the energy. The underlying loan is fully secured by
all of the SPV’s physical assets and contracts. This
is analogous to building a new hotel and having its
mortgage backed not only by the property, but by
the income that will result from guaranteed, 100%
occupancy for 20 or more years.
BrightSource Energy
: 1999 Harrison Street, Suite 2150, Oakland, CA
94612, United States
: http://www.brightsourceenergy.com
: Jennifer Rigney
: +1 510 250 8162
: jrigney@brightsourceenergy.com
IVANPAH SOLAR ELECTRIC GENERATING SYSTEM
Type: Solar thermal power tower
Size: 377 MW net solar complex
Location: Mojave desert, United States
Total investment: $2.2 billion (around €1.97 billion)
Developers: Developed by BrightSource Energy, con-
structed by Bechtel and operated by NRG Energy, the
largest project equity stakeholder. Additional equity own-
ers include Google and BrightSource
Ivanpah project
Private funding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

18
Nordsee One is a 332 MW offshore wind farm located
40 km of the coast of Germany. The project reached
financial close in March 2015; all of the equity and all
debt required fully committed by the lenders.
The €903 million of funding needed for the Nordsee
One project was financed by ten commercial banks,
without the requirement from any support from public
funding institutions.
The transaction was also completed in record time, with
less than 6 months from the acquisition of the project
by Northland Power Inc. to financial close.
 Stable policy: The transaction benefitted from
Germany’s clearly defined and stable long-term
regulatory framework for offshore wind, including a
long enough fixed price for power, guaranteed ac-
cess to the grid and a very predictable regulatory
and permitting process. This allows to raise capital
over longer periods and at a lower price, ensuring a
lower LCOE (Levelised Cost Of Energy).
Nordsee One benefits from the accelerated Ger-
man model of support scheme for renewables, with
an elevated tariff for the first eight years and de-
creasing tariff thereafter for the remaining years of
operation.
 Capital light structure: The Nordsee One project
was a demonstration of RWE’s “capital light” struc-
ture whereby the utility was able to attract external
capital, both on the equity and on the debt sides,
on attractive terms.
 Non-recourse finance for utility: Nordsee One is
one of the first offshore wind projects developed
by a utility with non-recourse finance in mind and it
showed that this could be done in a disciplined and
rapid manner.
NORDSEE ONE
Size: 332 MW
Location: Germany
2017
Developer: Owners are Northland Power Inc. (85%) and
RWE Innogy GmbH (15%)
Green Giraffe B.V.
: Jérôme Guillet
: +331 7577 3466
Private funding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION
©IEA-RETD

19
Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center is a 200 kW combina-
tion rooftop / carport distributed generation installation
that is the first to benefit from an innovative PACE
Lease® financing structure. The project is located in San
Leandro, Alameda County, California (USA). It was fi-
nanced by Conergy AG and Kawa Capital Partners.
The financial structure is the first to combine a tradi-
tional power purchase agreement (PPA) with property-
assessed clean energy (PACE) into a new form of ser-
vices contract called a PACE Lease®. The structure most
efficiently internalises tax-incentives and passes them
through as a fixed, 20-year payment for energy services.
Although privately funded, the payment is collected as a
line-item on the property tax bill by the local govern-
ment and secured by a senior property lien. The pay-
ment is, thus, very secure and enabled the customer to
obtain financing on terms traditionally offered only to
highest-credit quality off-takers.
 Low cost of capital by reducing risks: The PACE
Lease® financing structure is optimal for mitigating
off-taker credit risk by securing repayment with a
senior, property-based lien. Cost of capital was very
low due to the low likelihood of payment default.
 Low cost for customers: The ultimate cost to the
customer as a fixed services fee was further low-
ered by internalizing tax-incentives not typically
available or capable of being efficiently monetized
by small and medium business or non-profit cus-
tomers. In this way the PACE Lease® structure effi-
ciently combines capital from “tax-equity” investors
as well as long-term debt from bond investors.
As PACE has scaled to more than 30 U.S. states, plus the
District of Columbia, the PACE Lease® structure has the
potential to similarly scale domestically and to other
countries that support solar and other renewable ener-
gy or energy-efficiency technologies utilizing a similar
property-tax or voluntary government-sponsored lien
program.
 Scaling up this program: Smart government poli-
cies that enabled the PACE Lease® structure includ-
ed: (i) investment tax-credit incentives for renewa-
ble energy; (ii) “PACE” or ‘property-assessed clean
energy’; and (iii) government cooperative agree-
ments to fund development of the structure. We
would encourage government funding of pro-
gramme design and that such programme design
facilitate localised programmes that benefit from
government-sponsorship and that allow for volun-
tary participation.
Demeter Power Group, Inc.
: 224 Datura street, West Palm Beach, FL United
States
: www.demeterpower.com
: Michael Wallander - President
: +11 561 371 9022
: mwallander@demeterpower.com
TILBURCIO VASQUEZ HEALTH CENTER
Type: solar photovoltaic (solar PV)
Size: 197.2 kW (DC)
Location: United States
Timeline: Financial close in May 2015, construction com-
pleted in September 2015
Financial structure: PACE Lease®
Total investment: $876,000 (around €785,439)
Developer: Demeter Power Group, Inc.
Tilburcio Vasquez Health center
Private funding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

20
Veja Mate is a 402 MW offshore wind farm located in
Germany’s North Sea. It was acquired in September
2014 by a relative unknown party (Highland) without an
in-house team, from a bankrupt developer (Bard). It
required re-permitting, re-engineering, re-contracting
and execution of a full financing (equity and debt) pro-
cess within 10 months in order not to lose the right to
connect to the grid.
All was done to a very high standard to satisfy the inves-
tors and lenders that came in to finance the project,
and their diligent advisors. Cutting corners was not an
option.
The funding, which included tranches from KfW,
guaranteed by EKF, provided substantial volumes of risk
taking on optimised commerical terms (i.e. low funding
costs), allowing the transaction to close faster and at an
overall cost of power compatible with the prevailing
price regimes for offshore wind.
 Stable policy: The project was able to secure fun-
ding thanks to the clearly defined and stable long-
term regulatory framework in Germany. Although
the strict certification and permitting process pro-
ved to be challenging in the context of the very
limited timelines, the well-defined and stable fra-
mework for the permitting process and the know-
ledgeable counterparties at the authorities allowed
the project to succeed. Based on our experience,
we would recommend long-term stable policies
and competent staffing of regulatory bodies.
 Export credit agency: Financial support to the sec-
tor via export credit agencies and public funding
bodies brings cheaper funding costs, lower cost of
energy and thus less support being required.
 Small group of investors: The equity launch was
aimed at a small group of investors who would
each bring a clear role (and offshore wind experien-
ce) to the project.
Furthermore the project entered into a small num-
ber of EPC contracts, which placed a majority of the
construction risk at experienced contractors.
 Improve liquidity: A conservative financial struc-
ture was developed, which included a relatively low
gearing of 67% and additional liquidity brought by
the participation of the KfW-Fordergruppe. Besides,
this debt has a maturity of 12 years post-
construction of the wind farm, matching the durati-
on of the elevated tariff the project is entitled to
under the existing German law for renewable ener-
gy.
VEJA MATE
Size: 402 MW
Location: Germany
2018
Developer: The project has been developed by Highland
Group Holdings Ltd (“Highland”) and partly sold at finan-
cial close to CIP and Siemens Financial Services
Green Giraffe B.V.
: Jérôme Guillet
: +331 7577 3466
www.siemens.com/press
Private funding
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

21
The European Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF) is an inno-
vative public-private partnership dedicated to mitigating
climate change in the member states of the European
Union.
The EEEF can provide eligible projects with a fast and
flexible financing. The Fund offers both debt and equity
instruments, and is more flexible with respect to maturi-
ties, although the maturity of the financing cannot be
longer than the asset life. Equity can be adapted to the
needs of the project, debt can be provided for maturi-
ties up to 15 years.
Beneficiaries of the Fund are municipal, local and regio-
nal authorities as well as public and private entities ac-
ting on behalf of those authorities. Hence, there is a
direct or indirect municipal link in the project. This can
be achieved either by a direct involvement of a munici-
pality or by the long-term contract between the munici-
pality and a third party.
EEEF is a layered-risk fund, allowing the issuance of
different tranches of capital in the form of shares and
notes to offer investors different risk-return profiles.
 First-loss piece: The capital structure of such an
investment vehicle typically rests on the provision
of a first-loss piece (termed Junior - C Shares) by
donors. This risk cushion allows the Euriopean In-
vestment Bank (EIB) and other public financiers to
invest in more senior A or B tranches, bringing the
benefits of the EIB’s financial strength as an AAA
rated bank to achieve economic sustainability and
stimulate investment from other sources.
Once the asset side of the fund develops, this struc-
ture allows the possibility of issuing notes to priva-
te investors who remain most senior in the cash
waterfall of the fund.
 Make use of EC TA Facility: The fund also manages
a €20 million technical assistance facility provided
by the European Commission (“EC TA Facility”). To
date, over €14 million in funds have been com-
mitted by the EC TA Facility to public authorities in
order to assist in the financing of their project de-
velopment activities. EEEF has provided TA support
to 16 different public authorities in eight different
EU Member States, all of which represent potenti-
ally attractive future investment opportunities for
the fund.
The EC TA Facility proved to be a strong support to
encourage public authorities to develop their ener-
gy efficiency project ideas, thereby realising im-
portant emission reductions to support the EU
20/20/20 targets and also generating positive im-
pact on their budget by cutting down energy ex-
penses.
Deutsche Bank AG
: Taunusanlage 12, 60325 Frankfurt AM Main, Ger-
many
: www.db.com
: Lada Strelnikova - Alternatives & Real Assets
: +49 69 910 46444
: lada.strelnikova@db.com
: Matthias Benz - Alternatives Real Assets
: +49 69 910 46449
: matthias.benz@db.com
EUROPEAN ENERGY EFFICIENCY FUND
Type: All renewable energy and energy efficiency pro-
jects
Size: €265 million
Location: EU member states
Financial structure: Layered-risk fund
Total investment: €265 million (as per 09/2015)
Developer: Initiated by the European Commission and
the European Investment Bank, Deutsche Bank acts as
the Investment manager of the fund
City of Rennes in France
Public-private cooperation
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

22
The MeyGen project is the largest planned tidal devel-
opment project in the world at 398 MW of total in-
stalled capacity when fully constructed.
In August 2014, Atlantis Resources, majority owner of
Meygen announced that it had agreed terms for a fund-
ing package to finance the construction of the phase 1A
of its ground breaking tidal array. The funding package
is worth £51.3 million.
The funding syndicate: the Department of Energy &
Climate Change, Scottish Enterprise via the Renewable
Energy Investment Fund (delivered by the Scottish In-
vestment Bank), Highland & Islands Enterprise, the
Crown Estate, and Atlantis.
At a time when the climate for investment in renewa-
bles is relatively cautious, this sustained activity demon-
strates how Atlantis has retained creditability within the
market and pioneered a unique business model which
attracts much needed investment in the sector.
The success of the company’s approach is also demon-
strated by the huge vote of confidence from its partners
and shareholders, who have continued to support the
flagship Meygen project.
 Commercialisation of tidal technology: The broker-
ing of this deal by Atlantis represented an im-
portant step towards commercialisation of tidal
technology, historically a niche and nascent sector,
focused on solving niche technical problems rather
than entering the market as viable solution. More
importantly, the deal was a crucial endorsement of
Atlantis’ vision to harness this power at scale.
Tidal power is a reliable, predictable and sustaina-
ble source of energy. The location of the Meygen
project in the Pentland Firth means we can harness
some of the world’s most powerful tides and con-
vert them into power for thousands of homes.
Atlantis Resources Ltd.
: 90A George Street Edinburgh, EH2 3DF, Scotland
: www.atlantisresourcesltd.com
: +44 203 727 1898
: atlantis@fticonsulting.com
MEYGEN TIDAL PROJECT
Type: Tidal energy project
Size: 398 MW
Location: Scotland
Timeline: First power delivered in 2016
Financial structure: Combination of grants, loan and
equity
Total investment: £51.3 million (around €69.6 million)
for phase 1A
Developer: Atlantis Resources
Phases:
 Phase 1A: the first 6MW (4 turbines) approximately
3000 Scottish homes
 Phase 1: the first 86MW (61 turbines) approximately
42,000 Scottish homes
 The complete 398 MW (269 turbines) approximately
175,000 Scottish homes
Photo by Mike Goldwater, Blue Cube Productions
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

23
The Nationaal Energie Bespaarfonds (NEF fund) has
been raised firstly to achieve the national target of 14%
for renewable energy generation by 2020 and secondly
to implement the measures as agreed early 2013
amongst the political parties to give a stimulus to the
ailing housing market (“woonakkoord”).
The fund is to provide loans to owner/occupants and
Owners Association (“VVe”) to insulate and improve the
energy efficiency of houses, flats and buildings.
The funding of BZK is used first to fund the loans to
home owners and VVe’s. The commitment of the banks
will be drawn when the funding of the government has
been used. The funding will be used to provide loans
between €2,500 and €25,000 to owner/occupants for
terms of 5, 7, or 15 years and between Owners Associa-
tions (“VVe”) with at least ten units between €25,000
and €5 million (with a limit of 25,000 per unit) for terms
of 10 or 15 years depending on the measure taken at
attractive rates.
The government needed to act to achieve the 2020 re-
newable energy target through energy savings and to
stimulate the housing market amongst others to create
jobs decided to start this fund on an ad hoc basis. We
recommend the following:
 Structural and sustained long-term approach: A
more structural and sustained long-term approach
by the government to support the development of
renewable energy and energy savings projects is
needed to structurally attract the increasing de-
mand for finance also looking beyond 2020 and the
increasing targets for 2030 and 2050.
 Cooperation between BZK and private financiers:
This is a cooperation between BZK and private fi-
nanciers in the form of a fund to provide low-priced
loans to improve the energy efficiency of existing
homes. This is the first in the Netherlands.
Since this was a first, it was quite challenging to
structure in a way that both the ministry and the
banks could agree on the risk/reward and on how
to word the documentation since BZK has their own
style of documentation. They were not used to Loan
Market Association (LMA) documentation, which is
popular in the primary as well as the secondary
loan market in Europe.
The fund had a slow start but volume of applica-
tions has increased substantially in 2015 due to
adding the VVe’s, the pick up in the housing market
in the Netherlands and the increasing awareness of
the fund due to campaigns by all parties involved.
ASN Bank
: Bezuidenhoutseweg 153, 2594 AG Den Haag, the
Netherlands
: www.asnbank.nl or www.ikinvesteerslim.nl
: Leo Hellinga
: +31 70 356 92 88
: duurzame.financieringen@asnbank.nl
NATIONAAL ENERGIE BESPAARFONDS
Type: All renewable energy and energy efficiency
Size: €300 million
Location: The Netherlands
Timeline: Completed in January 2014
Financial structure: Fund in the form of a foundation
(“Stichting”). The funds have been committed for €75
million by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom rela-
tions (“BZK”), for €50 million by ASN bank and for €175
million by Rabobank
Developer: n.a. The fund is managed by SVn
©..../Fotolia
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

24
Thüga Group is the largest municipal network of local
and regional energy suppliers in Germany with unique
partnership model: 560 cities and municipalities have
integrated their 100 communal energy and water sup-
ply companies with Thüga Group out of responsibility
for the living space of 10 million people.
This model is an example of a mutual-benefit coopera-
tion. Municipalities can invest beyond its border; pri-
vate sector can take advantage of local authorities’
knowledge and community can invest with low upfront
costs, as well as receive low electricity price.
In light of the upcoming regulatory changes towards a
competitive tendering system for onshore wind in
2016/17, the investment risks especially for small and
medium size municipal utilities increases significantly.
Once this new support system is established, invest-
ment structures like the Thüga Erneuerbare Energien
are most probably the only opportunity for these com-
panies to invest in renewable energy power generation.
Currently, the rules that allow or forbid the construction
of wind farms are defined at the federal level and often
change depending on the political party in charge.
 Level playing field: With regard to the new tender-
ing system that will be implemented in Germany
construction sites for wind farms with different
wind speeds should be able to compete on a level
playing field. Thereby, wind farms can be built in
different regions in Germany which reduces the
burden on the electricity grid and increases the
economic efficiency of the whole energy system.
 Flexible regulation to invest overseas: A future
opportunity for growth could be investments in
other European countries. However, in many cases
municipal utilities are not allowed to invest abroad.
While this rule makes sense in many cases, invest-
ments through Thüga Erneuerbare Energien should
be exempted due to the reduced investment risk.
 Diversified risk: Many of the involved municipal
utilities directly invest in renewable energy power
generation in order to offer renewable energy to
their electricity customers. However, their invest-
ments are typically limited to the municipalities
they cover. By founding the Thüga Erneuerbare
Energien, all involved municipal utilities participate
in profitable renewable energy projects all over
Germany. Thereby, the risk of individual projects is
diversified. Beyond the technology risk, the portfo-
lio of wind projects allows diversifying the risk that
is associated with the available wind speed at one
specific site or the barrier of suitable construction
sites.
 Lower cost: By bundling the knowledge and pro-
fessional experience of the due diligence process
and of maintenance services, lower costs for all
participating municipal utilities are realized.
Thüga Erneuerbare Energien GmbH & Co. KG
:
: http://ee.thuega.de
: Thomas Walther
: +49 40 790 2390
: Thomas.Walther@ee.thuega.de
Thüga AG
: Nymphenburger str.39, 80335 München, Germany
: http://thuega.de
: Dr. Christian Friebe - Referent Grundsatzfragen
: +49 89 381 970
: Christian.friebe@thuega.de
THÜGA ENEUERBARE ENERGIEN
Type: Wind energy
Size: 207 MW (as per Sep/2015)
Location: Germany
Financial structure: Shareholders include 46 municipal
utilities of the Thüga Group (30%) with their specific
knowledge regarding local construction permissions and
negotiations with the owners of the land; the Thüga
Erneuerbare Energien (20%) with knowledge regarding
technology and regulation; and more than 300 citizens of
the region (50%)
Total investment: Aim to invest €1 billion in renewable
energy generation by 2020
Developer: Thüga Erneuerbare Energien
Windparkanlage - source: Schulte
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

25
Vicuña Solar consists of two solar power plants, “SOL”
and “LUNA”, located close to the city of Vicuña, in the
Elqui Valley, considered one of the richest in this area of
the country in terms of solar irradiation.
The construction of the “Vicuña Solar” is financed
through equity investments by ECOSolar (51%), a solar
company active in Latin America with in depth
knowledge and experience of the solar sector and the
region, and the Danish Climate Investment Fund (DCIF)
(49%), a Danish public-private partnership (PPP) offer-
ing equity funding for climate related projects in devel-
oping countries.
The cooperation between DCIF and Ecosolar creates the
synergy for the project development: Ecosolar has
depth knowledge and experiences of the solar sector /
the regions; and through investing in projects, DCIF can
promote the Danish technology/know-how transfer and
increase investments in renewable energy projects in
developing countries.
 Clear tax structure: Institutional investors – like
the ones who have invested in DCIF – prefers a sim-
ple and easy understandable tax structure enabling
them to predict the return post-tax without the risk
of being subject to double taxation because of un-
clear tax rules. The tax law should be clear on how
a foreign tax transparent entity like standard lim-
ited partnerships should be taxed under local tax
law and in respect of double taxation agreements.
 PPA in foreign currency: National power authori-
ties can make investments in renewable power
production more attractive to foreign investors by
issuing PPA’s (Power Purchase Agreement) in for-
eign currency (like USD or EUR).
 Public-private cooperation across borders: This is
the first of hopefully many investments imple-
mented jointly by Ecosolar which is based in Pana-
ma and IFU / DCIF with a base in Denmark. A large
part of the capital injected by the Danish investor
DCIF is raised by the fund manager IFU for the re-
newable energy fund DCIF. DCIF is capitalised by
IFU, the Danish State and a number of Danish insti-
tutional investors.
 Huge leverage factor: DCIF is an innovative PPP to
mobilise capital and involve private sectors for re-
newable energy projects. The Danish state will only
contribute up to 7% of the money, which, however,
creates the confidence and encourages the invest-
ments from institutional investors (pension funds in
Vicuña). But investors are also granted for a pre-
ferred profit return.
IFU - Investment Fund for Developing Countries
: Fredericiagade 27, 1310 Copenhagen K, Denmark
: www.ifu.dk
: Henrik Jepsen - Investment Director
: +45 33 63 75 10
: hj@ifu.dk
VICUÑA SOLAR PV
Type: Solar PV
Size: 6.8 MW
Location: Chile
Financial structure: 100% risk capital provided by two
investors
Total investment: $12.7 million (around €11.39 million)
Developer: IM2
Vicuña solar project
FURTHER CONTACT
PROJECT INFORMATION

26
AAA rating: The highest possible rating assigned to the
bonds of an issuer by rating agencies.
ABS - Asset-Backed Security: Is a security whose value
are derived from a specified pool of underlying assets.
Asset-light structure: Is a strategy aiming for reducing
the fixed costs, for example, outsourcing other parties,
renting assets, sharing the costs with many other own-
ers, franchising, etc.
Bond: Is a debt instrument in which an investor lends
money to an entity for a defined period of time at an
interest rate.
Capital-light structure: Is a strategy reducing the capital
requirements to produce a good or service, which helps
companies free up capital to do other investment or
development.
Cash sweep mechanism: Is a mechanism in which if it
reaches a certain level amount of money, the excess
cash will be transferred to another account or be used
to pay a portion of debt or for users’ purposes.
CIC - Community interest company: Is a special type of
limited company which aims to benefit the community
rather than private shareholders.
Community funding: Is a type of crowdfunding which
typically raises monetary contributions from a large
number of people in a certain community.
Contract for difference: Is a contract between an elec-
tricity generator and a government-owned company.
The generator is paid the difference between their price
and market price.
Cost of capital: Is the cost of debt and equity in a com-
pany, which is often used to evaluate new projects of a
company.
Crowd funding: Is the way of funding a project or ven-
ture by raising monetary contributions from a large
number of people.
Debenture: A type of debt instrument that is not se-
cured by physical assets or collateral. It is backed only
by the general creditworthiness and reputation of the
issuer.
manages the building in terms of maintenance, cleaning,
safety, etc. One apartment in VVe can be called one unit.
PACE - Property-Assessed Clean Energy program: In an
area with PACE legislation, the municipal government
issues a special bond to investors and then lends money
to consumers or businesses. The money will be repaid
through the property tax bill in a certain term, i.e. 20
years. The loan is attached to the property rather than
the individuals.
PPA - Power Purchase Agreement: Is a contract be-
tween two parties, one who generates electricity (the
seller) and one who purchases electricity (the buyer).
Project Finance: Is the long-term financing of projects
based on the projected cash flows of the project rather
than the balance sheets of its sponsors.
Risk-averse investor: An investor who, when faced with
two investments with a similar expected return (but
different risks), will prefer the one with the lower risk.
SDE+ programme: Is a subsidy programme in the Neth-
erlands. Producers receive a subsidy for the production
of renewable energy. The SDE+ compensates for the
difference between the cost price of grey energy and
that of renewable energy, over a period of 5, 12 or 15
years, depending on the relevant technology.
Senior loan: A debt financing obligation that holds legal
claim to the borrower’s assets above all other debt obli-
gations. It means that in the event of bankruptcy, the
senior bank loan is the first to be paid, before all other
interested parties receive repayment.
Social enterprise: Is an organisation that applies com-
mercial strategies to maximize improvements in human
and environmental well-being - This may include maxim-
izing social impact rather than profits for external share-
holders.
Tax equity investor: Is an investor who receives a re-
turn based not only on cash flow from the asset or pro-
ject but also on federal and state income tax benefits
(tax deductions and tax credits).
20/20/20 targets: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
20%, increase the use of renewable energy by 20% and
reduce energy consumption through energy efficiency
measures by 20% until 2020.
EPC contract - Engineering, Procurement and Construc-
tion contract: Is a contract, in which a contractor gener-
ally provides the obligation to build and deliver the pro-
ject facilities on a turnkey basis.
Equity: The value of an ownership interest in property,
including shareholders’ equity in a business. Equity or
shareholders’ equity is part of the total capital of a busi-
ness.
FIT - Feed In Tariff: Is an economic policy, in which the
producers will receive an allowance per renewable en-
ergy unit they produce.
Green bond: Is a bond which was created to fund pro-
jects that have positive environmental and/or climate
benefits.
IPS - Industrial & Provident Society: Is an organisation
conducting an industry, business or trade, either as a
cooperative or for the benefit of the community.
ITC - Investment Tax Credit: An amount that business
are allowed by law to deduct from their taxes, and is
based on the amount of investment in property.
LCOE - Levelised Cost Of Energy: Is the net present val-
ue of the unit-cost of electricity over the lifetime of a
generating asset. It is often taken as a proxy for the
break-even price.
Mezzanine loans/debt: It refers to the layer of financing
between a company’s senior debt and equity. It is sub-
ordinate in priority of payment to senior debt, but sen-
ior in rank to common stock or equity.
Municipal bond: A debt security issued by a state, mu-
nicipality or county to finance its capital expenditures.
NGO - Non-Governmental Organisation: Is an organisa-
tion that is neither a part of government nor a conven-
tional for-profit business. NGOs may be funded by gov-
ernments, foundations, businesses, or private persons.
Non-recourse finance: A loan where the lending bank is
only entitled to repayment from the profits of the pro-
ject it is funding, not from other assets of the borrower.
Owners Association (VVe): Is an association whose
members own an apartment in the same building. It
GLOSSARY

SHOWCASES OF SUCCESSFUL RENEWABLE ENERGY FINANCING

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