Origination

Sunlight falls everywhere and everywhere needs power. Solar PV systems provide secure, long-term power with attractive returns and serve as a hedge against more volatile fossil-fuel energy prices.

For commercial and industrial corporations, privately owned businesses, real estate investment trusts; federal, state and local government agencies, municipal and privately owned utilities, as well as hospitals, schools, and universities there are attractive Solar PV renewable energy options available. Although sunlight falls everywhere, each site has unique conditions that make solar PV systems more or less attractive. ACE Ventures excels at rapid site assessment and project vetting to pre-qualify sites for development investments.

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Customer Outreach

ACE Ventures focuses on commercial and utility scale projects. ACE Ventures will meet with clients to understand their needs – financial, economic development, energy security, site environmental remediation, and power supply. We partner with local electrical and environmental contractors, combining our solar system expertise with their local market knowledge, to craft solutions optimized for each location.

Site Control

A critical step in each project’s development is site control. A project will not be “bank-able” without clear title to the land on which it is installed.

In some cases, the site is already owned by the client, e.g. a roof-top system on a business where the power will reduce the business’ need for expensive grid-supplied power.

In other cases, land must be secured through purchase or lease agreements, often with options to secure the land after certain project viability milestones have been achieved.

Power Purchase Agreements

A power purchase agreement (PPA) is a contract with a “bank-able” entity to buy the energy generated by the project at a specified price for a specified number of years.

For projects paid for and owned by the client, e.g. a business or a utility, the client is also the energy buyer and a PPA is not required.

For projects where the site is not owned by the energy buyer, a PPA is required and is a critical component to project viability. ACE Ventures is adept at structuring PPA’s that meet the needs of all project-stakeholders, including banks providing debt financing and equity investors, including tax equity and general equity.

Project Viability Assessment

Before any project stakeholders invest significant capital in a project, its viability should be assessed at an early stage. ACE Ventures is skilled in performing rapid, early-stage site assessments. Key elements of a Project Viability Assessment include:

  • Site control.

  • Site solar exposure, e.g. blockage of tree-lines on site perimeter.

  • Land suitability for the type of PV technology mounting systems.

  • Availability and suitability of nearby utility transmission or distribution interconnection points to handle a generation project of a defined size.

  • Ability of the site to qualify for required environmental and construction permitting.

  • Suitability of the site and stakeholders to qualify for various utility, state, and federal solar system incentives.

  • Bank-ability of project stakeholders to ensure a successful project financing.