Returning in February 2020
Returning in February 2020
Making Solar Bankable is not your average gathering. 500+ project development & finance executives from 40+ different countries came together again on 15-16 February 2018 in Amsterdam. Through unique network facilitation and focused sessions per segment you’re sure to get enough leads and insights to fuel your business for months. Organised by Solarplaza and FMO, and widely supported by over 20 of the world’s largest industry players and finance institutions, this event is not to be missed by anyone involved in solar project development in Asia, Africa or Latin America.
CHRISTIANA FIGUERES /// FORMER EXECUTIVE SECRETARY - UNFCCC & COVENOR - MISSION 2020 | ![]() |
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Christiana Figueres is a world authority on global climate change and was the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC from 2010-2016. Ms. Figueres is currently Vice-Chair of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, ClimateWorks Board Member, World Bank Climate Leader, Senior Fellow for Conservation International, ACCIONA Board Member, The B Team Leader, WRI Board Member, Economic Council member for the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health, Leadership Council Member for The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, and Mission2020 Convenor. During her tenure at the UNFCCC Ms. Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations and activists, financial institutions and communities of faith, think tanks and technology providers, NGOs and parliamentarians, to jointly deliver the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, in which 195 sovereign nations agreed on a collaborative path forward to limit future global warming to below 2C. The agreement entered into force in less than a year, breaking the record of the UN. For this achievement Ms. Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy. In addition to her remarkable diplomatic achievements over the past 20 years, she served as Director of Renewable Energy in the Americas (REIA) and in 1995 founded the non-profit Center for Sustainable Development of the Americas (CSDA), which she directed for eight years. |
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CHRISTIANA FIGUERES FORMER EXECUTIVE SECRETARY - UNFCCC & COVENOR - MISSION 2020 |
JEREMY LEGGETT /// FOUNDER - SOLARCENTURY | ![]() |
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Social entrepreneur Jeremy, author of The Energy of Nations, The Carbon War and Half Gone, is founder and non-executive chairman of Solarcentury and founder and chairman of SolarAid, an African solar lighting charity set up with Solarcentury profits. Described by the Observer as 'Britain's most respected green energy boss,' he writes and blogs for the Guardian, the Financial Times, and Sublime Magazine. He was the first Hillary Laureate for International Leadership on Climate Change, a CNN Principal Voice, and Entrepreneur of the Year at the New Energy Awards. He is on the associate faculties, lecturing in business and environment, at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and St Gallen. | |
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JEREMY LEGGETT FOUNDER /// SOLARCENTURY |
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ANDREW JOHNSTONE /// CEO - CLIMATE FUND MANAGERS | ![]() |
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Andrew is CEO of Climate Fund Managers, the manager of Climate Investor One, an end-to-end financing solution for renewable energy projects in emerging markets. He is also the founder of Phoenix Infraworks, a business established to mobilise capital into climate and infrastructural outcomes in effective and innovative ways. Andrew’s background spans 20 years of infrastructure investments in Africa and Asia, and incorporates deal structuring, equity investments and business establishment. Prior to Phoenix, Andrew was the CEO of Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) for 13 years, and the Chairman of Macquarie Africa from 2008 to 2014. |
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ANDREW JOHNSTONE CEO /// CLIMATE FUND MANAGERS |
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ATO GYASI /// SENIOR DIRECTOR INVESTMENTS GROUP - AFC | ![]() |
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Ato is Senior Director, Investments Group at the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a multilateral specialist infrastructure financing institution headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. Prior to this, Ato was Co-Head of Investment Banking at Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria. His investment banking, deal making and management experience spans many African countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Angola. Ato has been involved in various award-winning transactions such as Azura IPP (Nigeria), Cenpower IPP (Ghana), Eskom Kusile Power Plant (South Africa), Angola Domestic Submarine Cable (Angola), Tema Port Expansion (Ghana) and the Lekki -Epe Expressway (Nigeria). | |
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ATO GYASI SENIOR DIRECTOR INVESTMENTS GROUP /// AFC |
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DAVID RUSSELL /// PARTNER & GROUP CEO - EQUIS | ![]() |
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Mr Russell is a founding Partner and Group CEO of Equis, Asia’s largest independent infrastructure private equity manager, with over 600 professionals employed across 15 offices in the Asia-Pacific. Mr Russell has 24 years of Asia-Pacific infrastructure experience having as CEO raised, managed and invested over US$5 billion of equity for some of Asia-Pacific’s largest regional and country specific (China, Japan and South Korea) independent and institutional infrastructure funds. Prior to Equis, Mr Russell was Macquarie Group’s Asia based Senior Managing Director and Head of Greater China and Asian Private Equity. Prior to Macquarie, Mr. Russell was an energy and utilities lawyer with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in the United States and Minter Ellison in Australia. Mr Russell is also the Executive Chairman of Equis Energy, Asia’s largest renewable energy independent power producer (IPP). In October 2017, Equis and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) announced the sale of 100% of Equis Energy to a GIP led consortium for USD5.0 billion (including assumed liabilities of USD1.3bn). The transaction was the largest renewable energy generation acquisition in history and is scheduled to financially close in January 2018. Mr. Russell holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from Monash University and is admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia. |
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DAVID RUSSELL PARTNER & GROUP CEO /// EQUIS |
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ROLAKE AKINKUGBE /// HEAD ENERGY & NATURAL RESOURCES - FBN MERCHANT BANK | ![]() |
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An emerging, young thought-leader in the African energy space, Rolake heads the energy and natural resources division at FBN Merchant Bank, the investment banking subsidiary of Nigeria’ largest financial services group, FBN Holdings Plc. She overseas and manages key sector relationships for FBN Merchant Bank, helping to raise and structure funding solutions for corporates in energy across equity, debt and other financial products. In May 2017, she was appointed as an advisory member of the Board of Economists in the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria, working closely with the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, and supporting Nigeria's economic management team and the VP’s office on a range of sector, macro-economic and national development policy issues. Prior to FBN Merchant Bank, Rolake was for more than 3 years head of the energy research team at pan-African Ecobank, based in their London office. She managed Ecobank’s research output across the energy industry value chain, covering a wide range of energy products and industry players across 33 African countries. |
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ROLAKE AKINKUGBE HEAD ENERGY & NATURAL RESOURCES /// FBN MERCHANT BANK |
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JAY GALLEGOS /// GENERAL DIRECTOR WIND & SOLAR - CMI ENERGÍA | ![]() |
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Jay Gallegos is General Director – Wind and Solar at the energy unit of Corporación Multi Inversiones (CMI Energía), the leading renewable energy company in Central America. Jay’s experience spans over twenty five years in development, construction and operation of renewable power plants in USA, Europe, Africa, Asia and Central America. CMI Energía has 656 MWs in Operation (Hydro, Wind and Solar), 55 MWs in Construction and a pipeline of development projects of over 500MW. | |
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JAY GALLEGOS GENERAL DIRECTOR WIND & SOLAR /// CMI ENERGÍA |
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JUAN RODRIGUEZ /// FOUNDER & CEO - KINGO ENERGY | ![]() |
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Founder and CEO; Launched Kingo Energy in 2013. Kingo provides a distributed renewable electricity service that has become a scalable solution to one of the grandest challenges facing humanity: ENERGY. The company’s vision is to reach 100 million homes by 2035, making it the largest electric utility in HISTORY.
Kingo has experienced a dramatic growth over the last 2.5 years in the off-grid sector, going from a 450 home pilot in January 2015, to 50,000 homes as of December 2017. Still, 17% of the world’s population lacks access to power. These 1.2 billion people pay for the most expensive energy substitutes (candles/kerosene/diesel), making solar here more affordable vs. any other market in the economy. The Company is on a successful path to positively impact 200,000 households by 2018, and has already raised capital to execute a strategic plan to reach 1 million homes by 2020. Kingo’s mission is to turn lives ON. By pulling the curve of innovation, Kingo has set itself as a trailblazer in the evolution of the world’s energy consumption. Join us, and let’s turn lives ON together! Juan Fermín has been named 2011 Schwabb Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Runner up; 2011 Agora Partnerships Fellow; 2012 Unreasonable Institute Fellow; 2013 Young Manager of the Year by the Guatemalan Manager Association; 2013 Forbes Nominee ’30 Under 30’ Publication; 2014 MIT's 30 Top Innovators under 35 in Central America. |
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JUAN RODRIGUEZ FOUNDER & CEO /// KINGO ENERGY |
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PAWAN AGRAWAL /// SR. PRESIDENT & DY. HEAD CORPORATE FINANCE - YES BANK | ![]() |
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Pawan is Senior President & Dy. Head - Corporate Finance, YES Bank and is leading Infrastructure Finance practise for YES Bank for Northern and Eastern India. He has more than 17 years of experience in credit, structured finance and project finance and has expertise in managing and leading complex project financing transactions and brings strategic inputs to facilitate the entire process leading upto timely financial closure. In particular, Pawan has been leading YES Bank’s initiatives in Infrastructure Financing and Policy advocacy and has been deeply engaged with various infrastructure ministries on behalf of YES Bank. Pawan has been a regular speaker at various national and international forums on issues concerning several sectors including Energy, Railways, Aviation, Manufacturing, Cement, etc. organized by CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, PHD Chambers, Indian Chambers of Commerce, India Infrastructure, Infraline Energy, UBM, MNRE, TERI, etc. |
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PAWAN AGRAWAL SR. PRESIDENT & DY. HEAD CORPORATE FINANCE /// YES BANK |
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CONFERENCE DAY 1 | REGISTRATIONS | |
Plenary Opening Discussion
| NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK | |
Plenary: Outlook per market
| NETWORKING LUNCH | |
3 Tracks: Bridging the Gap Between Projects and Capital | ||
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NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK |
Plenary: Keynote speaker & Solar Shark Tank
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BOAT TOUR & NETWORKING DINNER | ||
CONFERENCE DAY 2 | REGISTRATIONS | |
Plenary: Innovative financing models
| NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK | |
Closing Plenary: Future Trends and Outlook for PV in Emerging Markets
| NETWORKING LUNCH | |
Networking/Matchmaking
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OPTIONAL LEISURE ACTIVITY IN AMSTERDAM | ||
Where will solar PV applications go next? What are the benefits of the various different models for solar PV development in emerging markets? How can innovation play a role in accelerating the adoption of the technology and the evolution of business models?
These are all questions that stakeholders in emerging markets are constantly asking themselves. Whatever solar PV does or wherever it’s planning on going, one thing is for sure: the future of solar PV looks as bright as ever, with solar power even outshining other forms of renewables over this past year.
The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the evolution of business models in emerging markets. To provide a clear picture, we have highlighted and analyzed eight innovative companies and business cases set in developing solar markets. We have compiled a list of company profiles, describing the focus of their businesses, their future outlooks and the different ways that innovative business models can be combined with solar energy.
The clean energy revolution is unfolding at an incredible pace, much faster than most people realize. This is particularly apparent in emerging markets, where we see a wide range of evolving business models and financial structures driving prices for solar PV applications down to the point where it is already the cheapest technology available. Moreover, there is an abundance of both private and public sector capital available for solar PV projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Financial structuring of deals, however, remains to be a critical challenge in having the readily available capital flowing into bankable projects.
As a prelude to Making Solar Bankable: Evolving Business Models in Emerging Markets, we will host a complimentary webinar on October 10th at 5pm CEST. Two of the industry’s leading experts will explore the evolving landscape of solar PV in emerging markets and dive into the possibilities for financial structuring of PV projects.
JEREMY LEGGETT /// FOUNDER - SOLARCENTURY | ![]() |
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Social entrepreneur Jeremy, author of The Energy of Nations, The Carbon War and Half Gone, is founder and non-executive chairman of Solarcentury and founder and chairman of SolarAid, an African solar lighting charity set up with Solarcentury profits. Described by the Observer as 'Britain's most respected green energy boss,' he writes and blogs for the Guardian, the Financial Times, and Sublime Magazine. He was the first Hillary Laureate for International Leadership on Climate Change, a CNN Principal Voice, and Entrepreneur of the Year at the New Energy Awards. He is on the associate faculties, lecturing in business and environment, at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and St Gallen. | |
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JEREMY LEGGETT FOUNDER /// SOLARCENTURY |
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MANUEL CABRERIZO /// MANAGING DIRECTOR - VOLTIQ | ![]() |
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Manuel Cabrerizo has more than 20 years international experience in structured finance and investment banking gained with Voltiq and WestLB, globally. During that time he has closed more than 50 financings across sectors and jurisdictions. At Voltiq, he has been particularly active in structuring renewable energy transactions in Spain, Italy, Brazil, Chile and Panamá. He's been involved in landmark transactions such as the project financing of the 146 MWp Laberinto project in Chile's Atacama desert, closed in the summer of 2015. | |
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MANUEL CABRERIZO MANAGING DIRECTOR /// VOLTIQ |
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Solar energy has become a very attractive option for emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. With falling prices, new government initiatives and new business models, the opportunities for solar seem endless. However, intermittency issues and curtailment risk threaten this growth of solar energy in emerging markets and need to be addressed.
The international 2-day event will involve 500+ high-level decision makers from around the world.
Several opportunities are available to build and promote your brand to a diverse, yet focused group of high level international and local stakeholders including investors, financiers, project developers, EPC’s IPP’s and manufacturers.
For questions regarding exhibition and sponsorship opportunities, contact:
Laura Fortes
+31 10 3027911
laura@solarplaza.com
Solarplaza was founded in 2004 by Edwin Koot, a senior PV expert working in photovoltaic solar energy since 1994. Over the course of twelve years, Solarplaza has built a network of trusted friends and personal contacts all over the world.
Solarplaza organizes international high-level conferences and exploratory trade missions in both established and emerging markets across the globe. Learn more about Solarplaza
FMO is the Dutch development bank. We believe that entrepreneurship is key in creating sustainable economic growth and improving people’s quality of life. We therefore finance businesses, projects and financial institutions in developing and emerging markets, with the aim of supporting sustainable private sector development. Our investments are focused in the sectors where our contribution can have the largest long-term impact: financial institutions; energy; and agribusiness, food & water. Learn more about FMO
In the run-up to ‘Making Solar Bankable - Evolving Business Models in Emerging Markets’, we’re speaking to Emmanuelle Matz of Proparco (part of AFD - the French Development Agency) to speak about their solar development & financing related activities in emerging markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America.