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Debt for Brands - Tracking Down a Bias in Financing Photovoltaic Projects in Germany
Abstract
What kinds of PV project configurations do lenders prefer to finance? Recent developments in the field of renewable energy project finance have reinforced the need for investigation, as fundraising has become more challenging and project evaluation stricter. To contribute to the limited research in this field, we focus on photovoltaic projects and report from an Adaptive Choice-Based Conjoint experiment with German experts in project finance. We find a bias which we call “debt for brands”. Simulations reveal that debt investors prefer projects with premium brand technology (modules, inverters) to low-cost technology. Although we assumed that debt investors prefer projects with the highest Debt Service Cover Ratio (DSCR), they favour projects with lower DSCR, as long as those projects include premium brand technology. We find that, if premium brands were engaged, debt investors would also choose projects with higher risk. Our findings have implications for renewable energy project finance in practice and research.
... Only a small part of all conjoint studies have used a pure ACBC approach so far. However, the use of ACBC is emerging within the energy sector: Many of the conducted ACBC studies in the energy field focus on the preferences of investors for the financing of RES (e. g (Lüdeke-Freund and Loock, 2011;Lüthi and Prässler, 2011;Chassot et al., 2014;Salm et al., 2016)). ...
... In our summed pricing model a higher investment up front results in a lower monthly electricity cost. Similar ACBC analyses on investment costs are covered in our literature review in Section 2 (Lüdeke-Freund and Loock, 2011;Lüthi and Prässler, 2011). 6. Monthly electricity cost: The monthly cost is currently the most widely used decision factor for residential households when deciding for an electricity tariff in Germany. ...
Local energy markets are often discussed as a means to solve the challenges of decentralization, decarbonization and digitization emerging from the energy transition. However, their (potential) business models, and thus their rationalization in our economy, remain largely unknown. Suitable business models are required to leverage economic benefits from local energy markets. We follow a multi-method approach to develop a taxonomy of local energy market business models. Firstly, we conduct 15 semi-structured expert interviews to gain first-hand knowledge of current and future business models. Secondly, a taxonomy development method is applied on the interviews in an iterative process. Our results show that the most profitable and long-term sustainable local energy market business models should focus on financial benefits as their main value proposition, should be consumer- and producer-centric, and should develop a trading platform offered by a service provider. A focus on energy and flexibility trading, and a highly interoperable information system aid the business success. Lastly, we compile an overview of current business models in nine real-world local energy market projects and apply the taxonomy to their business models. This case study shows that the implemented business models are very similar and only represent a small part of the discussed business models of local energy markets in the taxonomy. This shows that the implemented local energy market business models are currently in their very early development stages. They need to mature in line with the further development of local energy markets.
... Only a small part of all conjoint studies have used a pure ACBC approach so far. However, the use of ACBC is emerging within the energy sector: Many of the conducted ACBC studies in the energy field focus on the preferences of investors for the financing of RES (e. g (Lüdeke-Freund and Loock, 2011;Lüthi and Prässler, 2011;Chassot et al., 2014;Salm et al., 2016)). ...
... In our summed pricing model a higher investment up front results in a lower monthly electricity cost. Similar ACBC analyses on investment costs are covered in our literature review in Section 2 (Lüdeke-Freund and Loock, 2011;Lüthi and Prässler, 2011). 6. Monthly electricity cost: The monthly cost is currently the most widely used decision factor for residential households when deciding for an electricity tariff in Germany. ...
Renewable resources are often owned by residential customers who do not actively participate in electricity markets yet. To better integrate these decentralized resources into the energy system, market signals must reach the customers. Local energy markets (LEMs) are a promising concept to provide these market signals, and balance generation and demand at distribution network level. We examined the importance of design parameters for LEMs with an adaptive choice-based conjoint study from a customer perspective. Two surveys (a Germany-wide panel of 417 respondents and a regional survey of 239 respondents) show that economic design parameters (monthly cost and investments) are most important for German households to participate in LEMs. However, the sum of non-economic design parameters (interaction frequency, supplier, electricity source, and data privacy) levels with the importance of monthly cost without investment. Results show, that compared to the German average the regional customers are willing to pay a slight price premium on their monthly costs if regional electricity is offered on the LEM. Our results show suitable early adopters for LEMs to be large (> 2 persons) residential households with young ( < 60 years) inhabitants. Overall, regulatory niches and subsidies allowing LEMs to offer discount prices should be exploited.
... In reference to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a percentage that directly affects operation and maintenance costs, according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) this value was 4.09% for the period 2011. For the authors Griffiths and Mills (2016) and Sommerfeldt and Madani (2017b), the annual operation and maintenance costs of a PV system range between 0.5% and 1.9% of the capital cost, depending on the system size. ...
The inclusion of photovoltaic energy in the Colombian energy matrix has had several difficulties due to the lack of energy policies and regulations in renewable energy projects. The lack of government support with subsidies that extend the coverage of PV energy projects in residential areas has made the collection of funds more challenging. This paper presents a techno-economic analysis for the implementation of grid-connected photovoltaic projects on the roofs of residential areas, under the net metering policy framework. For the profitability analysis, the discounted cash flow (DCF) method was used. The revenues were obtained from the forecasts of the electrical power production of the PV system, based on the characteristics of the Colombian Caribbean Region. For this purpose, the meteorological data (2013-2017) of this region were used as an input for the calculation of the economic benefits that can be achieved with the implementation of PV systems. Based on the technical sizing and economic assumptions, it was proved that the DCF method allows to accurately determine the optimal debt ratio. After evaluating the three scenarios proposed, it was demonstrated that profitability and self-sustainability, with investment from creditors, is obtained from the implementation of PV systems of at least 3 kWp.
Keywords: PV Systems, Net Metering, Discounted Cash Flow Method, Optimal Debt Ratio
JEL Classifications: Q42; G32; G5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.9560
... example, experiments with renewable energy financing experts revealed a brand bias, where the employment of premium brand solar technologies was rated as the most important criterion, even more important than quantitative financial indicators(Loock, 2012;Lüdeke-Freund & Loock, 2011). Clean energy business models with premium brand technologies provide better access to financial capital, which is important for the development of roll-out strategies and finally business cases. ...
This article introduces the business models for sustainability innovation (BMfSI) framework to study how business models mediate between sustainability innovations and business cases for sustainability. The BMfSI framework integrates two major perspectives (implicitly) found in the sustainable business model literature. The first is the agency perspective. It takes into consideration that some form of agency is needed, that is, “someone” who takes decisions and acts. Sustainable entrepreneurs are discussed as those agents who align their new or existing business models with sustainability innovations in order to be successful in business and to create value with and for stakeholders. The second perspective is the systems perspective, which acknowledges that business models are always embedded within sociotechnical contexts through which, for example, public policies, private financing, or stakeholder interests influence whether and how business models can be developed. The agency and systems perspectives are integrated in the so‐called business model mediation space. This theoretical notion embraces the decisions and activities pursued by sustainable entrepreneurs as they align their business models with sustainability innovations on the one hand and the influence of environmental contingencies, barriers, and stakeholders from the sociotechnical context on the other hand. The paper concludes with propositions for future research derived from the BMfSI framework.
... Borrowing from previous studies investigating preferences related to consumers' electricity choice, demand response and becoming a prosumer, we investigate prosumers's willingness to co-create flexibility with choice experiments. Choice experiments have been widely applied in energy economics and related fields (Aravena et al., 2016;Chau et al., 2010;Heinzle and Wüstenhagen, 2012;Kaenzig et al., 2013;Lüdeke-Freund and Loock, 2011;Lüthi and Wüstenhagen, 2012;Park et al., 2013;Salm, 2017;Sammer and Wüstenhagen, 2006;Tabi et al., 2014;Tabi and Wüstenhagen, 2017), but for the purposes of the present paper, two important methodological challenges have to be addressed. First, distributed flexibility is a rather complex technological phenomenon, which average electricity customers may be unfamiliar with. ...
Rising shares of fluctuating renewables increase the need for flexibility in the power market. At the same time, the emergence of the prosumer has created new opportunities for co-creation of distributed flexibility. As of yet, there is surprisingly little empirical analysis in terms of whether individuals are actually ready to co-create flexibility, and if so, under which conditions these resources can be mobilized by grid operators or electricity supply companies. We address this gap in the energy economics literature with three studies analyzing in total 7′216 individual decisions in a series of choice experiments with 902 study participants in three main domains of residential energy prosumption: (1) solar PV plus storage, (2) electric mobility, (3) heat pumps. We develop a novel measure of the prosumers’ willingness to co-create flexibility, and solicit their preferences for power supply contracts with varying levels of flexibility to derive implied discomfort costs. Our results indicate that current and potential electric car and solar PV users exhibit a higher willingness to co-create flexibility than heat pump users. Reaping the potential in those two domains requires taking the prosumer perspective into account when designing policy instruments and creating adequate business models.
... There are vast numbers of recent literature on factors promoting renewable energy development and use. The vast majority of this literature are normative and includes descriptive analysis in some countries, such as USA [4,5], the Netherlands [6,7], Denmark [8], Finland [9], Germany [10][11][12], Kazakhstan [13], Europe [14], and UK [15]. However, there is a lack of empirical literature in this field. ...
We examine the driving effects of various factors on technological innovation to renewables (TIRES), focusing on a set of 29 provinces in China, and apply a dynamic panel approach. China has become a leading player in research and development spending in renewables, and the dynamic panel estimators we use prove themselves to be suitable in handling the persistent effect on TIRES. The level of TIRES in the previous periods is positively and highly correlated with that in the current period and confirmed the need for a stable and consistent policy support for renewables. Electricity consumption is the most important driver for all renewables and wind energy, but the driving effect was weaker for solar energy and biomass. Research and development intensity is the most important driver for biomass, but is only the second most important driver for all renewables, solar energy and wind energy. Unexpectedly, electricity price has had significant negative impacts on TIRES, which reveals that lowering electricity prices will lead to higher innovation in renewables. The driving effect of renewable energy tariff surcharge subsidy is not significant, which means that Chinese subsidy policy has not played the desired role. The driving effect of installed renewable energy capacity is also minimal, which may be due to the fact that overcapacity will hinder TIRES in China. This paper may help policy-makers and the industry understand how to promote TIRES in China effectively based on these above influential factors.
... These projects are realized as independent corporations solely founded for the realization of a single project and typically financed by multiple investors [9]. Because lenders of such corporations focus on cash-flow-related lending [9,33], we used a discounted cash-flow (DCF) calculation for valuation, which is available in the online supplement. ...
The system integration of intermittent renewable energies (RE) poses an important challenge in the transition toward sustainable energy systems. Their intermittency introduces variability into electricity generation, leading to high ancillary service costs and technical issues impairing grid stability and supply reliability. These issues can be mitigated through spatially diversified capacity deployment, as RE intermittency can be geographically smoothed over sufficiently large regions. Following a design science research approach, we develop a model for the quantification of location-based investment incentives in RE support mechanisms to foster spatially diversified capacity deployment. We evaluate the modeling approach in a simulation study with focus on diversifying wind energy deployment in Mexico under an idealized auction mechanism and demonstrate how location-based investment incentives reduce resource-dependent competition among projects. Our research contributes a nascent design theory that combines the kernel theories for identifying favorable spatial distributions of RE capacity with current policy designs to support capacity expansion management
... example, experiments with renewable energy financing experts revealed a brand bias, where the employment of premium brand solar technologies was rated as the most important criterion, even more important than quantitative financial indicators(Loock, 2012;Lüdeke-Freund & Loock, 2011). Clean energy business models with premium brand technologies provide better access to financial capital, which is important for the development of roll-out strategies and finally business cases. ...
This cumulative dissertation deals with the relationships between business models, sustainability innovations, and the business case for sustainability. Its main purpose is to define theoretical and conceptual interrelations between these concepts. According theoretical foundations are developed and combined with empirical studies on the solar photovoltaic industry. This industry is particularly suitable for this kind of research because of its increasing maturity paired with public policy and market dynamics that lead to a variety of business model challenges. The overarching research question is: How can business models support the commercialisation of sustainability innovations and thus contribute to business cases for sustainability?
Theoretical and conceptual foundations are developed from a systematic literature review on the role of business models for technological, organisational, and social sustainability innovations. Further, business model innovation is linked to sustainability strategies and the business case for sustainability. These foundations are applied in an in-depth case study on BP Solar. Moreover, because supportive public policies and the availability of financial capital are important preconditions for commercial success with solar innovations, the dissertation contains a comparative public policy study as well as a conjoint experiment to explore debt capital investors’ preferences for different photovoltaic business models.
The main contribution of this work is the “Business Models for Sustainability Innovation” (BMfSI) framework. It is based on the idea that business models are artificial and social constructs that fulfil different functions based on social interaction and their deliberate construction. The framework emphasises the mediating function, i.e. the iterative alignment of business model elements with company-internal and external factors as well as with the characteristics of environmentally and socially beneficial innovations.
... There is a wide number of contributions underlying the relevance of RE ( [22], [23]). However, there is a lack of research on the financial aspects of RE projects [47]. The energy policy literature has seldom incorporated the investor's perspective. ...
Renewable energy (RE) is emerging as a solution in order to replace fossil fuels and become the primary source of energy consumption. Investments in the RE sector involve huge amounts of capital but also many risks. Public sector plays an important role in promoting RE projects but due to the need for reducing public expenditure the private sector becomes essential in financing this type of projects. Project Finance is widely used in RE projects and is especially attractive to the private sector because it can fund major projects off balance sheet. The objective of this paper is to present a decision making tool for helping the private sector on the selection process of RE projects to be funded. The problem could be considered as a multiple criteria decision-making problem where both, financial and non-financial criteria have to be taken into account. Objective aggregation weights for those criteria are obtained using the Moderate Pessimism Decision Making approach and a final ranking of the projects is obtained.
... Adaptive choice-based conjoint analysis. We used Adaptive Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis (ACBC) ( Sawtooth Software, Inc., 2009), a computerized method from marketing research ( Chapman & Alford, 2011;Chapman, Alford, Johnson, Weidemann, & Lahav, 2009), economics (Lüdeke Freund & Loock, 2011;Lüthi & Prässler, 2011), and health service research ( de Groot, Otten, Smeets, Marang-van, & Study group for the CHOICE, 2011). This approach, for example, has been used to determine the attributes of hospitals that influence patient choices ( de Groot et al., 2011de Groot et al., , 2012) and the disease and patient characteristics that influence the treatment decisions of physicians ( Whitman, Shreay, Gitlin, van Oijen, & Spiegel, 2013). ...
Adaptive choice-based conjoint analysis was used to study the anti-cyberbullying program preferences of 1,004 university students. More than 60% reported involvement in cyberbullying as witnesses (45.7%), victims (5.7%), perpetrator–victims (4.9%), or perpetrators (4.5%). Men were more likely to report involvement as perpetrators and perpetrator–victims than were women. Students recommended advertisements featuring famous people who emphasized the impact of cyberbullying on victims. They preferred a comprehensive approach teaching skills to prevent cyberbullying, encouraging students to report incidents, enabling anonymous online reporting, and terminating the internet privileges of students involved as perpetrators. Those who cyberbully were least likely, and victims of cyberbullying were most likely, to support an approach combining prevention and consequences. Simulations introducing mandatory reporting, suspensions, or police charges predicted a substantial reduction in the support of uninvolved students, witnesses, victims, and perpetrators. Aggr. Behav. 9999:XX–XX, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
... The use of such renewable sources of energy is connected, moreover, to a greater level of efficiency from which they are derived to achieve further energy savings D'Adamo, 2012a, 2013;European Commission, 2011). To guide citizens towards energy conservation policies and a lower use of traditional energy sources, it is necessary to define an effective system of incentive policies that allow both the reduction or elimination of the cost of electricity bills and the generation of profits from the adoption of policies respectful of the environment (O'Driscoll and O'Donnell, 2013;Lüdeke-Freund and Loock, 2011;Toke, 2007). ...
... It is computed as the net cash flow generated over summation of principal and interest for each payment period. It is an indication of the ability of a project to service its debt (Ludeke-Freund and Loock 2011). A DSCR less than 1 indicates the inability of the project's gross profits to serve its debts, whereas greater than one suggests not only that the SPV is able to serve the debt obligations with the cash flow generated by the project, but also to making profit. ...
An empirical study is presented to investigate the risk factors affecting the value for money that can be obtained from using the public-private partnership delivery system to develop social facility projects. Based on a model describing the main risks affecting a project, a linear regression analysis is conducted on a dataset of privately financed healthcare projects in the UK to explore the main factors that might have significant relationships with the annual unitary charge payment. The results reveal that the economic and political environment, the hospital capacity, the construction duration, and the concession period are significant factors of the price paid by the granting authority. The study confirms that the unitary charge is not only affected by investment, operations and financial lifecycle costs, but also by risk factors and the level of risk allocated to the private sponsors. The proposed methodology might help both public and private parties in improving PFI project's compensation design, in order to achieve a higher value in privately financed infrastructures. The given model might also support the process of better determining the amount of annual payment based on select drivers and appropriately transferred risk factors
... In 2009, the second restructuring programme was launched to cope with an increasingly difficult business environment. The solar market was hit by the financial crisis (Lüdeke Freund and Loock, 2011) and changing policy regimes ( Avril et al., 2012), while new module producers, fierce cost competition and overcapacities were exerting additional pressure ( Jäger-Waldau, 2009). Based on an interview with Reyad Fezzani, BP Solar CEO from 2008 to 2010, the San Francisco Business Times wrote: "The company was at one time the second-largest manufacturer of solar panels in the world ... but its market share has eroded in the past several years as BP struggled to compete with cheaper Asian manufacturers. ...
It is often overlooked that British Petroleum (BP) was among the commercial solar energy pioneers and one of the largest fully integrated photovoltaics companies. Following the 1970s oil crises, BP built its subsidiary BP Solar. But in 2011, in the wake of changing policy regimes, falling module prices and fierce competition, BP Solar was closed. However, before these developments occurred the company had a “solar business case.” This paper shows how this business case was realised and how BP tried to maintain it. BP’s annual reporting from 1998 to 2011 was studied by means of software-supported text analysis. A framework from sustainability management research structured the re-construction of the strategic drivers and business model innovations behind BP’s solar business. It is found that an accommodative strategy was applied and realised through two business model innovation paths, i.e. the optimisation of module manufacturing combined with completely new distribution models.
... We additionally include banks and other debt capital providers (e.g. mezzanine capital ) into the definition of megaproject investors used in this paper as banks, in particular, typically provide large parts of project finance and are also subject to acceptance issues ( " bankability of projects " ) (Freund and Loock, 2011). The actual group of inves-tors differs between projects (see e.g. ...
Introduction to the problem – Governments throughout the world are seeking to generate more of their domestic power from renewable energy sources. Power generation from wind energy is one of the most mature and important renewable energy technologies. On average, projects are steadily growing in size; the trend is towards large-scale wind power plants. Such wind power megaprojects, however, are often marked by high complexity, poor design, and poor delivery, which can diminish their attractiveness to investors.
Purpose – This paper aims to shed light on investors’ willingness to finance wind power megaprojects and illuminate the ways in which not only risk and return factors of wind power megaprojects, but also behavioral and social factors influence this attitude, which we call investor acceptance. In addition, this paper examines ways in which megaproject managers can enhance and manage their project’s attractiveness to investors.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops a conceptual model of investor acceptance of wind power megaprojects and its management based on insights from literature on behavioral finance, social acceptance of wind power projects, megaproject management and stakeholder management.
Findings – The paper concludes that investor acceptance of wind power megaprojects is theoretically prone to behavioral and social effects and that megaproject managers can influence investor acceptance through two different approaches: (1) indirectly (with respect to tactical project management) and (2) directly (related to stakeholder management).
Research implications – This paper broadens the scope of the research on investor acceptance by applying and further developing this concept in the context of megaprojects in the wind power industry and by discussing implications on megaproject management in a wind power context.
Business model experimentation has been identified as a key driver for business competitiveness but is underexplored in the sustainability and circular economy spheres. What is business model experimentation for the circular economy? This study follows a two-step approach: a literature analysis followed by a qualitative practitioner study. Based on these, circular business model experimentation is defined as an iterative approach to develop and test circular value propositions in a real-life context with customers and stakeholders, starting with a shared goal. It involves rapid learning based on empirical data to provide evidence on the viability of circular value propositions. Iterations involve increased complexity of experiments. There is a learning focus on initiating wider transitions, such as transforming consumer behaviours for the circular economy. We visualise the emerging research landscape, including research streams from business, transitions, engineering, and design. Practically, we illuminate how practitioners view the concept and current experimentation tools and approaches.
In recent years, auction mechanisms have gained in significance in the context of renewable energy deployment. An increasing number of countries have adopted auctions for the allocation of permits and financial support for renewable energy projects, thereby increasing competition among project developers. As a result, profit margins have decreased significantly while sensitivity to risks and uncertainty has increased. The adequate quantification of bid prices is a key challenge. We present a modeling approach to determine competitive and risk-adequate auction bids. The contribution of this paper is an improved method for quantifying marginal cost, which is the minimum sales price per unit of electricity through which the investment criteria of all project stakeholders are fulfilled. In our financial model, the risk-adequateness is determined through the investment criteria of equity investors by means of the adjusted present value, and those of debt investors by means of the debt service cover ratio, through Monte Carlo simulations. The resulting marginal cost serve as the starting point for strategic bidding optimization, regardless of the pricing rule in the contemplated auction design. To demonstrate the integrability of our mathematical model with strategic bidding optimization, we check its applicability in a case study, which shows how a German project developer should bid to realize an onshore wind farm project. We show that our model enables the quantification of bid prices that are both competitive and risk-adequate.
This thesis starts with a conceptual framework about sustainability and BM (business model), inquiring if something, as a green business model could exist. Thanks to Ehrenfled (2005) and others, notion of BMF (business model for flourishing future) is defined. The question is now how to introduce managers to BMF theory and practice? Was does it demand as cognitive effort? And how can it be stimulated by gamestorming as a learning space enabling new concept formation like new flourishing practices.
Chapter one is dedicated to literature review, conceptual framework building and research problem definition. This chapter contrasts BM as developed under a more traditional computational-interpretative cognitive view with BMF building asking for new preconditions being situated cognition and macrocognition. In this way, actors design a BMF through their sensorimotor interface to socio- and physical materiality where meaning emerges from multiple interactions. Also a BMF becomes a shared public object open to social competence development in a situation where macrocognition principles apply.
Chapter two takes stock of a teaching/learning experiment with an MBA classroom in which students had to handle—in the same course—both Business Model Canvas (BMC) and a rather abstract organizational modeling (OM) (Morabito and al., 1999) connected to knowledge management (KM) approaches. This learning experiment is a case of thick design inside an inverted classroom to explore the following idea: if more socio- and physical materiality is part of domain design, the more complex are the cognition requirements and the cognitive load. The chapter ends by associating weak sustainability with thin design and strong sustainability with thick design and by synthetizing key elements such as cognitive processes, ontologies contributions and computer-based support in both business model canvas (BMC) and organizational architecture (OA) approaches.
Chapter three delves more deeply into greening issues. This chapter presents a table game experiment with Logim@s© that occurred in the sustainability division of a large Canadian city: the four players were sustainability directors and professionals. The game is based on Steven Moore's book (2007) that exposes storylines, logical modes and discourses that enable three very different cities (Curitiba, Austin and Frankfurt) to deploy sustainability leadership. A thick design challenge lies at the heart of the experiment: how can a player connect the BMC approach with each city’s contradictory discourses and ‘abductive’ sentences on the physical materiality axis? Are the players in an inductive/deductive logical mode, or will they move on to abductive mode?
Chapter four examines how Logim@s© could become an open gamestorming platform, let’s call it SustAbd©. This chapter has two parts: the first part is a reflection on the game design process in order to justify a platform-architecture approach made up of the SustAbd© core and the SustAbd© periphery, and a second part, where five key UML use cases are proposed.
Chapter five builds on this researcher’s experience as a human tutor in inverted teaching and gamestorming experiences. The intent in this chapter is to adopt cognitive modeling (CM) as an approach devised to replace a human tutor with an embedded robot. This chapter continues with thoughts about situatedness and situated robots borrowed from Clancey (1997) work on situated robots. Those ideas enable to devise SustAbdPLAY© in accordance with situatedness and macrocognition by making distinction between individuals devising a new course of actions inside a community compliant with macrocognition conditions and individuals acting under instructions from others inside a hierarchy. Then new UML use cases are derived like getting to know each other’s and establishing a players’ community.
A conclusion ends the thesis.
This paper cumulates the findings from a review of the challenges faced by renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries. To date, research that could facilitate the success of renewable energy entrepreneurs in the world׳s developing regions has been fragmented across two main bodies of literature – management (specifically, entrepreneurship) and renewable energy. By conducting a qualitative review of the extant literature, I propose that the findings from both bodies of research may be distilled to six (6) key challenges: inadequate access to institutional finance; the price of renewable energy technologies (RETs); the lack of skilled labour; underdeveloped physical infrastructure and logistics; power/dominance of incumbents; inadequate government or policy support. Through this research, I not only advance a unified conceptualisation of the challenges faced by renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries, but also highlight a number of the revealed opportunities for future research.
This article systematically reviews the emerging field of research on business models for renewable energies, differentiating between developing and industrialized countries. The key findings on developing countries are as follows: first, there is a lack of quantitative data; second, opportunities are driven primarily by unfulfilled basic needs and micro-finance, whereas corruption and weak electricity grids are the main barriers; and third, business models should be replicable. The key findings on industrialized countries are as follows: first, opportunities are driven primarily by climate change mitigation and energy efficiency improvements; second, stuck thought patterns and high costs of energy storage are important barriers; and third, cooperation is a key in future business models to handle increasing complexity. This review reveals implications for researchers and policy-makers. Promising avenues for future research are the analysis of intermodal business models and opportunities concerning energy self-supply and renewable district heating. Policy-makers are advised to design legal frameworks that account for the global nature of the renewable energy challenge and are simultaneously adapted to regional disparities.
This paper provides a review of the state of the art of project finance methodology. The growing body of literature in this field serves to emphasize the increasing use and new areas of application of project finance techniques. The paper attempts to describe the main features of project finance, to explain the role of the participants, and the main contractual arrangements. Reviewing the state of the art of project finance provides a special opportunity to draw attention to the main challenges of this technique and to identify new trends.
Renewable energy is necessary for sustainable social and economic development. This is particularly so with global energy shortages, the continuous deterioration of ecosystems and the environment, as well as the world population explosion. This article qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes the effects and problems of Chinese favorable land price policy on photovoltaics. In examining the favorable land price policy in China, this study develops a multiple-linear regression model to study the effects of favorable land price policy on photovoltaic power and photovoltaic industry. Data used in this research was mainly collected from 20 provinces in China. It is found that the development of PV in China has been greatly affected by the favorable land price policy. In the end, it is highly recommended that favorable land price policy should be continued for renewable energy. Systemic deficiencies can be overcome through continual reform and innovation of mechanisms.
This paper proposes a compromise programming (CP) model to help investors decide whether to construct photovoltaic power plants with government financial support. For this purpose, we simulate an agreement between the government, who pursues political prices (guaranteed prices) as low as possible, and the project sponsor who wants returns (stochastic cash flows) as high as possible. The sponsor’s decision depends on the positive or negative result of this simulation, the resulting simulated price being compared to the effective guaranteed price established by the country legislation for photovoltaic energy. To undertake the simulation, the CP model articulates variables such as ranges of guaranteed prices, technical characteristics of the plant, expected energy to be generated over the investment life, investment cost, cash flow probabilities, and others. To determine the CP metric, risk aversion is assumed. As an actual application, a case study on photovoltaic power investment in Extremadura, western Spain, is developed in detail.
Renewable heat obligation (RHO) policies have continued to attract global attention, and the South Korean government plans to start enforcing these policies in 2016. To ensure the effectiveness of RHO policies, various preferences of stakeholders, including end users, should be considered in policy development because their benefits and costs can vary according to their level of obligation. A choice experiment was conducted to analyze the preferences of end users for two types of RHO policies: one aimed at heat suppliers and the other at building owners. The results indicate the necessity to focus on costs when designing RHO policies because this element was the most important factor influencing the public's acceptance of these policies and suggest that, for RHO policies aimed at heat suppliers, the government should convince end users of the stability of the heat supply, a factor considered to be important by consumers. Finally, the minimum level of the subsidy required to gain public approval of both types of RHO was examined. The annual government subsidies for the RHO for heating suppliers is expected to be KRW 330 billion, which can be covered by collecting taxes from those consumers not subject to these obligations. The results for RHOs for building owners indicate KRW 900 billion to 1.8 trillion as the amount of subsidy spending required of the government.
Photovoltaic energy has experienced tremendous growth in terms of implementation at facilities for power supply in rural areas and for energy dispatch to grid. The relative position of the fixed panels can present the problem of varying amounts of shadowing among them, which can reduce the overall energy produced from the array of photovoltaic panels on specific dates and times, in addition to the problems in each of the panels themselves. The existing methods calculate the distances between the rows of PV panels using a fixed height of the sun, such that the rays always strike perpendicular to the panels, thereby limiting the duration of solar gain to 4 h. This paper proposes a method that optimises the minimisation of the distance between the rows of fixed photovoltaic panels. The proposed method is based on the exact calculation of the shadows of the panels for the different positions of the sun, which depends on the latitude of the facility, throughout the course of the day and for all of the planned hours of solar gain. To illustrate the proposed method, it has been applied to a case study for which the solutions obtained using the traditional methods are compared, indicating that the distance can be reduced by up to 40% when the tilt angle of the panel is 60°. In conclusion, the proposed general method for optimally minimising the distance between the PV panels in solar arrays, which is of particular interest for standalone photovoltaic (PV) systems in remote areas that act as isolated small power producing units for the supply of electricity.
The transformation of the energy industry towards a more sustainable production of electricity increases the importance of distributed generation from renewable sources such as solar photovoltaic (PV). German utilities have largely failed to benefit from this development and lost 97% of the distributed PV generation market to investors from outside the electric power industry. Recent studies indicate that utilities have to react to prevent revenue erosion and loss of profits. This study identifies threats and opportunities of distributed PV generation for utilities based on a series of interviews with German utility managers. The key finding is that utilities do not perceive distributed PV as a threat to their current business models nor do they see it as a potential market for them. Relating these findings to the existing literature on transformation processes in other industries leads to the conclusion that the solution for utilities lies in changing their perspective on distributed PV. Utilities could greatly benefit if they did not treat PV as just another source of electricity generation in competition with traditional sources (as they do today), but as a strategic gateway into the emerging distributed generation and service market. Distributed PV could function as a basis for further business model innovation in new growth markets such as energy efficiency and distributed storage. Specific recommendations are provided and a modular value proposition is suggested to help utilities to turn distributed PV from a threat into an attractive business opportunity.
The transformation of today's electric power sector to a more sustainable energy production based on renewable energies will change the structure of the industry. Consequently, utilities as the major stakeholders in this transformation will face new challenges in their way of doing business. They will have to adapt their business models to remain competitive in the new energy landscape. The present review of business model literature shows that two basic choices exist: utility-side business models and customer-side business models. The two approaches follow a very different logic of value creation. While the former is based on a small number of large projects, the latter is based on a large number of small projects. The article reveals that blueprints for utility-side business models are available, whereas customer-side business models are in an early stage of development. Applying the business model framework as an analytical tool, it is found that existing utility-side business models comprise a series of advantages for utilities in terms of revenue potential and risk avoidance. This study provides new insights about why utilities will favor utility-side business models over customer-side business models and why they also should engage in customer-side business models in their quest for more sustainable future business models.
Recent research in information economics has focused on signals as mechanisms to solve problems that arise under asymmetric information. A firm or individual credibly communicates the level of some unobservable element in a transaction by providing an observable signal. When applied to conveying product quality information, this issue is of particular interest to the discipline of marketing. In this article, the authors focus on the ways a firm may signal the unobservable quality of its products through several marketing-mix variables. The authors develop a typoloqy that classifies signals and discuss the available empirical evidence on the signaling properties of several marketing variables. They consider managerial implications of signaling and outline an agenda for future empirical research.
We focus on the design of an organization's set of boundary-spanning transactions - business model design - and ask how business model design affects the performance of entrepreneurial firms. By extending and integrating theoretical perspectives that inform the study of boundary-spanning organization design, we propose hypotheses about the impact of efficiency-centered and novelty-centered business model design on the performance of entrepreneurial firms. Tb test these hypotheses, we developed and analyzed a unique data set of 190 entrepreneurial firms that were publicly listed on U.S. and European stock exchanges. The empirical results show that novelty-centered business model design matters to the performance of entrepreneurial firms. Our analysis also shows that this positive relationship is remarkably stable across time, even under varying environmental regimes. Additionally, we find indications of potential diseconomies of scope in design; that is, entrepreneurs' attempts to incorporate both efficiency- and novelty-centered design elements into their business models may be counterproductive.
This paper focuses on growth feasibility in an era of increasing scarcity of fossil fuels. Our model suggests that high GDP growth makes the economic and environmental sustainability window very narrow. Policy should therefore target low growth rates, stimulate investment in alternative energy sources and discourage consumption growth. Economic growth is at the centre of economic analysis, the political agenda and public debate. Positive rates of GDP-per-capita growth (that is, exponential growth) are taken as a physiological feature of contemporary economies, so that any slowdown causes concern and calls for action. However, above all in the last three decades, doubts have been raised both about the feasibility and desirability of unlimited growth. The present paper seeks to contribute to the debate by focusing on the relationship between GDP growth and the increasing scarcity of energy availability, with special emphasis on the risk that exhaustible energy sources may 'run out' before such time as sufficient knowledge and production capacity in alternative (and cleaner) sources has been developed. We build a simple one-sector growth model in which the process of accumulation of 'alternative energy source capacity' (henceforth AESC) is explicitly considered. By envisaging alternative hypothetical scenarios, we discuss feasible paths and highlight some pros and cons of economic growth. In particular, the paper will show the short-and long-run outcomes of policies that 1 We received many useful comments from the participants in the International Conference "Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity" (18-19 April 2008 Paris). All shortcomings remain our own. This paper is the result of joint work. However, the authorship can be attributed as follows: sections 1, 2 and 3 have been written by Luzzati and Morroni, 4 and 5 by D'Alessandro, 6 by Luzzati.
This book provides a comprehensive treatment of behavioural finance. With the use of the latest psychological research, Shefrin helps us to understand the human behaviour that guides stock selection, financial services, and corporate financial strategy. He argues that financial practitioners must acknowledge and understand behavioural finance - the application of psychology to financial behaviour - in order to avoid many of the investment pitfalls caused by human error. Shefrin points out the common but costly mistakes that money managers, security analysts, financial planners, investment bankers, and corporate leaders make, so that readers gain valuable insights into their own financial decisions and those of their employees, asset managers, and advisors.
This book describes the new generation of discrete choice methods, focusing on the many advances that are made possible by simulation. Researchers use these statistical methods to examine the choices that consumers, households, firms, and other agents make. Each of the major models is covered: logit, generalized extreme value, or GEV (including nested and cross-nested logits), probit, and mixed logit, plus a variety of specifications that build on these basics. Simulation-assisted estimation procedures are investigated and compared, including maximum simulated likelihood, method of simulated moments, and method of simulated scores. Procedures for drawing from densities are described, including variance reduction techniques such as anithetics and Halton draws. Recent advances in Bayesian procedures are explored, including the use of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and its variant Gibbs sampling. No other book incorporates all these fields, which have arisen in the past 20 years. The procedures are applicable in many fields, including energy, transportation, environmental studies, health, labor, and marketing.
Focusing on the many advances that are made possible by simulation, this book describes the new generation of discrete choice methods. Researchers use these statistical methods to examine the choices that consumers, households, firms, and other agents make. Each of the major models is covered: logit, generalized extreme value, or GEV (including nested and cross-nested logits), probit, and mixed logit, plus a variety of specifications that build on these basics. The procedures are applicable in many fields, including energy, transportation, environmental studies, health, labor, and marketing.
This article describes a portion of our ongoing research on the modelling of the venture capitalists' evaluation of new venture proposals. In particular, it presents the results of a pilot study compares the predictive validity of three models; self-explicated, traditional conjoint, and hybrid conjoint. These models were applied to venture capital decision making- The results indicate that these models can be used as a practical research method in venture capital decision-making. Secondly, the traditional conjoint and hybrid conjoint models out-perform the self-explicated model in terms of explanatory power but only marginally in terms of predictive power. Fourth, overall the predictive validity of the models examined is somewhat stranger for predictions based on the same data on which the models were tested - as expected - than for data not used by the models. However, the drop is not sharp. Fifth, the venture capitalists appeared to exhibit screening procedures that were conjunctive (non-compensatory), whereas in subsequent detailed analysis the procedure approximates a more compensatory one. Finally, it has been demonstrated that characteristics of the entrepreneur, the product and the market can replicate the venture capitalists' decision-making.
Decision making is central to the ability of venture capitalists to predict those new ventures likely to succeed, yet most studies into their decision making use post-hoc methodologies that may generate biased results. People are poor at introspection and often suffer from recall and post-hoc rationalization biases among others. Therefore, researchers should consider using real-time methods that eliminate many of these biases. One such method is conjoint analysis. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the potential that conjoint analysis has to: (1) improve the validity of prior research into VCs' decision making; and (2) act as a catalyst for adopting conceptual tools from other disciplines that can be tested empirically. Both these functions have the purpose of increasing one's insight into the assessment policies of VCs.
This report summarizes work to better understand the structure of future photovoltaics business models and the research, development, and demonstration required to support their deployment.
One of the major justifications for bio-energy systems is their low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to fossil-energy ones. Transforming a sugar mill into a bio-energy plant would contribute to climate change mitigation via the extraction of renewable electricity and ethanol. This study takes the case of the sugar industry in Thailand and identifies scenario options that offer GHG reduction benefits. Improving efficiency in electricity generation from sugar cane residues e.g. excess bagasse and cane trash is such a beneficial option. Furthermore, extracting ethanol in a so-called bio-refinery, where the co-product stillage is utilized for energy, tends to magnify the potential benefit. The largest savings potential achieved with extracting ethanol from surplus sugar versus current practice in the sugar industry in Thailand amounts to 14 million tonnes CO2e a year. This cannot be realized in practice until the carbon debt from land conversion is repaid, which takes 4.5–7 years, assuming that the land converted is grassland.
Protecting the environment has been the priority of many sectors in our endeavor to ensure sustainable development. Implementation of green energy development based on the use of biomass is in the right path in adopting a holistic approach in the promotion of renewable energy. Malaysia has very substantial potential for biomass energy utilization given its equatorial climate that is ideal for dense tropical forest growth and agricultural vegetation. Biomass power potentials from wood processing and palm oil were estimated at 280 TJ and 250 TJ, respectively. By the year 2010, the biomass energy potential is expected to increase to 820 TJ. The paper describes the effective use of biomass as the first of the renewable energy sources to be developed for large-scale applications, especially in the palm oil industry and the methodology for energy harness by innovative utilization of waste from palm oil cultivation and processing.
Extraordinary financial market conditions have disrupted the flows of equity and debt investment into U.S. renewable energy (RE) projects since the fourth quarter of 2008. The pace and structure of renewable energy project finance has been reshaped by a combination of forces, including the financial crisis, global economic recession, and major changes in federal legislation affecting renewable energy finance. This report explores the impacts of these key market events on renewable energy project financing and development.
This article provides an introduction to this Special Issue of Journal of Cleaner Production (JCLP), which contains thirteen, carefully selected articles from the 12th Conference, “Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction” – PRES'09. This issue builds upon the multi-year co-operation between the PRES conference planners and the JCLP. The articles cover important subjects of increased efficiency in energy generation and usage and in improvements in industrial process optimisation. The first group of five papers focuses upon recent advances in emissions reduction and the resulting energy penalties. The second group of four papers deals with improving the efficiency and reliability in the utilisation of renewable energy, where hydrogen and biodiesel are the key energy carriers. The final group of three papers focus on process integration challenges of sustainable energy systems and upon the challenges of industrial/societal integration of sustainable energy systems into regional sustainable development planning.
We examine the fit between a firm's product market strategy and its business model. We develop a formal model in order to analyze the contingent effects of product market strategy and business model choices on firm performance. We investigate a unique, manually collected dataset, and find that novelty-centered business models—coupled with product market strategies that emphasize differentiation, cost leadership, or early market entry—can enhance firm performance. Our data suggest that business model and product market strategy are complements, not substitutes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The efficient markets hypothesis has been the central proposition in finance for nearly thirty years. It states that securities prices in financial markets must equal fundamental values, either because all investors are rational or because arbitrage eliminates pricing anomalies. This book describes an alternative approach to the study of financial markets: behavioral finance. This approach starts with an observation that the assumptions of investor rationality and perfect arbitrage are overwhelmingly contradicted by both psychological and institutional evidence. In actual financial markets, less than fully rational investors trade against arbitrageurs whose resources are limited by risk aversion, short horizons, and agency problems. The book presents and empirically evaluates models of such inefficient markets. Behavioral finance models both explain the available financial data better than does the efficient markets hypothesis and generate new empirical predictions. These models can account for such anomalies as the superior performance of value stocks, the closed end fund puzzle, the high returns on stocks included in market indices, the persistence of stock price bubbles, and even the collapse of several well-known hedge funds in 1998. By summarizing and expanding the research in behavioral finance, the book builds a new theoretical and empirical foundation for the economic analysis of real-world markets.
If Europe is serious about reaching its target to keep global mean temperature increase below 2 °C, it must strive for a 100% renewable electricity system by 2050. The SuperSmart Grid approach combines what is often perceived as two exclusive alternatives: wide area power generation and decentralised power generation. We argue that by combining these, in fact, complementary measures, it is possible to address the crucial issue of renewable generation—fluctuating supply—in a comprehensive as well as in a technologically and economically viable manner. Thus, the SuperSmart Grid simultaneously can contribute to energy security, climate security, social security, and national security.
Given the importance of renewable energy sources for reducing the threat of global climatic change without compromising economic development, this paper explores regulatory alternatives that may facilitate the introduction of renewable energy in the Colombian electricity market. The analysis is based on a simulation model of the electricity market that represents the behaviour of the agents involved, and their decision to invest according to proposed incentives. The possible expansion of renewable energy depending on different incentives is examined. This research is carried out in the Latin-American context, and accordingly we present the exploitation potential of renewable sources for electricity generation in the region. This paper shows how restructuring electricity markets, such as the Colombian and others in Latin America, may be an efficient means to promote the use of renewable energy.
More than 50% of Australians own shares either directly or through managed funds. As the `baby boomers' age, government policy is encouraging individuals to take responsibility for their own retirement income, suggesting this figure is likely to rise. Despite the importance of individuals' investment decisions, however, we know little about the factors that influence them. The present study uses a conjoint analysis approach, which has previously been used in non-financial product choice research, to investigate the attributes that influence individual investors when they make a decision to buy shares. The results obtained suggest that the majority of individual investors have little interest in speculation and are, by nature, long-term investors. In deciding to buy a particular stock, financial measures, such as dividend and price–earnings ratio are relevant. However, they are less important than the company's management or recent movements in the share's price.
In recent years a considerable increase in interest in the development of processes based upon renewable resources has occurred. One reason for this development is the call for more sustainable and environmentally benign production processes and products.Increased utilisation of renewable resources, however, poses new challenges to chemical and process industries. These challenges arise from increased competition for renewable but still finite resources, the de-centralised production of the renewable resources and the complexity of the raw materials. These new challenges require new approaches to process development, as production systems become more complex and interlinked, logistical considerations become increasingly important and new technological solutions must be adapted to local and regional settings. As the structure of complex production systems must be newly developed and optimised, process synthesis will play an increasingly important role in process development.
Rice husk generated as a by-product of rice mill processes can be utilized as an energy source for husk-fuelled rice mills. The economic evaluation of the investment of husk-fuelled steam engine rice mills, which generate mechanical energy for the direct driving of milling equipments, has previously been presented in literature. It was reported that for some particular conditions of rice mill, the investment of husk-fuelled steam engine as energy-saving technology is financially feasible. Since May 2002, electricity distributors in Thailand have allowed renewable energy producers up to 1 MW to connect their generators to the grid in order to sell surplus electricity to the grid. This arrangement creates more income opportunities for husk-fuelled steam engine owners to generate not only mechanical power for rice milling processes, but also surplus electricity for feeding onto the grid. The objective of this study is to investigate the financial feasibility of the investment in a husk-fuelled steam engine system which drives grid-connected electrical generators, reduces rice mill demand and electricity and sells surplus electricity to the grid. The technical and economic data for rice mill sizes 35, 45, 60, 95 and 120 t/d presented in this study show that the husk-fuelled steam engine system with grid-connected generators improves the economic performance of applying the system solely for the largest 120 t/d rice mills. However, the conventional husk-fuelled steam engine without electric generator gives a better economic performance of the rice mills sizes from 45 to 95 t/d.
This paper focuses on growth feasibility in an era of increasing scarcity of fossil fuels. A stylised dynamic model illustrates the implications of investing in smooth technological progress in the field of renewable energy. Positive rates of GDP growth sustained by fossil fuels entail, on the one hand, more income available for R&D in renewable energy sources, and on the other, an acceleration of the exhaustible resource depletion time. Our model explores such a trade-off and highlights the danger of high growth rates. Policies should target low growth rates, stimulate investment in alternative energy sources and discourage consumption growth.
In Business-to-Business (B2B) environments, many firms focus their branding activities on the dissemination of their brand name and logo without developing a more comprehensive brand identity. Thus, the creation of brand awareness is an important goal in many B2B branding strategies. However, it is still unclear if the great investment necessary to build a high level of brand awareness really pays off in business markets. Therefore, drawing on information economics theory, this paper investigates under which conditions brand awareness is associated with market performance in a B2B context. Results from a cross-industry study of more than 300 B2B firms show that brand awareness significantly drives market performance. This link is moderated by market characteristics (product homogeneity and technological turbulence) and typical characteristics of organizational buyers (buying center heterogeneity and time pressure in the buying process).
Although autonomous photovoltaic (PV) systems are identified as renewable energy technologies able to satisfy the electrification needs of remote consumers, they are strongly accused of their life-cycle energy requirements. To support the specific systems' sustainable character one should be able to ensure minimum period of energy pay-back. In this context, an optimum sizing methodology is developed for stand-alone PV-battery systems in order to obtain configurations of minimum energy content. The proposed methodology is applied to three representative islands across the Greek territory and the results obtained are favourably compared with the up to now – commonly used – diesel-electric generator solution.
This special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production focuses on “Energy for Sustainable Future”. It is designed to mirror the increasing relevance of renewable energy sources and improved efficiency as crucial topics for practitioners in industry, for governmental policy makers, as well as for civic service providers, researchers, and educators. The purpose of this special issue is to serve as a catalyst for dialogue. The global warming related to CO2 emissions, coupled with steeply rising energy prices and the recent global financial institutional melt-down are causing massive societal concerns and give rise to increasing demand for ways to improve societal and individual energy efficiency and for ways to shift increasingly to alternative, low or non-carbon based energy systems.
The deployment of biofuels is significantly affected by policy in energy and agriculture. In the energy arena, concerns regarding the sustainability of biofuel systems and their impact on food prices led to a set of sustainability criteria in EU Directive 2009/28/EC on Renewable Energy. In addition, the 10% biofuels target by 2020 was replaced with a 10% renewable energy in transport target. This allows the share of renewable electricity used by electric vehicles to contribute to the mix in achieving the 2020 target. Furthermore, only biofuel systems that effect a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared with the fuel they replace are allowed to contribute to meeting the target. In the agricultural arena, cross-compliance (which is part of EU Common Agricultural Policy) dictates the allowable ratio of grassland to total agricultural land, and has a significant impact on which biofuels may be supported. This paper outlines the impact of these policy areas and their implications for the production and use of biofuels in terms of the 2020 target for 10% renewable transport energy, focusing on Ireland. The policies effectively impose constraints on many conventional energy crop biofuels and reinforce the merits of using biomethane, a gaseous biofuel. The analysis shows that Ireland can potentially satisfy 15% of renewable energy in transport by 2020 (allowing for double credit for biofuels from residues and ligno-cellulosic materials, as per Directive 2009/28/EC) through the use of indigenous biofuels: grass biomethane, waste and residue derived biofuels, electric vehicles and rapeseed biodiesel.
Purpose
To innovate the company business model, executives must first understand what it is, and then examine what paths exist for them to improve on it. This article aims to examine this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The article provides a practical definition of business models and offers a Business Model Framework (BMF) that illuminates the opportunities for business model innovation.
Findings
The article finds that BMF sequences possible business models from very basic (and not very valuable) models to far more advanced (and very valuable) models. Using the BMF, companies can assess where their current business model stands in relation to its potential and then define appropriate next steps for the further advancement of it.
Practical implications
An organization must give a senior manager the resources and authority to define and launch business‐model experiments.
Originality/value
The article provides a cogent model for assessing the potential for new business model innovation, a framework for carrying it out and a management plan for decision making.
PV sector from an Investor's perspective
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Johnson, G., 2009. PV sector from an Investor's perspective. In: EPIA 3rd International Conference on Solar Investments: 7 April 2009. EPIA, Frankfurt.
Potenziell treibende Kräfte und potenzielle Barrieren für den Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien aus integrativer Sichtweise. (Drivers and barriers of renewable energies from an integrative perspective)
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WI, 2010. Potenziell treibende Kräfte und potenzielle Barrieren für den Ausbau
erneuerbarer Energien aus integrativer Sichtweise. (Drivers and barriers of
renewable energies from an integrative perspective). Wuppertal Institut,
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A Behavioral Finance Perspective on Sustainable Energy Investment Decisions
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Oschlies, M.K., 2007. A Behavioral Finance Perspective on Sustainable Energy
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Clean energy investment down just 6 Asia outstrips the Americas New Energy Finance: http://www.newenergyfinance.com/Download/pressreleases/105/pdffile/ (accessed
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NEF. Clean energy investment down just 6.5% in 2009; Asia outstrips the Americas. New Energy Finance: http://www.newenergyfinance.com/Download/pressreleases/105/pdffile/ (accessed: 23-04-2010); 2010.
Project Finance. A Legal Guide
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Vinter, G., Price, G., 2006. Project Finance. A Legal Guide, third ed. Sweet & Maxwell,
London.
Adaptive choice-based conjoint
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Johnson, R., Huber, J., Bacon, L., 2003. Adaptive choice-based conjoint. In: Sawtooth
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Hierarchical bayesian analysis for multi-format adaptive CBC
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Otter, T., 2007. Hierarchical bayesian analysis for multi-format adaptive CBC. In:
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Brand awareness in business markets: When is it related to firm performance? No pain, no gain: A critical review of the literature on signaling unobservable product quality
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Homburg C, Klarmann M, Schmitt J. Brand awareness in business markets: When is it related to firm performance? International Journal of Research in Marketing. 2010;27:201-12. [47] Kirmani A, Rao A. No pain, no gain: A critical review of the literature on signaling unobservable product quality. Journal of Marketing. 2000;64:66-79.
Clean Energy Investment Down Just 6
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Photovoltaïc business models: threat or opportunity for utilities? Handbook on Energy Entrepreneurship Renewable Energy Project Financing: Impacts of the Financial Crisis and Federal Legislation
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Schoettl, J.-M., Lehmann-Ortega, L., 2011. Photovoltaïc business models: threat or opportunity for utilities? In: Wüstenhagen, R., Wuebker, R. (Eds.), Handbook on Energy Entrepreneurship. Elgar. Schwabe, P., Cory, K., Newcomb, J., 2009. Renewable Energy Project Financing: Impacts of the Financial Crisis and Federal Legislation. NREL, Golden. Shefrin, H., 2000. Beyond Greed and Fear: Understanding Behavioral Finance and the Psychology of Investing. Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
Project Management) WUV, Wien. NEF, 2009a. New Energy Finance Sees Year of Consolidation for Clean Energy in 2009. New Energy Finance
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Photovoltaik: Leitfaden für Kreditinstitute. (Photovoltaic -A guide for banks). Forseo
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guide for banks). Forseo, Freiburg.
A Behavioral Finance Perspective on Sustainable Energy Investment Decisions Hierarchical bayesian analysis for multi-format adaptive CBC Hybrid conjoint analysis: an estimation probe in new venture decisions
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Oschlies, M.K., 2007. A Behavioral Finance Perspective on Sustainable Energy Investment Decisions. St. Gallen. Otter, T., 2007. Hierarchical bayesian analysis for multi-format adaptive CBC. In: Sawtooth Software Conference Proceedings. PWC, 2009. A World Beyond Recession. Utilities Global Survey 2009. Pricewa-terhouseCoopers, Essen. Riquelme, H., Rickards, T., 1992. Hybrid conjoint analysis: an estimation probe in new venture decisions. Journal of Business Venturing 7 (6), 505e518. Sarasin, 2009. Solarwirtschaft. (Solar Industry). Bank Sarasin & Cie AG.
Renewable energy from palm oil e innovation on effective utili-zation of waste Business model design and the performance of entrepre-neurial firms The fit between product market strategy and business model: implications for firm performance
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Yusoff, S., 2006. Renewable energy from palm oil e innovation on effective utili-zation of waste. Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (1), 87e93. Zott, C., Amit, R., 2007. Business model design and the performance of entrepre-neurial firms. Organization Science 18 (2), 181e199. Zott, C., Amit, R., 2008. The fit between product market strategy and business model: implications for firm performance. Strategic Management Journal 29 (1), 1e26.
Advanced Project Financing. Structuring Risk
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Sarasin. Solarwirtschaft [Solar industry]. Bank Sarasin & Cie AG. 2009.
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