Modeling Financial Structures

I was just wondering whether SAM is capable of financial structuring.  It seems that there's capability to do basic cash flow analysis but not structuring of tax equity transactions.  Is that correct?

 

SAM's PPA financial models are relatively rudimentary. (At least, an expert financial analyst might think so). They are designed to give some initial insight into what kind of PPA price would make a project viable, or what IRR would be required to achieve a given PPA price.

 

The two partnership models are designed for projects with a tax investor and developer (with and without debt), and the sale leaseback model is for a lease arrangement. Those models were developed in 2011 and reflect the state of those kinds of agreements in the United States at that time. They also make a some simplifications to make the model usable for people who are not financial experts.

 

SAM also has a basic third party financial model, which is from a home or building owner's perspective, and designed to shed light on the question of whether a lease or PPA arrangement is more cost-effective.

 

Finally, the "LCOE calculator" model is a simple model that allows you to specify your own fixed charge ratio along with installation and operating costs.