Cleaner-energy Investments ― Cases and Teaching Notes

This book is a compilation of case studies from different countries and covers contemporary technologies including electric vehicles and solar thermal power plants. The book highlights the real-world situations facing individual projects and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the underlying business propositions. It also sheds light on the factors that are routinely ignored during project formulation and risk assessment, namely coordination among public and private agencies, confirmed availability of relatively minor but essential components, possibility of concurrent demand for inputs from different project proponents, etc. The book provides a systematic ‘guided tour’ of renewable energy (RE) projects for potential project analysts and includes the development of financial models. It concludes with an evaluation of risk and the design of risk-mitigation measures. It is designed to simultaneously appeal to business school students and to serve as a guide for practicing executives, policy makers and consultants. The cases cover several countries, currencies, policy environments, technologies and resources and will help policy makers, consultants and project analysts and proponents view RE projects in a new light.

Srinivasan Sunderasan is an Economist at Verdurous Solutions Private Limited (Mysore, India), which is an Investment advisory and consultancy specializing in management and financing aspects of renewable energy, microfinance, water, waste and other ‘sustainable development’ initiatives. Prior to this, he was the Deputy Country Manager (India) of Photovoltaic Market Transformation Initiative (PVMTI), an Investment Officer with the South Asian Region for Solar Development Group (SDG) and Triodos Renewable Energy for Development Fund. He has obtained his PhD from University of Vienna, Austria in 2005 specializing in Business Economics.

He has twenty years of rich and diversified experience as a techno-commercial professional, in planning, project management, research, academics and consultancy in various industries including construction, telecom, energy, financial services and ‘sustainable development.’ He is recognised as an expert on rural energy supply models by the International Solar Energy Society and a specialist in evaluation and financing for renewable energy and other cleantech ventures. He has authored, and contributed to, many books on related subjects published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Nova Publishers and Springer Verlag. He is an editorial board member of J. Reviews on Global Economics and expert peer-reviewer with prestigious publishers including Elsevier B.V. and Springer Verlag. He is guest faculty of Finance/Economics at reputed business schools.