The Irish government’s target to achieve 80% of electricity generation from renewable sources, together with increasing consumer and societal demands for green products & services, is driving significant capital investment and innovation in the Irish renewable energy market. Executives who are involved in this industry are often required to make critical business and investment decisions and to balance risks vs rewards in a world of uncertainty. A robust, flexible, and user-friendly forecasting model is a critical tool in this decision-making process.

This one-day training course is intended for developers, finance & accounting, investment professionals or students who want to learn how to design and develop a best-practice renewable energy financial model in Microsoft Excel.

This course will teach you the characteristics of what makes a good financial model, the process of designing, developing, and testing a financial model, the key functions and formulae needed to build Excel-based financial models, and together we will work through a practical, step-by-step, case-study where we will build an integrated, dynamic, 3-statement wind or solar forecasting model in Excel.

Course Content

Understanding the Principles for Best Practice Financial Modelling

Designing a Financial Model

Building an integrated, dynamic, 3-statement wind or solar forecasting model in Excel, including:

• Revenues (covering electricity generation calculations built-up from installed capacity, capacity factor, degradation, loss adjustment factors, constraints, and curtailments, and revenue streams for PPAs, subsidies and merchant prices)
• Operating costs (e.g., O&M, land lease, rates, insurances, TuOS etc)
• Capital expenditure (construction costs and lifecycle costs), fixed assets, and depreciation
• Corporation tax (including capital allowances)
• Indexation
• Control accounts
• Integrity and signal checks
• Integrated income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet
• Unlevered pre and post-tax NPV and IRR

‍Testing a Financial Model

Key Excel Functions

Prerequisites

• You will need Excel 2010 or later installed on your device, and you will also need two screens.
• Key things you will need to know already in Excel is how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, as well as how to use $ sign to fix the absolute reference of cells, how to navigate Excel generally (e.g., how to copy & paste formula and how formatting works, such as how to change fonts, backgrounds, etc).
• From a finance and accounting perspective, you will need to know the fundamentals of debits & credits and double entry, the difference between the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement, and how they interact with each other, and you will need to be familiar with basic financial concepts like working capital, depreciation, debt financing as well as metrics such as EBITDA, gross profit margins, NPV etc.

‍Who Should Attend

This course has been designed for aspiring and experienced professionals who are familiar with the fundamentals of Excel and who have a good grasp of basic accounting & finance and who want to learn how to build a best practice, renewable energy, financial model in Excel.

Certification

On completion of this one-day training course, you will receive your Certificate of Attendance. Please note certificates are issued at the close of the training course to participants on completion of the course.

Please check directly with your association or awarding body to see how many points they will award.

Cost

An ‘Early Bird’ discounted rate of €635 is currently available. This training course normal rate is €735. Places are limited and are allocated on a first come first served basis. PLEASE NOTE THE EARLY BIRD RATE CLOSES 3 WEEKS PRIOR TO COURSE DATE. The course cost includes all course documentation and Certificate of Attendance.