Our case studies
Ubiquity, a Generate Capital company
North Carolina-based solar / battery storage
development company
California-based battery storage
development company
Standard Solar
Standard Solar (a subsidiary of Energir) is focusing on the deployment of solar photovoltaic systems for a wide variety of customers, including corporates, utilities, governments, and institutions of higher education. Standard Solar was acquired by Énergir in 2017. Back then Standard Solar was an EPC & O&M service provider. Following the acquisition, the access to the prescribed capital changed the company’s strategy. Standard Solar started developing projects with the intent to build, finance, and be the long-time owner and operator. The plan was to build the equivalent of 100 megawatts of contracted CI&I solar projects per year.
In the summer of 2020, the companies needed to build a long-term forecast for fair market value purposes but also to gather the required set of tools to correctly establish and analyze future strategic scenarios. But with the deadline looming, it became clear they needed some way to get their arms around the specifics of their large (and growing) portfolio of projects, and quickly.
Standard Solar and Energir reached out to Orbis to help with the modeling of their large operational and development portfolios. They needed a rigorously quantitative approach that didn’t overcomplicate what would already be a sizeable model rebuilding exercise.
Using a two-dimensional modeling technique, Orbis was able to aggregate and present cash flows in easy-to-digest output tabs for both management and the auditors to sensitize quickly and efficiently. “Managing expectations for both our management team and the stakeholders meant we needed maximal flexibility all the time,” said Jonathan Arcand, Principal Advisor at Energir. “Orbis’s modeling team gave us everything we needed to get everyone comfortable with how the process was playing out. We were able to sensitize pretty much every input to our model and view the resulting changes in cash flow and NPV in real-time.”
Orbis created space for over 40 asset categories to be evaluated along with both operational and development asset types. At the conclusion of the mandate, Standard Solar and Energir plan to use the resulting model to power their ongoing corporate reporting efforts.
Standard Solar’s CFO Dan Dobbs was a key part of the model build and reporting exercises. “The team at Orbis made it really easy to drop in new assets on the fly. We look forward to using this model to streamline our ongoing reporting and long-term planning efforts,” Dan said.
Timberland Investment Group
The BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (TIG) is a multinational investment bank managing forested trees as an investment vehicle for retirement and pension plans. The firm has $3.5B AUM and more than 2.0M acres under management.
TIG uses financial models to evaluate the upside of acquiring large swaths of timber assets, then updates those models to adjust their original projections for the current condition. In late summer 2020, TIG needed to streamline its modeling efforts. Acquisition models had become overstuffed with data that was obscuring real returns. Bloated models from deals that had closed years ago were slowing down progress on evaluating new assets. BTG’s Timber Investment Group reached out to Orbis to help stabilize and simplify their modeling efforts for a large part of their Latin American portfolio. They needed to identify unneeded data and outdated calculations within their model, remove them and update those to reflect the current realities for the portfolio.
Orbis deployed two teams to assist BTG’s TIG. One group provided a model review, using cell-by-cell analysis and proprietary software to determine where certain relationships within their model had become skewed over time. Leveraging the findings from the review, Orbis deployed another team to rebuild the model using the FAST Standard.
“Understanding what we needed to fix was key before moving forward with a rebuild,” said Kieran McDonagh, Head of Portfolio Analytics for BTG’s Timber Investment Group. “Once we knew what was outdated and unneeded, only then could we move forward with confidence. And using the FAST Standard to rebuild our Latin American portfolio model will help keep our modeling efforts streamlined for good.”
Orbis created valuation calculations and output metrics for 19 assets with space to add several more over time. These included the use of actuals and full three statement financial statements. After getting a handle on their Latin American portfolio, BTG’s TIG is hopeful they’ll successfully redeploy this modeling elsewhere. “It would be great to get all our groups talking in one modeling language going forward,” said Kieran. “Using Orbis and the FAST Standard for that just seems to make sense.”
Greeley Green Energy
Greeley Green Energy is developing an integrated waste recycling and biomass-to-renewable natural gas recycling center in Greeley, CO. At full capacity, the project will be able to process over 150,000 tons of curbside, forestry, grocery, and dairy waste products, while creating around 100,000 MMBtus of clean renewable gas.
Rich Nordin, CEO of GGE, needed a flexible and transparent financial model when approaching banks for financing terms. “Unlike solar or wind development, there are a lot of moving parts to what Greeley is trying to accomplish and we needed a model to present our economic case as simply and transparently as possible,” said Rich.
GGE started working with Nexus Development Capital on financing structures and project due diligence in 2020. “GGE’s capital structure involved a complicated mix of tax-exempt debt with reserve accounts and equity. We needed the model to be able to run a wide variety of operational and financial sensitivities for project stakeholders,” said Rich Nordin, President of Nexus Development Capital.
Roma Solar LLC
Roma Solar, LLC is a developer of utility-scale solar photovoltaic systems in Puerto Rico. The Island’s residential electricity costs rate 50% higher on average than mainland United States costs. The development of solar energy projects helps reduce those costs considerably while strengthening Puerto Rico’s grid by increasing resilience and reducing dependence on expensive petroleum products, the delivery of which can be affected by the storm seasons.
Roma Solar is one of several teams seeking to develop projects for Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s renewable energy generation. These renewable energy plants will support the Island’s long-term goal is to go 100% renewable by 2050.
Roma Solar needed to approach investors to secure financing for the development of two sizeable projects. Therefore, its team reached out to Orbis to help build a model that accurately described the benefits and risks associated with its projects’ cash flows.
The model needed to demonstrate flexibility and transparency to potential investors. “Orbis allowed us to sensitize all the inputs in our projects models and view the resulting impact on the financial statements in real time. This was extremely helpful in providing confidence to investors that we could deliver solid projects,” said Emma Cancio, Roma’s Executive Director.
Orbis started by talking with the company team about how the projects were to be developed. The team at Orbis spent a good deal of time learning how these would be constructed and operated, understood local interconnection issues, and how they might impact financing, while providing a sounding board on finance terms, like discount rates and debt terms. The model constructed with the Orbis and Roma Solar team needed to withstand scrutiny from a wide array of investors. “Orbis was there with us to help utilize the model in response to questions from our investors. They made the modeling simple so we could focus on marketing and developing the projects. Using the model our team built together, we were able to secure several sources of financing and move forward with the best one,” Cancio said.
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