In renewable energy projects, a key challenge in obtaining financing at a reasonable cost is the ability to quantify and manage the different elements of risk (i.e. organizational, political, technical and commercial). The objective of the project was the definition of a transparent and reproducible set of techniques to assess the risk/return profiles of renewable energy investments. In doing so, the project aimed to develop renewable energy-specific guidelines for the classification, assessment and management of different risk elements associated with the project evaluation.

Conventional energy projects have been developing and refining methodologies for risk assessment for many years. As a consequence, the initial benchmark on these methodologies allowed to define lessons learnt to be transferred to renewable energy projects. A dedicated risk management methodology has been built specific for this kind of projects, structured in 6 steps: 1) Project definition and requirement 2) Risk identification 3) Risk evaluation 4) Risk Control 5) Risk follow-up 5) Risk Feedback.

“The approach was successfully tested in Spain and in Netherland”

The guideline has been applied on two real case studies: a 2930 MWp photovoltaic plant in Spain and a 400 MWp offshore wind plant in Netherland. These analyses involved all the stakeholders of a typical renewable energy project: financial institutions, projects sponsors, technicians, regulators and NGO.