tural bottlenecks that stifl e growth for the
region’s distributed energy market.
While market awareness is gradually
improving, hurdles still exist in securing fund-
ing. Industry players often accuse fi nancial
institutions in the region for their indiff erence
towards the distributed energy sub-sector,
and for not showing a keen interest to try and
understand the market. This has made access
to fi nance, especially for start-ups, almost
impossible.
“Funding challenges in distributed energy
absolutely exist today. In certain regional mar-
kets where there is more experience, I would
point to Jordan, where banks are familiar and
comfortable with lending towards distributed
generation,” says Crane.
“But in most of the rest this region, lending
is limited. And it is driven by two reasons, one
is simply a lack of opportunity and experience
from the banks but also a legitimate recogni-
tion that there are new commercial risks in the
sector.”
“One of the challenges that banks see day-
t o - d a y i s t h a t i t c a n b e a l o t o f w o r k t o u n d e r-
stand this new product line that they are look-
ing to service, and to justify that work, there
needs to be scale,” Crane points out. “The typ-
i c a l f e e d b a c k w e h a v e f r o m b a n k s i s t h a t t h e y
are not interested in looking at 1MW or 2MW
projects. And frankly, far from our perspective,
the costs of securing a $1mn or $2mn loan with
the bank is too high.
“A s e c o n d c h a l l e n g e i s d u r a t i o n o f t h e
leases. Developers like ourselves are con-
tracting 15 to 20-year contracts with commer-
cial entities. When you compare that to most
loans in the commercial space, those are much
l o n g e r a n d t h e b a n k s h a v e t o r e l y o n u s t o d o
the proper credit processes and the proper dil-
igence in contracting to put the right structure
in place.
“Many developers who are new to the space
might not understand credit processes and
bankable PPA type of contracts. So, I under-
stand and I sympathise with many lenders that
they don’t have the experience and they do see
challenges in some development portfolios.
“The best advice I would give to anybody
who is seeking funding from banks on the other
side is to talk about portfolios. They should look
at aggregating multiple projects together in
bundles of 20MW or 50MW, and on that scale,
i t s t a r t s m a k i n g s e n s e t o d o l o n g t e r m p r o j e c t
fi nancing.”The best advice I would
give to anybody who is
seeking funding from
banks on the other side
is to talk about portfo-
lios. They should look at
aggregating multiple proj-
ects together in bundles of
20MW or 50MW, and on
that scale, it starts making
sense to do long term proj-
ect financing.”
Jeremy Crane, Yellow Door Energy
We strive day in day out
to provide a very modern
working environment for
our team. We are extremely
proud of the diversity of
our team, we have been
fortunate to attract a lot
of good talent and I think
that’s part of the benefit of
being in Dubai.”
Jeremy Crane, Yellow Door EnergyYellow Door Energy’s top executive says
that his fi rm has been fortunate to work with
m o r e a d v a n c e d b a n k s , w i t h l e n d e r s i n J o r d a n
and is now looking at UAE.
Crane also shares his immense pride for
the Yellow Door Energy team and emphasizes
their contribution to the company’s rapid suc-
cess. “Our team members are an international
group of experts who work together as a family
with a vision for building a better world. We
strive day in day out to provide a very modern
working environment for our team. We have
been fortunate to attract the top talent and
I think that’s part of the benefi t of being in
D u b a i. T o - d a t e , w e h a v e b e e n a b l e t o w e l c o m e
20 diff erent nationalities to our company, and
this has been achieved mostly through local
recruiting. We do believe that there is a lot of
talent here in this market and that’s why we are
excited to be headquartered here and servicing
the region from here,” says Crane.
A s Ye l l o w D o o r E n e r g y e m b a r k s o n a l o n g
path for growth, it keeps abreast of technologi-
cal advances such as energy storage, hybrid sys-
tems, and improving thin-fi lm solar technology.
Still, with all said and done, a mindset shift
is needed to further boost the uptake of distrib-
uted solar energy in the Middle East. Technol-
ogy, awareness programmes and a regulatory
framework are already in place, and these will
have a big infl uence on future access to credit.
For the 42-year-old CEO of Yellow Door
Energy, this is just the beginning. From a little
known start-up four years ago, to a leading
distributed energy player in the Middle East,
Crane feels more energised now to prevail over
any challenges and open more doors for Yellow
Door Energy.The solar
leasing
model is driving
rooftop solar
adoption in the
region24 Utilities Middle East / August 2019 http://www.utilities-me.com
COVER FEATURE