Financial feasibility

In order to ensure financial viability of the Projects, the originator has to take good care of both the CAPEX (initial cost) and the OPEX (operational costs) of the Project. For this, the following points have to be considered:

• Competitive rental cost or purchase price of the land

• The cost of the Project should be competitive, both in the procurement of the components and the installation and civil work required.

• The Project originator must present a clear plan of how the energy is going to be monetized. This can mean securing an intention letter for signing PPA contracts with a utility company or a direct consumer, or taking advantage of regulatory benefits that allows to enforce the sale of the energy in the energy market.

• The maintenance costs of the Project should be estimated and justified. Since Projects can be distributed geographically, an easy access to the site of the Project could lower the maintenance costs.

• The geographical location of the Project should have environmental conditions that render the Project viable. In the case of a solar energy Project, for example, this means good solar irradiation throughout the year.

Avoiding Project overpricing

The Project originator must ensure that the CAPEX specified for a Project is fair for both the installer company and for the investors; that is, the price matches the market price for similar Projects in the region. For this, the Unergy Platform has several tools to aid the Project developers:

• For a Self-Consumption Project, an automatic quotation system that calculates for the energy price to be used in a PPA proposal. The energy price of the contract is publicly stored to inform installers whether the price is inside or outside of the normal distribution of market prices.

• Access to an automated quotation system that calculates the prices of solar modules, inverters, structures, and all materials with updated market price conditions. If a Project submission features abnormal component prices without a proper technical justification, the Project proposal is likely to be rejected.

The previous information will also be available to the milestone Validators, so they can make informed decisions on behalf of the Reserve.

Equipment quality assurance

The Reserve of the Unergy Protocol is composed of Projects that generate energy, and the intrinsic value of the assets depends on the capacity they have to generate future yields. Therefore, it is critical for the correct functioning of the Protocol to have the Projects working properly throughout their entire lifetime. One measure the Project originators are required to take is to ensure that the physical components of the assets, such as Photovoltaic Modules, Inverters, structure, are of top quality. While Installer companies, in principle, have the autonomy to procure the components for the Projects they develop, they are still required to follow certain guidelines, such as:

• Solar Photovoltaic Modules brands must have a rating of A, AA or AAA according to the latest PV Moduletech Bankability Ratings.

• Power inverters: Allowed inverter brands are selected based on the PVEL inverters scorecard and previous experience.

• Rooftop or ground mounting structure, should have all the required certifications required as per the international and/or local standards.

This also takes into account not only the quality of the equipment itself, but also the long-term warranty support if any replacements should be made in the future. These guidelines and other restrictions that ensure the quality of the equipment are taken into account on the Project milestone validation process, and can be defined and modified by the community of the Project validators.