Pivotal180 Newsletter Qtr3 2024

Dear there,

In this newsletter we have included the following content:

• Green Hydrogen and Sustainable Aviation Fuel
• Warning Major flaw in latest version of Excel
• Course Updates
• Free Resources
• Meet our Course Content Creation Team
• Course Portfolio

Please feel free to check out all our videos on Pivotal180’s YouTube.

Kind regards,

The Pivotal180 Team.

Green Hydrogen and Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Green hydrogen is one of the ‘hottest’ topics around energy town. If you work in energy or the energy transition, you’ve likely looked at hydrogen, and maybe even read a little on the topic.

However, we are a long way off producing green hydrogen to scale to meet future demand. Are we approaching green hydrogen with too narrow a focus, primarily on electrolysis? If you want to know more, check out this blog and a focus on an exciting new technology from Grimes Carbon Tech.

Warning: Major flaw in latest version of Excel!

There is a serious issue with the latest version of Excel (version 2405). The issue arises when you add new rows in your financial model. The rows may insert properly, but they often don’t, resulting in incorrect row references in formulas or other errors. The only real fix (recommended by Microsoft) at the moment is to roll back to a previous version of Excel (see here). This will be hard for many people without corporate administration rights. Some Excel users have said that setting calculations to manual does fix the issue. Hopefully Microsoft fixes this ASAP!

Course Updates 

We are continuing to develop new online material for our existing courses and we are excited about producing and releasing new content.

New courses in the works

• Mining and Critical Minerals  Project Finance Modeling
• Introduction to Financial Modeling (Business Modeling)
• Project Finance: Introduction to Concepts and Modeling

Tax Equity course, renamed Tax Equity and Hybrid Modeling 

To reflect the change in our tax equity teaching which now includes hybrid structures, tax credit financing and other changes related to the IRA, we have changed the name of the course.

We are offering an additional session within our current tax equity course which will cover the new material in more depth. Please contact Alison or Matt for more information.

Lessons in progress

• Tax credit adders
• Tax credit transferability and hybrid structures (currently only taught in livestream courses)
• Fair Market Value (FMV) step-ups (currently only taught in livestream courses)
• Adding scenario case selector to multiple sheets (currently only taught in livestream courses)

Free Resources

Our free resources include videos, blogs, how-to guides, webinars and course samples. See our most recent articles below.

Tax Equity ‘Lite’

Newly emerging Tax Equity ‘Lite’ (TE Lite) structures look a lot like traditional tax equity partnerships, including a partnership with two parties with pre-and post-flip periods. But this new TE Lite co-investors take a lot less from the partnership than tax equity typically does, especially post-tax items.  Read more to find out if TE Lite is right for your projects. 

Introduction to Mining  and Critical Minerals Course 

Build a mining project financial model from scratch. Develop a best-practice financial model and optimize it for both debt and equity investors for a project finance mining deal.

In Conversation–  UCT GSB Power Futures Lab

In this interview, Wikus Kruger, Director of the Power Futures Lab at the University of Cape Town, shares findings from PFL’s research on investment in Southern Africa’s power markets and what factors contribute to the success of IPPs and power procurement processes. The conversation sheds light on how a more widespread understanding of the basics of project finance and financial modelling can contribute to the success and progress of the power sector.

Meet our Course Content Creation Team

Meet our newly established content creation team in Mexico City!
Aldo and Serge’s main mission is to keep the eager minds of our learners engaged in our audiovisual content. They create and polish scripts, consolidate slide decks, craft and edit background assets and animations, discuss films, politics, video games and game music, and constantly come up with new ideas to push the quality (and creativity) of Pivotal180’s videos. Haydn would say they sometimes get too creative! They also occasionally work.

Course Portfolio and Scheduled Courses

The courses in our existing portfolio have been developed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to tackle all the multi-faceted pieces of a transaction.

We look forward to assisting you in demystifying project finance and tax equity. Our upcoming courses are listed below.

• Renewables live-streaming class begins August 9, 2024. Register today
• Tax Equity and Hybrid live-streaming class begins August 6, 2024. Register today
• Renewables in-person class in New York begins July 15, 2024. Register today
• Renewables in-person class in Sydney begins July 22, 2024. Register today

Project Finance Modeling

Learn the concepts to develop a financial model related to PPP/P3s for both social and economic infrastructure. A mining financial model will be added to this course soon. Watch this space!

Renewable Energy Project Finance Modeling

Learn how to develop a best-practice financial model and optimize it for both debt & equity investors for a renewable energy project finance deal. Using a case study, learn the concepts required to develop a financial model related to wind and solar.

Introduction to Battery Storage

This course provides an overview of standalone batteries and co-located batteries with wind or solar assets. It is designed to familiarize developers, investors, and lenders with the investment decisions and risks of battery storage projects.

Tax Equity and Hybrid Modeling

Gain an overview of the tax equity structures commonly used in U.S. renewable energy investments, with a focus on the development of a financial model. Dive deep into tax capital accounts, deficit restoration obligations, stop loss allocations, and HLBV accounting. This course includes new content on emerging tax credit finance structures under the IRA!

Customizable Partial Day Modeling

Customizable short courses covering a variety of topics including the Inflation Reduction Act, M&A transactions, Advanced VBA, Model Optimization, and Portfolio Modeling.