Need to round out your understanding of commercial solar projects and how to get the math to work in our current difficult environment?    Check out this course I am instructing at UC Berkeley Extension in downtown San Francisco this spring.  The essence of the course is a team=based exercise in investment grade due diligence for solar photovoltaic [PV] investments in California and the West.  The capstone of the course is the preparation of your team's investment grade feasibility study for presentation to your classmates and a professional jury on 2MAY09.

I do a low gear flyby of current technology, and then get into demand, capitalization, and design of PV systems.  The recent shortage of tax equity--and the increased cost of this essential part of the capitalization stack-- has meant dramatic changes in solar project finance.  Need more info?  Here is the current draft of the syllabus. This will be updated between now and the start of class to reflect changes in component availability, pricing, and tax incentives.  A multi-disciplinary approach to underwriting solar is used--this course is designed for tax credit investors, commercial [ppa] solar integrators, lenders and attorneys to help them get solar deals done in today's difficult environment.

This is the text I use.  Purpose is to build a foundation--it is exhaustive enough you can really dive in, or you can just refer to it when needed.  I find this book the best current overview and reference on PV, and it covers what is happening in Europe and the world, for PV is truly a global application. 

My perspective is that of seasoned solar developer with over twenty years of commercial real estate investment and development experience here in NorCal. 

I hope you can join me for this course.  First session is Saturday 21MAR09 from 9A-5P, then five Tuesday evenings from 630-930P, then presentations on Saturday 2MAY from 9A-5P.