IGNACIO R. SMITH

Achieving a 100% Renewable Energy Economy, a Multidimensional Approach to Renewable Energy Financing

Abstract

A successful transition from fossil fuels to Renewable Energy requires a high level of investment from governments and other stakeholders. However, the situation becomes challenging when administrations have limited resources that have to compete with different programmes.

When these decisions are left to governments, due to the nature of the problem, those in office usually consider time inconsistent policies (policies that serve the population in the short term but miss long term goals).

Our approach to the issue, addresses the problem of competing resources and how governments can achieve the transition without causing a heavy burdened to their treasuries. The solution encompasses a combination of different financial platforms, where the risk associated with an investment of this magnitude is spread among all stakeholders.

We achieve this, by combining such platforms as Enhanced Revolving Funds, together with a Grid Tied Utility Assisted Model, Public Private Partnerships, Community Solar, Diaspora Bonds and third party ownership in all its different formats.

We believe that by addressing the problem from different fronts, using a portfolio management approach combined with a optimization process when putting together these different platforms, governments can make this transition without the trauma caused by allowing simply taking the full load.

Biography

Mr. Smith holds a bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from the University of Miami (Class 1985), specializing in Management Science and Modeling. After completing his degree Mr. Smith continued studies in the areas of M.Sc. in Finance, Project Management and holds a Post MBA.
In its quest in making renewable energy available to all areas of the population in the Caribbean and Latin American, Mr. Smith and his team are credited with the development of the Grid Tied Government Assisted Model, Zero Coupon Indexed Bonds, Carbon Credit Financing Using Asset Back Securities and Carbon Credit Community Based Financing, Paradigm Shift Moving from Current forms of Electricity Generation to Distributed Generation using a Utility Assisted Structure, PV Integration applying Economic Complexity Principles, and Portfolio Theory.
Mr. Smith is an active speaker at International Renewable Energy Forums, having participated most recently, SPI Conference and Exhibit, (Dallas 2011), Carilec CEO Symposium (Barbados, 2011), Arthur Lok Jack School of Business (Invited Lecturer 2011), University of Southern Caribbean (Invited Lecturer, 2013), Carilec Engineering Conference (Invitation, Aruba, 2011), Carilec CEO Conference (Invitation, Dominican Republic, 2012) ISES Solar World Congress (Cancun, Mexico 2013), Solar Power International (Chicago, 2013), CARILEC Renewable Energy Forum (Barbados 2013), SNEC PV Power Expo (Invitation, Shangai, 2014), PV America (Boston, 2014), International Renewable Energy Conference (Istanbul, 2014), Eurosun 2014 (Aix – Le – Bains, France, 2014) and Solar Power International (Las Vegas, 2014), 4th Symposium Small PV-Applications: Rural Electrification and Commercial Use, (Intersolar Europe, Munich, 2015), International Renewable Energy Conference (Invitation, Istanbul, 2015), Solar Power International (Anaheim, 2015), 5th Solar Integration Wokshop (Brussels, 2015)ISES Solar World Congress (Daegu, South Korea, 2015), Eurosun 2016 (Invitation, Palma de Mayorca), Solar Power International 2016 (Las Vegas, USA), South African Solar Energy Conference (Cape Town, 2016), 6th Solar Integration Wokshop (Invitation, Vienna, 2016) 6th SCI World Conference (Vadodara, India), World Renewable Energy Congress XVI (Invitation, Perth, 2017)
Mr. Smith, through SM Solar is also Coordinating Management Entity (CME) for the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) Program of Activities for the Caribbean and Central America in addition to being the regional contact for the International Solar Energy Society. Mr. Smith areas of research are in the development of Financial Platforms and Stochastic Models to improve levels of PV Availability, Grid Penetration and Integration.