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Power & Infrastructure

Renewables & IPPs Sector Primer

A 45-page primer plus Excel valuation model on renewables and independent power producer equity analysis: PPAs, spark spreads, CAFD and EV/EBITDA by archetype.

15 Sections 45 Pages PDF + Excel

PDF Only

The full primer in PDF format

£25 / ~$32
  • ✓ 45-page sector primer
  • ✓ Worked valuations
  • ✓ Screening thresholds
Buy PDF - £25

Excel Model

Plug-and-play valuation template

£45 / ~$58
  • ✓ Pre-built valuation model
  • ✓ Sensitivity tables
  • ✓ Scenario toggles
Buy Model - £45
Best Value

PDF + Model

Everything you need in one package

£59 / ~$76 £70
  • ✓ 45-page sector primer
  • ✓ Valuation model (.xlsx)
  • ✓ Save £11 vs buying separately
Buy Bundle - £59
Complete Power & Infrastructure Library

Three primers, three Excel models

Regulated Utilities, Renewables & IPPs, and Transport Infrastructure. Everything at ~25% off

£210 £159 / ~$205
Buy All - £159

Inside the primer

The 15-section contents, a worked valuation page, and the Excel dashboard.

The merchant-multiple cross-check set against the DCF, the contracted premium derived from the two archetypes, and the yieldco sensitivity grid: 25 cells re-running the PPA-term cash flows and merchant tail at each realised price and contracted discount rate, the centre cell reproducing the $6.62 per share headline.

Table of Contents

  1. 01 How Generators Make Money
  2. 02 Listed Generator Types
  3. 03 The Development and Operating Ladder
  4. 04 Segments and Sub-Markets
  5. 05 Revenue Drivers: Generic Revenue Build
  6. 06 Cost Structure: EBITDA, CAFD and Spark Spread
  7. 07 Valuation Frameworks
  8. 08 Worked Example: Multi-Period DCF Valuation
  9. 09 Applied Cases: Contracted Yieldcos
  10. 10 Applied Cases: Merchant and Integrated
  11. 11 Applied Cases: Nuclear, Pipelines and Developers
  12. 12 The Companies in This Primer
  13. 13 Key Metrics and Screening
  14. 14 Risks, Benchmarks and Case Study
  15. 15 Glossary and Cheat Sheet

45 pages · 15 sections · 2 worked archetypes

The Excel model

The model's sensitivity view: a live grid re-running the yieldco's PPA-term cash flows and merchant tail at each realised PPA price and contracted discount rate, the value surface plotted alongside and the centre cell reproducing the headline value per share.

Educational material for professional use. This primer and its model are not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security, and they are not personalised. Worked valuations use illustrative calibrations, not fair-value estimates for any company.

A generator's value depends less on how many megawatts it owns than on who has agreed to buy the output and for how long. Power sold under a long-term contract is an annuity; power sold into the wholesale market is a bet on the spread between fuel and electricity prices. The same fleet can carry both, so the first job is to split the cash flow by contract before any multiple is applied.

The primer builds the tools in order: how generators make money, the listed company types, the development and operating ladder, then the revenue build from capacity, utilisation and price and the cost side with EBITDA, cash available for distribution and the spark spread. Two worked examples run a multi-period DCF from first input to value per share, a contracted yieldco and a merchant combined-cycle plant, before applied cases on Constellation Energy, Vistra, NRG Energy, Brookfield Renewable, Clearway Energy and AES. Screening closes with contracted share, the CAFD payout, leverage and EV/EBITDA read by archetype.

Free guides on the site cover the individual pieces, so you can revise one idea without reopening the PDF: PPA vs merchant generation, spark spreads, capacity factors by technology, generation capacity and mix by company, yieldco CAFD, CAFD vs free cash flow and the contracted premium. Research profiles for Constellation, Vistra, NRG, Brookfield Renewable, Clearway and AES run the same screens on filed results. The companion Excel model spans ten sheets, from a contracted-yieldco tab and a merchant-plant tab through the contracted-premium and CAFD screens to a live sensitivity grid, so swapping in your own generator rebuilds the valuation from its contract profile up.

Sheets: Quick Start, Instructions, Assumptions, Contracted Yieldco, Merchant CCGT, Valuation Summary, Contracted Premium, CAFD & Payout, Sensitivity, Dashboard.

See this methodology applied to a real company:

Brookfield Renewable (BEP) →