highlights
• The New Frontiers Energy Fund ("NFEF") is a pioneer among golden visa investment funds. The fund invests in the shares of solar projects in Portugal, which are at an early stage and appear on the government's Acordo list. It then assists their development and exits for a healthy profit once the project is at Ready-To-Build stage.
• There is a funding gap currently between many early stage ground-mounted solar projects regarding developing them to Ready-To-Build (RTB) stage.
• There is a significant profit to be made by investing into these early stage projects and assisting to develop them through to RTB stage, when the shares in the project can be sold.
• Reaching RTB stage of the development process can see prices appreciate dramatically, once grid connections, build permits and environmental permits are secured.
• NFEF's opportunity lies in acquiring early stage sites at attractively low prices, ideally with planning permission in place and then developing them through the grid connection and build permit stage. NFEF's primary strategy is to invest at an early stage, develop through environmental approval, grid connection and all other facets required to get the site to RTB stage. At this point, NFEF will look to sell their shares for a healthy profit, NFEF does reserve the right to invest at a slightly later stage and develop to RTB or develop right through to operational stage, however in the vast majority of cases, NFEF will buy early, develop to RTB and then 'flip' the shares to an institutional investor with appetite to build out the project fully.
• The standard way in which solar sites are bought and sold is that the buyer pays a set price per MW of electricity which the site can produce. This number increases the closer the site gets to productivity. The price will typically double in value between greenfield and RTB stage, although this may take a number of years to achieve