Renewable Energy and Electric Vehicle Industries
This course requires that you can and want to analyze financial statements. If your accounting and analysis skills are rusty, please refresh them before taking this course, or expect to spend a significant amount of time figuring out the "numbers" underlying the analysis of renewable energy companies.
Please contact NYU IT (askit@nyu.edu, 212-998-3333) or NYU Stern IT (helpdesk@stern.nyu.edu, 212-998-0180) for all Zoom/email/NYU Brightspace/Admin/CapitalIQ issues. Some systems email @nyu.edu, while others email @stern.nyu.edu. I do not control this. You must check BOTH emails and use the correct browser profile. Please contact IT to figure this out. Do not write to Almaris or me if you do not get Almaris emails because this issue is between NYU and you.
Overview
Offered in spring 2024.
MBA ACCT-GB-3153 (1.5 credits for MBAs) specializations:
- Accounting
- Sustainable Business and Innovation
Undergrad ACCT-UB-53 (2 credits for undergrads) concentration:
- Accounting
- Sustainable Business
We analyze renewable energy and electric vehicles industries from the perspective of entrepreneurs, managers, and investors by examining the following: (1) Financial statements of renewable energy and electric vehicle companies. (2) Their business drivers and trends. (3) Simplified financial models of renewable energy projects.
Takeaways
- Key renewable energy technologies and their value proposition: Wind and solar
- Key business considerations in the electric vehicle industry and their synergies with renewable energy companies
- Simplified financial models of renewable energy projects
- Understanding and analyzing financial statements and business drivers of companies in the following sectors:
- Wind turbine makers, wind EPC, and wind utility companies
- Solar panel manufacturers, solar EPC, and solar utility companies
- Distributed solar
- Electric vehicle companies
Prerequisites
Core course in Financial Accounting
Help and Office
Materials
- I use my materials. Therefore, no textbook is required, and you need not purchase anything.
Attendance and penalty for missing classes
Requiring attendance is necessary for several reasons. First, you incorrectly assume you can catch up on a missed class by watching a recording (if available). Videos do not engage your brain as much as a live class. Second, less than 20% of you watch the recording (if available). You are then lost in class, which provides wrong signals to me as an instructor. Third, your absence hurts class discussions. Fourth, you miss out on feedback if you do not work through the questions I pose in class. Fifth, I lose the feedback since there are fewer questions.
The policy below will be in effect only after the add/drop period.
Without mandatory attendance, attendance is often below 50%. Therefore, though I dislike doing this, I penalize absences. If you anticipate being absent for good reasons, please email me well in advance. Please enter "Excused" on the attendance sheet described below to avoid the penalty if I approve. If you miss a class due to emergencies and cannot tell me in advance, do not panic. Take care of the emergency first, and then email me. I will permit you to change the "Absent" to "Excused." But, if you miss a class without a valid reason, there is a penalty, as stated below.
For sections meeting in 150-190 minute sessions, you will lose one grade (A to A-, A- to B+, B+ to B, B to B-, and so on) for EVERY missed session unless you were explicitly excused via email. Thus, if you miss two class sessions, you will lose two grades, and so on.
For sections meeting in 75-80 minute sessions, you will lose one grade (A to A-, A- to B+, B+ to B, B to B-, and so on) for EVERY TWO missed sessions unless you were explicitly excused via email. Thus, if you miss four class sessions, you will lose two grades, and so on.
Please sit in the same seat in every class and display your name tags. For Zoom classes, you must keep your video on AT ALL TIMES. You must also have a good working headset or mic, as it is extremely rude to be inaudible and force me to ask you to repeat yourself.
After entering the class, please mark yourself present in the first 20 minutes on the OneDrive sheet (link posted on Brightspace). You will be marked absent if you are more than 20 minutes late unless it is because of factors beyond your control (traffic, subway, interviews running late). You will also be marked absent if you leave the class early unless you have my permission or get it afterward. You will get an F in the course if you are caught cheating on the attendance sheet.
Exams and Grading
There are no in-class quizzes, midterms, or final exams.
- Please read about the penalty for missing classes above.
- Assignments: 50%
- Final project: 50%
System Requirements
- You need to be in the following systems before the starting the first class:
- If you are blocked from accessing these systems, please ask the administration to expedite matters. Given the complexity of these systems, I cannot manually add you to any system.
- Only registered students can attend. I cannot override this NYU rule.
- You will need a computer in every class. Either MAC or Windows is OK.
Assignments
Topic 1: Building simplified financial models of solar energy projects
Electricity pricing and modeling revenues
- Pattern and variability of demand within a day, across seasons and geographies
- Dispatch curve: All electricity sources have to compete unless the government mandates using certain types of sources via the renewable portfolio standard or private companies prefer to buy renewable energy out of concern for climate change.
- Factors that affect pricing: Pattern of supply, demand elasticity and feasibility of shifting demand across time, energy conservation, transmission costs, grid integration, and energy storage
- Pricing for capacity versus production
How does solar fit into the overall energy landscape?
- Availability and variability of solar energy within a day, across seasons and geographies
- Competing sources
- Complementary sources
- Modeling solar energy pricing
Utility-scale solar photovoltaic project
- Up-front costs: Hard and soft costs
- Tax attributes and government incentives
- Financing structures
- Ongoing costs
Commercial solar photovoltaic project
- Up-front costs: Hard and soft costs
- Tax attributes and government incentives
- Financing structures
- Ongoing costs
Topic 2: Analysis of solar hardware manufacturers, solar EPC, and solar utility companies
Overview
- Key players and competitive landscape: Hardware, EPC (engineering, procurement, construction), O&M (operations and maintenance)
- Key business drivers, metrics, and stock market outcomes
In-depth financial statement analysis
Topic 3: Analysis of distributed solar companies
Overview
- Key players and competitive landscape: Hardware, EPC (engineering, procurement, construction), O&M (operations and maintenance)
- Key business drivers, metrics, and stock market outcomes
In-depth financial statement analysis
Topic 4: Building simplified financial models of wind energy projects
How does wind fit into the overall energy landscape?
- Availability and variability of wind energy within a day, across seasons and geographies
- Competing sources
- Complementary sources
Onshore wind energy projects
- Up-front costs: Hard and soft costs
- Tax attributes and government incentives
- Financing structures
- Ongoing costs
Offshore wind energy projects
- Up-front costs: Hard and soft costs
- Tax attributes and government incentives
- Financing structures
- Ongoing costs
Topic 5: Analyzing wind turbine makers, wind EPC, and wind utility companies
Overview
- Key players and competitive landscape: Hardware, EPC (engineering, procurement, construction), O&M (operations and maintenance)
- Key business drivers, metrics, and stock market outcomes
In-depth financial statement analysis
Topic 6: Analysis of electric vehicle companies
Building a financial model from the perspective of an electric vehicle owner
- Up-front costs
- Operating costs: Maintenance
- Operating costs: Fuel
- Resale value
- Government incentives: Rebates, fuel subsidies, tolls, registration fees
- Financing costs and discount rates
Industry dynamics
- Key success factors
- Synergies with renewable energy
- How the industry dynamics are changing in the following sectors:
- Cars: Hybrid versus fully electric
- Pickup trucks
- Freight trucks
- Buses
In-depth financial statement analysis