< PreviousThe high upfront cost of distributed solar energy has long dampened its prospects in the GCC, despite the region’s high solar irradiance. But the clouds may have fi nally cleared with an inno- vative business model that is brightening the prospects of solar energy. Technology breakthroughs have already lowered the cost of utility scale solar photovol- taics (PVs), which has tumbled about 75% since 2009, thus furthering uptake across the Middle East and North Africa. Industry projections now point to a similar trajectory in uptake for distributed energy as the solar leasing model gains wider acceptance within the commercial and industrial segment of the energy sector. “When I look forward fi ve years, I see a sea of solar panels. I see huge awareness of the eco- nomic benefi ts and the environmental benefi ts for businesses to make a change,” says Jeremy Crane, CEO of UAE-headquartered Yellow Door Energy. “The distributed energy industry is going to continue to grow as rapidly as it has for the last It is now possible that as energy needs grow here, the new demand can be satisfied locally for those businesses without the need for great growth or great expansion. Or that distributed energy will be able to compliment greed infrastructure through storage, demand management, or through dispatch commands.” Jeremy Crane, Yellow Door Energy fi ve years. Looking forward, we see the potential for several billion dollars’ worth of investments in the region’s distributed energy sub-sector. “In the next fi ve years, we see the energy market evolving signifi cantly. It is now possi- ble that as the need for energy increases, the new demand can be satisfi ed locally for those businesses without the need for great growth or great expansion. Distributed energy will be able to complement grid infrastructure through storage, demand management, or through dispatch commands.” For Crane, an energy enthusiast with more than 20 years of global experience within the utility industry, there is even more reason to be optimistic about the future of distributed energy. Yellow Door Energy, the company he co-founded with Adenium Energy Capital in 2015 to fi ll existing energy gaps in the Middle Eastern solar market, is headed for greater expansion after securing $65mn funding from global investors early this year. In an interview with Utilities Middle East last month, Crane says that this is one of the largest 3.96 MWp Wheeling Solar Project Wadi Al Ash Valley, Jordan 20 Utilities Middle East / August 2019 www.utilities-me.com COVER FEATUREThe most attractive and exciting markets for us right now are Pakistan and Egypt. The two coun- tries have faced differ- ent economic challenges recently. In Pakistan, there is a strong need for growth in energy supply, they have limited conventional resources since they are a large importer of oil and gas.” Jeremy Crane, Yellow Door Energy based investment company focused on renew- able energy. While the company itself is upbeat about its own business expansion, the new round of funding is a vote of confi dence for a sub-sec- tor that has until recently attracted impervious responses from fi nancial institutions. Since its formation four years ago, Yellow Door Energy has succeeded in bridging the huge divide that existed between mega-util- ity solar projects and commercial-scale solar projects through its solar leases, also known as solar power purchase agreements (PPAs). With a solar lease, commercial and industrial com- panies can improve the effi ciencies of their businesses and reduce their carbon emissions, all without any capital expense. With 56 megawatts (MW) installed and under construction, and an additional 40 MW signed, Yellow Door Energy has already posi- tioned itself as the leader in the solar equip- ment market in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan. The company is now actively pursuing opportunities for distributed solar energy across the region from Pakistan, through the Middle East to Egypt. “This equity is going to provide the growth capital that we need to expand our operations in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia,” says Crane, adding that Yellow Door Energy aims to build 300 MW of solar in the next two years. “The most attractive new markets for us right now are Pakistan and Egypt. The two countries have faced diff erent economic chal- lenges recently. In Pakistan, there is a strong need for growth in energy supply, they have limited conventional resources since they are a large importer of oil and gas. “By providing clean energy to businesses in Pakistan, we are able to make them more com- petitive, we are able to reduce the government’s reliance on foreign imports of conventional fuels, both very positive for the economy of the country.” Crane says that the sheer size of the Paki- stani market is a massive growth opportunity for Yellow Door Energy. But while he is excited, he is also cognisant of the existing challenges in the country since solar PPAs for commer- cial and industrial establishments is a relatively new concept. With the cost of power in Egypt going up by about 20% every year along with the rising cost of fuel, the motivation for solar has increased. Busi- raises in record for a Middle Eastern solar com- pany, and the second largest venture funding in the region in 2019. The investors include the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), Japanese investment and trading fi rm Mitsui, Norway’s corporate venture fund Equinor Energy Ven- tures, and Adenium Energy Capital - a Dubai- JEREMY CRANE CEO, Yellow Door Energy 264 kWp Rooftop Solar Plant at Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group Head Offi ce, Dubai Industrial City www.utilities-me.com August 2019 / Utilities Middle East 21 COVER FEATUREnesses are realising the need to lower their increas- ing overheads from the rising costs of energy. “Egypt is a very dynamic market right now, I think they have come through some big changes and certainly from a macroeconomic perspective, things are stabilising. We are launching in Egypt and are working with sev- eral customers to build our fi rst projects,” says Crane. Currently, renewable energy meets only 3% of Egypt’s energy needs, but the North African country targets to cover 20% of its energy needs from renewables by 2022 and up to 40% by 2035. In 2014, the country announced a target of developing 4.3 GW of solar and wind proj- ects, but contract disputes led several investors to pull out. Last year, Yellow Door Energy successfully commissioned a 3.96 MW build-own-oper- ate-transfer (BOOT) solar wheeling project in Jordan, which will provide Specialty Hospital and Istiklal Mall with clean renewable energy. In May, Yellow Door Energy signed a 17 MW BOOT solar wheeling agreement with Majid Al Futtaim to provide Carrefour stores located in Jordan’s Amman, Zarqa, Madaba and Al-Salt Our ideal customer is somebody who has a long term growth strategy to be here, and we want to invest along with their businesses to help them grow in a more eco- nomic and sustainable manner. We see ourselves as a partner for our customers’ growth, supplying one of the fundamental needs of any business, energy.” Jeremy Crane, Yellow Door Energy with 29 gigawatt-hours of clean energy in the fi rst year of operation, meeting 100% of the retailer’s electricity needs in those areas. The solar developer is looking to invest over $70mn this year in Jordan, where renewable energy is expected to contribute more than 20% of the Kingdom’s total energy mix in 2020. In the UAE, Yellow Door Energy is provid- ing solar leases for Al Nabooda Automobiles and for Nestlé Middle East, among many others. The fi rm also has several projects that will be started in the near future. “We are committed to investing in the UAE and expect to invest $20 million in 2019,” says Crane. In Dubai, the company installs solar sys- tems under the Shams Dubai initiative intro- duced by DEWA in 2015, which allows par- The Wadi Al-Aash Solar Park will generate clean re- newable energy for Specialty Hospital and Istiklal Mall 22 Utilities Middle East / August 2019 www.utilities-me.com COVER FEATUREticipants to sell any excess power generated through solar panels back to the grid. Within the GCC, Yellow Door Energy will be looking at expanding in the next six months to one year, with Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia all identifi ed as potential markets that will be economically viable for the company’s business model. “Our ideal customer is somebody who has a long-term growth strategy to be here, and we want to support their businesses to grow in a more economic and sustainable manner,” says Crane. “We see ourselves as a partner for our cus- tomers’ growth, supplying one of the funda- mental needs of any business, energy. By pro- viding energy in a less expensive, more envi- ronmentally sound way, we are able to help our customers realize economic benefi ts and demonstrate sustainability leadership to their employees, customers, investors and other stakeholders.” While net metering schemes such as Shams Dubai and Oman’s Sahim1 and Sahim2 are begin- ning to register success with the residential market, Yellow Door Energy will maintain its focus on the commercial and industrial segment. “Residential deployment of solar would not be economically viable for our business at this point.” says Crane. “Typically, residences pay less for power than commercial businesses, so there is less motivation to change.” Crane says that many residential house- holds also have a shorter term vision due to the transient nature of most of the expatriate pop- ulation in the UAE. With the new long-term visa options, this may change. “This is obviously diff erent when it comes to the citizens, and as you probably know, there is a strong push for Emiratis to put solar panels on the rooftop and we fully support that. We don’t see the lease model working for that again because they are small projects which the citi- zens will likely prefer to fund themselves.” says Crane. Crane is immensely proud of his team and what his company has accomplished within a very short period. He attributes the compa- ny’s success to its unique value proposition in a market that is already saturated with nearly a dozen competitors. “Our value proposition to customers is that they can save 30-40% or even 50% on their power bills with no capital investment while I think of one of the differentiating factors for Yellow Door Energy is that we stand behind what we install for the term of the contract…ten, fifteen, twenty years,…we are guaranteeing the amount of energy that will be pro- duced. We are also guaranteeing that the customer is getting the best product today.” Jeremy Crane, Yellow Door Energy generating clean renewable energy,” says Crane. “We install the right solution for them where we provide the capital and then we get compensated over a long-term lease. The lease payments for the customer are less than what they would pay for grid-connected power or whatever the alternatives might be. It’s a win- win solution for all parties. “In this market segment there are people who also just build the projects, there are people who just sell the equipment. Yellow Door Energy is the solution provider that brings everything together. We have the cap- ital, and we have the best equipment and the best contractors to build, execute and deliver. “I think of one of the diff erentiating factors for Yellow Door Energy is that we stand behind what we install for the term of the contract…ten, fi fteen, twenty years,…we are guaranteeing the amount of energy that will be produced. We are guaranteeing to replace anything that breaks. We are also guaranteeing that the customer is getting the best product today and that we will continue to improve the system if there are options to do so in the future.” In the UAE, Yellow Door Energy gener- ally leases its equipment for 15 to 20 years. In Jordan, the leasing periods are typically a little bit shorter, with the duration of the leases driven normally by the customer. People looking for the largest immediate savings go for the longest term. But those that are more concerned about owning the assets and taking over the equipment at the end of the lease will be looking for a shorter term and will pay more on their annual lease payments. All contracts by the company include maintenance, spare parts, and at the end of the lease term, cus- tomers have fully functioning systems. However, not every start-up in this line of business has been able to take off at the same pace as Yellow Door Energy has, due to struc- 311 kWp Rooftop solar plant at Elcome International head offi ce Dubai Invest- ments Park www.utilities-me.com August 2019 / Utilities Middle East 23 COVER FEATUREtural bottlenecks that stifl e growth for the region’s distributed energy market. While market awareness is gradually improving, hurdles still exist in securing fund- ing. Industry players often accuse fi nancial institutions in the region for their indiff erence towards the distributed energy sub-sector, and for not showing a keen interest to try and understand the market. This has made access to fi nance, especially for start-ups, almost impossible. “Funding challenges in distributed energy absolutely exist today. In certain regional mar- kets where there is more experience, I would point to Jordan, where banks are familiar and comfortable with lending towards distributed generation,” says Crane. “But in most of the rest this region, lending is limited. And it is driven by two reasons, one is simply a lack of opportunity and experience from the banks but also a legitimate recogni- tion that there are new commercial risks in the sector.” “One of the challenges that banks see day- to-day is that it can be a lot of work to under- stand this new product line that they are look- ing to service, and to justify that work, there needs to be scale,” Crane points out. “The typ- ical feedback we have from banks is that they are not interested in looking at 1MW or 2MW projects. And frankly, far from our perspective, the costs of securing a $1mn or $2mn loan with the bank is too high. “A second challenge is duration of the leases. Developers like ourselves are con- tracting 15 to 20-year contracts with commer- cial entities. When you compare that to most loans in the commercial space, those are much longer and the banks have to rely on us to do the proper credit processes and the proper dil- igence in contracting to put the right structure in place. “Many developers who are new to the space might not understand credit processes and bankable PPA type of contracts. So, I under- stand and I sympathise with many lenders that they don’t have the experience and they do see challenges in some development portfolios. “The best advice I would give to anybody who is seeking funding from banks on the other side is to talk about portfolios. They should look at aggregating multiple projects together in bundles of 20MW or 50MW, and on that scale, it starts making sense to do long term project fi nancing.” The best advice I would give to anybody who is seeking funding from banks on the other side is to talk about portfo- lios. They should look at aggregating multiple proj- ects together in bundles of 20MW or 50MW, and on that scale, it starts making sense to do long term proj- ect financing.” Jeremy Crane, Yellow Door Energy We strive day in day out to provide a very modern working environment for our team. We are extremely proud of the diversity of our team, we have been fortunate to attract a lot of good talent and I think that’s part of the benefit of being in Dubai.” Jeremy Crane, Yellow Door Energy Yellow Door Energy’s top executive says that his fi rm has been fortunate to work with more advanced banks, with lenders in Jordan and is now looking at UAE. Crane also shares his immense pride for the Yellow Door Energy team and emphasizes their contribution to the company’s rapid suc- cess. “Our team members are an international group of experts who work together as a family with a vision for building a better world. We strive day in day out to provide a very modern working environment for our team. We have been fortunate to attract the top talent and I think that’s part of the benefi t of being in Dubai. To-date, we have been able to welcome 20 diff erent nationalities to our company, and this has been achieved mostly through local recruiting. We do believe that there is a lot of talent here in this market and that’s why we are excited to be headquartered here and servicing the region from here,” says Crane. As Yellow Door Energy embarks on a long path for growth, it keeps abreast of technologi- cal advances such as energy storage, hybrid sys- tems, and improving thin-fi lm solar technology. Still, with all said and done, a mindset shift is needed to further boost the uptake of distrib- uted solar energy in the Middle East. Technol- ogy, awareness programmes and a regulatory framework are already in place, and these will have a big infl uence on future access to credit. For the 42-year-old CEO of Yellow Door Energy, this is just the beginning. From a little known start-up four years ago, to a leading distributed energy player in the Middle East, Crane feels more energised now to prevail over any challenges and open more doors for Yellow Door Energy. The solar leasing model is driving rooftop solar adoption in the region 24 Utilities Middle East / August 2019 www.utilities-me.com COVER FEATUREMiddle East A SPECIAL REPORT FROM UTILITIES MIDDLE EAST The growing focus on production testing to enable timely defect elimination and prevent late stage equipment failure p28 TESTING FOR TESTING FOR TRANSFORMER TRANSFORMER WIRING WIRING Every protection system must work safely, quickly and in a targeted manner to deliver stable supply of energy p30 TESTING CABLES TESTING CABLES FOR SAFETYFOR SAFETY Major loss of property and life can be avoided by eliminating non-certifi ed cables p33 ELIMINATING SYSTEM FAILURECONTACT A MEMBER OF THE TEAM TODAY FOR INFORMATION For sponsorship enquiries: Tom Martin Senior Sales Manager Tel: +971 4 444 3465 Email: tom.martin@itp.com For event enquiries: Teri Dunstan Events Manager Tel: +971 4 444 3227 E-mail: teri.dunstan@itp.com For nomination enquiries: Tom Oxtoby Editor, MEP Middle East Tel: +971 4 444 3419 Email: tom.oxtoby@itp.com For table booking enquiries: Lacie Curtis Table Sales Executive Tel: +971 4 444 3223 Email: lacie.curtis@itp.com LAST CHANCE TO SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATIONS! www.mepmiddleeast.com/awards Wednesday 6th November 2019 Celebrating their 13th year, the MEP Middle East Awards will once again recognise the most worthy projects, companies and individuals from the mechanical, electrical and plumbing sector in the Middle East. Visit www.mepmiddleeast.com/mepawards for more information or contact one of our team today. GOLD SPONSORS SILVER SPONSORS CATEGORY SPONSORPRIZE SPONSOR NOMINATION DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY, 28th August 2019SPECIAL REPORT www.utilities-me.com August 2019 / Utilities Middle East 27 Baset Asaba, Editor Email: baset.asaba@itp.com Editor’s leader Testing for quality in solar panels A renewed emphasis on solar module quality raises the question of how quality is evaluated If you look at the issue of solar panels, you quickly discover that there are numerous makes, models, and sources. With hundreds of manufacturers, many of them from China and other overseas markets, it’s probably not surprising that there can be a vast difference in panel quality – not only among various brands, but between specific facto- ries and individual panels. This matters a lot, as investors are counting on panel perfor- mance expected to last 25 years or more, and making sizeable bets, in the hundreds of mil- lions of dollars. It’s going to matter even more in the years to come: Navigant recently issued a report projecting global solar installations of 438,000 MW by 2020, with $134bn in annual revenues. Industry players and analysts have recently noted that panel quality is becoming an issue, pointing out that executives with companies that inspect Chinese companies for panel quality have recently discovered even well- known companies either substituting cheaper, untested materials or subcontracting assem- bly to other manufacturers. According to some manufacturers, the cost per watt metric that everybody uses is pretty flawed. But it’s still used because panel man- ufacturers are selling watts rather than watt- hours. And that’s because energy yields are different for various reasons. Factors include types of inverters used, whether you have tracking, and different levels of solar radiation. They all affect output. And panels are not cre- ated equal. They will perform slightly differ- ently even in the same location.” Historically, panels were tested in labs using light with a specific angle of incidence, which is very different from the real world, where con- ditions change. In modern labs, many differ- ent environments are created so that banks and others can model energy yield more accu- rately. Modern labs enable specific forecast- ing using actual characteristics of panels. Two specific areas they focus on are vendor qual- ity and statistical batch testing on a project-by- project basis. The vendor quality focus is geared for buyers and investors to understand whether they are investing in the right module for their system. Historically, investments have been based on brand and balance sheet. But the historical methodologies don’t make sense any more. Testing companies now put modules through accelerated testing in environmen- tal chambers and do performance forecast- ing. They see a pretty good spectrum of perfor- mance: some over-perform and some under- perform. Since they are all selling on a dollars- per-watt basis, it’s very difficult for buyers to differentiate between brand x and brand y. Statistical batch testing then focuses on volume. If somebody buys 10,000 or 150,000 panels, they perform random spot checks and confirm with some statistical accuracy that the population has no defects. Financiers are start- ing to ask these questions about quality. When you compare solar with other energy sources, PV is different in that it is a whole bunch of widgets that are supposed to be the same. So consistency really matters, especially for utility scale procurement, whether it’s util- ity projects or the big residential suppliers buying thousands of panels. Strategy – Content Creation Amplification – Community Management Monitoring – Reporting Contact ignite@itp.com to find out how we can help. YOU FOCUS ON YOUR BUSINESS – LET US FOCUS ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY.MARKET FOCUS 28 Utilities Middle East / August 2019 www.utilities-me.com Building a test system in today›s industry requires evaluation of expanding test requirements and an architecture that can last over time With the focus shifting to production testing to enable timely defect elimi- nation and prevent late stage equip- ment failure, there are more bene- fi ts for testing & measurement (T&M) instruments. Key benefi ts driving the adoption of T&M instruments in product R&D, production and maintenance include high product quality, and lower costs associated with product malfunc- tions, repairs, replacements, product call backs and repeat production. The electronic Test and Measurement Instru- ments industry in the GCC has blossomed and continues to expand at a pace never witnessed before. The GCC market for electrical Test and Measurement Instruments (T&M) is projected to grow over the coming years in parallel with global growth, widely expected to reach $6.8bn by 2020. With electronic gadgets shrinking in size, fea- turing advanced wireless capabilities, and gain- ing in complexity, testing has become a vital pro- cess in electric power generation, transmission and distribution. A new market for test instruments is being cre- ated by the separation of an instrument’s process- ing/control and measurement modules. With the accelerated performance of personal computers, it also has proven viable to create PC-driven instruments that interface through high-speed and common platform-interface technologies. To solve many of these limitations with cur- rent hardware would require a proprietary inter- face technology and a specialised workhorse of a computer, mitigating the benefi ts of a PC-driven computer. The world is increasingly software oriented, and the way people interact with devices is chang- ing. Smartphones, set top boxes and even auto- mobiles are now defi ned by their embedded soft- ware. With this evolution, the industry is chal- lenged to keep up with the pace of innovation and the resulting complexities. The industry today realises that building a test system requires evaluation of expanding test requirements and an architecture that can last over time. It is important to choose a platform that can harness the technology curve while enabling abstraction and integration. Devices under test (DUTs) are moving away from single purpose, hardware centric entities with limited capability to multipurpose, soft- ware-centric entities with endless capability. Making the switch from traditional instruments with vendor defi ned functionality to a software defi ned architecture, allows user defi ned mea- surements and analysis in real time. Communities of developers and integrators, building on standard software platforms, are using commercial off the shelf (COTS) technology to extend the functionality of complex hardware into applications previously impossible. The level of productivity and collaboration delivered by software centric ecosystems will have a profound eff ect on test system design over the next three to fi ve years. The last 2-3 years have witnessed a growing trend of T&M on rent which is gaining popular- ity as a good choice for executing short term proj- ects. Long term projects continue to attract new T&M buys. At the same time, support of multiple technologies like GSM, CDMA, WiMAX, WCDMA, EVERY ISSUE! UME ANNUAL REPORTS 2019 ELIMINATING SYSTEM FAILUREMARKET FOCUS www.utilities-me.com August 2019 / Utilities Middle East 29 LTE or WiFion single platform is in demand from the T&M industry. LTE, Cloud Computing, WiFi off load, WLAN, Green telecom, M2M, Connected life style, research toward 5G race are top trends for the coming years. Site sharing is another trend which continues to result into lower CAPEX and OPEX. The all in one box for production testing helps to save space, time and cost during production. Field instru- ment are more rugged now and they support mul- tiple interface and technology, so that engineer do not need to carry multiple instrument. One of the emerging trends in the market is the miniaturisation of test and measurement equipment. Miniaturised test and measurement equipment are fl exible and easy to use. The fast growth in the electronics industry is leading to the Electrical testing equipment are in- creasingly becoming user-friendly development of small-sized electronic devices for which miniaturised test and measurement equip- ment are required. For example, the test and mea- surement equipment used in consumer electron- ics and other minute components need to be very small in size. The trend to LTE advanced and the use of smartphones is challenging test-and-measure- ment (T&M) systems to stay ahead of advance- ments in RF component performance and inno- vations. As a result, T&M system designers will be challenged to provide faster, extremely repeat- able, rugged, and best-in-class testing environ- ments. Test equipment will be expected to last over multiple generations of product introduc- tions, meaning that the performance require- ments of the RFICs used in test equipment must be better than the device under test by a factor of several generations. Further to this, next-generation communica- tion systems that use higher-order modulation schemes such as Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM), with high peak to average ratios, are driving the need for the components used in the test equipment’s signal chain to have higher linearity. Additionally, more frequency bands are expected to be introduced, driving the need for broader bandwidths and higher operating fre- quencies. This new, crowded spectrum will require additional fi ltering, so fi lter-bank switch- ing is expected to drive the need for lower-loss components. Despite the fact that test solutions are grow- ing in complexity, end customers will continue to expect lower overall test costs per unit. In order to accomplish this, test equipment must enable lower overall test time, which can be accom- plished by RF components with a fast settling time. Also, there continues to be an increasing reliance on software to diff erentiate and provide fl exibility for future product expansion. This fun- damental reliance on software drives device and system manufacturers to look at ways to shorten the software development lifecycle and reduce costs, while at the same time increasing func- tional complexity and improving software qual- ity. Streamlining the development team and their development processes through automation, from requirements engineering and traceability, down through verifi cation and deployment is a way to achieve this. Other factors pushing better automation of test processes include: greater emphasis on the safety- and security-critical market segments, increased focus on software quality and reliabil- ity; growing requirements for software certifi - cation and risk mitigation as well as reduction in development and verifi cation resources. Device and system manufacturers are now implementing traceable development processes where requirements, from concept through to code, automatically link to development and ver- ifi cation artefacts, such as development plans, design documents, verifi cation plans, test proce- dures, and test results. Manual methods are no longer adequate to properly test, execute, and trace the results throughout the development pro- cess both from a reliability and cost perspective. According to industry analysts, engineers must learn diff erent instrument UIs and strug- gle with limited to no correlation across the ana- logue, digital and RF signals. An aff ordable mixed- domain oscilloscope (MDO) that combines a mixed signal oscilloscope with a spectrum analy- ser is greater than sum of its parts. Not only does it reduce pressure on the equipment budget, it adds the critical element of a single integrated view across domains. As embedded RF continues to grow, so will the market demand for MDOs. SEPTEMBER DESALINATION OCTOBER ELECTRICITY EFFICIENCY NOVEMBER DISTRICT COOLING/ NUCLEAR DECEMBER SOLAR Middle East ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS FOR MIDDLE EAST WATER, GAS AND ELECTRICITY PROFESSIONALSNext >