The myth of PV module manufacturers’ bankability in project financing

By Felix Holz, Vice President / Head of Industry Expert Team Greentech, Deutsche Bank AG

A typical financial structure for a utility-scale (i.e. larger than a few MW) PV project is the so-called ‘non-recourse project financing’. Experience shows that lenders may occasionally refuse financing because they dislike a technology or even a certain supplier. This past behaviour has created the ‘myth of bankability’ and the perceived necessity of manufacturers to get onto the banks’ ‘bankability lists’. But there is no strictly defined process for doing this, and many of the experienced banks do not even work with such lists for good reason. Moreover, ‘bankability’ is not a feature that a manufacturer or a product can achieve or maintain forever.