Renewable energy and infrastructure feasibility calculator

1. Define the project, baseline, viewpoint and horizon. Use incremental cash changes versus that baseline—not all accounting income or sunk costs.
2. Collect the source records listed below. Date your assumptions and distinguish measured figures, signed terms, quotes and forecasts. If an essential input is unknown, investigate it rather than silently entering zero.
3. Enter base assumptions and your own downside/upside changes. Use a coherent USD price basis: nominal flows with nominal discount rates, or real flows with real rates. Do not mix them.
4. Calculate. Review the period table, zero/undefined metrics, cash deficits, scenario graph and model-specific notes. A positive NPV does not satisfy operational, legal, safety, market or financing requirements.
5. Print/save the result or download the cash-flow CSV. Result JSON preserves inputs and results; CSV carries the period table. For an equal-period model, use the optional Decision Feasibility handoff only after reviewing the numbers.

Project cash flow is before financing: exclude loan proceeds, principal and interest. Equity cash flow is after financing: equity contribution at time zero, then cash after debt service and final payoff. Do not discount one viewpoint with a rate intended for the other. Different discount rates can change the comparison.

NPV discounts all modeled net cash flows. Conventional IRR/XIRR is reported only for an initial outflow followed by nonnegative net inflows and a root in the stated range. Multiple sign changes can create ambiguous IRRs; the tool does not label one root as the answer. MIRR uses the specified finance/reinvestment rates. Payback is the first period-end recovery—not an interpolation or proof that cash stays positive afterward.

Scenario changes combine within a scenario; separate scenarios are alternatives, not cumulative events or probabilities. Longer lives and terminal values are assumptions that often dominate results. Check the source evidence before relying on them.

The explicit handoff button places the base unlevered equal-period cash flows into a temporary handoff on this device and opens the complete study. On that page, choose Load the reviewed financial cash flows to replace the current unsaved study inputs. Save an existing study first if needed. There is no automatic merge.

Only initial project outlay, period benefits/costs and the matching discount rate transfer. Financing/equity returns, matrix scores, requirements, scenario probabilities and lender permissions do not. Your funding amount, requirements, ratings and additional uncertainty remain unverified and must be entered. The handoff never grants GO status. SaaS uses monthly periods and a monthly-equivalent rate; the other transferable models use years. Dated capital flows do not transfer because the complete study expects equal periods.

There is no online project save or account created by this handoff. It uses browser session storage, which can be cleared or blocked. JSON result downloads and explicit editable complete-study files are separate features.

• For energy, obtain a suitable annual yield study, production record or engineering estimate. Choose supplied annual kWh or rated kW × 8,760 × supplied capacity factor. Additional delivery/availability loss is applied afterward: enter zero if that loss is already included. The financial model does not calculate weather, PV layout, dispatch, storage cycling or equipment suitability.
• For infrastructure, define a consistent billable service unit—such as a treatment unit, passenger movement or throughput unit—and enter first-year units and the collected unit tariff. Do not treat engineering capacity as guaranteed demand. The same model is not a sector-specific engineering feasibility study.
• Use actual cost quotes for capital, fixed O&M, variable cost per unit, one replacement, final decommissioning and residual value. Fixed O&M and variable O&M must cover different costs. Replacement cost is entered for its chosen year, not automatically escalated.
• Only enter an upfront receipt if its amount and timing are deliberately supported. No grant eligibility, tax credit, subsidy or tax rule is calculated. The receipt cannot exceed initial capex in this model.
• Energy value separates self-use/primary-tariff share from export compensation. One kWh is valued once. The same tariff escalation applies to both values. Infrastructure uses one unit tariff.
• Project cash flows exclude financing. Equity cash flows use entered loan proceeds, monthly amortizing payments and a final payoff of any remaining debt. Rates must match those viewpoints.
• Downside combines output loss, capital overrun, O&M increase and delayed commissioning. The calendar horizon does not extend: production is lost, fixed cost continues and replacement/degradation follow the original calendar. Upside is an assumption, not a forecast.

Gross levelized cost discounts lifecycle costs and physical production at the entered project rate, excludes financing and upfront receipts, and credits salvage. Net cost also deducts the entered upfront receipt. These are explicit pre-tax definitions, not a reproduction of SAM's full after-tax models. The zero-NPV unit-value threshold solves a uniform starting value, not a separately negotiated PPA or export rate.