3Suns is not just a supplier of state of the art, best value - for - money PV modules. We are able to offer a broad array of services that go way beyond panels’ trading.

In particular, 3Suns is able to provide its customers with:

On-site inspections of the installation area

Upon your first contact with 3Suns, one of our technicians will visit the designated installation site to verify if all the normal installations requirements are met. On the basis of this first exploratory visit, we will be able to estimate precisely the overall costs and the yearly productivity of the installation.

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Financial planning to optimize the return of your PV investment

Your satisfaction with the performances of your solar investment is not just a matter of the solar irradiation available at your installation site. Actually, its financial return has just as much to do with a good financial planning. 3Suns can help you identify the financing options that will maximize the investment rate of returns and its net present value. Also, if you are a company, 3Suns will help you managing the integration between your PV investment and your balance sheet and profit & loss account.

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Engineering Consultancy services

State of the art engineering planning is a key aspect to determine whether your solar investment will satisfy your expectations or not. Engineering mistakes can reduce the investment performances through a marked reduction in electricity output compared to the one implied by the installation site fundamentals. A well financed plant in an ideal location can easily turn sour if there are engineering mistakes during the construction period.

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Financing of PV installations, having strong relationships with institutional investors (Banks) and the skills required to raise both debt and equity

As for every other business initiative in the post-credit crunch era, funding a PV solar plant can be a difficult task, even more so given the peculiar requirements of the typical PV investment. They are usually characterized by big upfront cash outflows followed by comparatively smaller yearly expenses and generally sizeable cash inflows thereafter. Such an investment can worsen almost any company short term cash position if it is completely carried out through existing balance sheet means. That is why, to improve any PV project’s performances, it is fundamental to raise external capital in the form of debt and/or equity and to come up with innovative financial solutions to smooth the investors cash flow. 3Suns can guide its customers through this process, introducing them to both equity investors and institutional investors that can provide debt financing for the investment.

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3Suns can offer full EPC services to those customers that do not have the means to install PV system on their own. At the customer’s request, 3Suns will submit an engineering plan, will perform all the purchasing of the materials and equipment required ( inverter, installation supports, wires and, of course, PV solar panels) and will build the PV solar field/installation. All of it at the most competitive price on the market.

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Bureaucratic procedure to authorize the plant connection to the grid and access to public subsides schemes

Having its profitability often linked to public subsides ( FIT, grants, tax breaks), PV installations require some bureaucratic effort to successfully have access to such incentives. Beside that, the construction of the plants themselves often requires local authorities permits that may prove difficult to obtain for companies not accustomed to the required procedures. 3Suns can guide its customers through the sometimes obscure bureaucracy required to build the plant and put it on-line onto the national grid.

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3Suns offers its customers the chance to relax and just delegate 3Suns to take charge of all the operations required to successfully install and operate a PV system. 3Suns will offer all the services mentioned in this page as a single bundle for a fixed, extremely competitive price. Finally, 3Suns can offer “All-Risk” insurance policies, supplied by leading worldwide Insurers, to cover the customer’s PV system from any technical failure or economic shortfall.

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3Suns is currently interested in evaluating creative solutions to get closer to its customers’ needs. Hybrid commercial solutions are becoming ever more popular in the market and 3Suns is at the forefront of such new trend. With the support of its commercial partners, 3Suns is willing to co-invest with its customers in installations with a particularly profitable outlook. In particular, 3Suns is focusing on:

Plants located on areas with an extremely favorable solar radiation and with comparatively generous public subsides and / or fairly high electricity prices in the local electricity market.

Plants that can improve 3Suns products’ status in a regional market with high potential growth in the number of PV installations. In particular, we are looking at potential deals with local entrepreneurs that are very visible in the regional / national entrepreneurial community and thus have the potential to give our business a prestigious reference to strengthen 3Suns bargaining power in future deals

If a customer has access to one opportunity such as the aforementioned ones, a due diligence process and a thorough analysis of the investment potential return will be run by 3Suns after a first exploratory approach. Upon a successful outcomes in both the above operations, 3Suns and its partners are willing to formulate a plan for the injection of equity and / or debt to build a plant in co-operation with their customer.

Such a deal can be structured in creative ways (as long as they are financially viable for both parties). However, typical structures that can be implemented are:

Free tenancy in exchange of free electricity

The customer confers one key asset into the PV venture at no charge (i.e. the roof of one of the customer’s warehouses or plants, or a piece of land that has already obtained the required permits for the construction of PV plants on it), 3Suns installs PV panels on it signing of a free, 20 years tenancy agreement for the refurbished roof in favor of 3Suns and its partners. The customer gets the right to consume the produced electricity for free for 20 years (or, depending on the specific Country regulations, will enjoy a rebate equal to the selling price of the amount of energy sold into the grid by the plant). 3Suns and its partners have the right to keep the revenues from the sales of the electricity not consumed by the customer and, crucially, the FIT (if available in the specific country) on the whole electricity produced or the available public grants.

Roof refurbishment in exchange of free electricity

A customer with an old production plant or with a rooftop made of poisonous materials (like asbestos, for example) buys a roof refurbishment service from 3Suns for its plant / warehouse and 3Suns can in turn add a sizeable PV installation on the new rooftop after the refurbishment is over, upon the signing of a free, 20 years tenancy agreement for the refurbished roof in favor of 3Suns and its partners. The customer gets the right to consume the produced electricity for free for 20 years (or, depending on the specific Country regulations, will enjoy a rebate equal to the selling price of the amount of energy sold into the grid by the plant) while 3Suns and its partners have the right to keep the revenues from the sales of the electricity not consumed by the customer and, crucially, the FIT (if available in the specific country) on the whole electricity produced or the available public grants.

Co-Investment

A customer confers one meaningful asset (again, a rooftop or a piece of land) and possibly a financing facility into the venture. The parties will agree on the valuation of such assets and award a equity stake of the PV plant to the customer who will, accordingly, have access to a share of the net profits that such installations generates.

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Yearly Maintenance program

PV systems require a small amount of servicing every year. Also, every ten years it may be necessary to substitute some key components of the system, like the inverters. All in all, the average yearly cost of such maintenance program can be estimated at 1% - 1.5% of the value of the original plant cost. 3Suns offers maintenance schemes at very competitive fares.

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Phasing out of obsolete PV system

PV systems have usually a considerably long lifespan of around 25 to 30 years. Of course, their performances will gradually decline over such time-span. Nonetheless, they will typically be profitable for most of that time due to the fact that most public FIT schemes run for at least 15 years, and anyway, as long as the present value of each period revenues stays above the present value of each year’s total costs, it makes sense for the system owner to keep running its plant until the intra-year cash flow turn negative. Eventually, though, PV systems will need to be either replaced or dismantled. 3Suns is able to provide that service and can offer a discount on a new installation based on a fair valuation of the residual value of the plant to be dismantled.

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Global warming is a serious issue confronting our societies, and it is widely accepted that we must act as quickly as we can to counter this phenomenon, also with a marked increase in the global Renewable Energies output.

However, there is no reason why this renewed environmental consciousness shouldn’t be matched by profitability for those that decide to undertake change. Actually, at 3Suns we believe that every world changing policy will always work best when it is matched by financial incentives capable to align individual short term financial goals with broader, long term social targets. That is why our motto is Growth through Environment.

Notwithstanding their overall yearly Compounded Average Growth Rate of more than 30% during the past 14 years ( world cumulative installed capacity increased forty – fold during the period, from 400 MW in 1995 to 16 GW in 2008 ), PV installations thrived the most in those Countries that provide their citizens with economic incentives to make a PV installations financially sound, like in recent years those of Germany ( the country with the highest cumulative installed PV capacity, with more than 5 GW at the end of 2008 ), Spain ( the biggest PV installer in 2008, with a 12 months installation of more than 2.5 GW ) and Italy, that is also tipped to be the first western Country to reach Grid – Parity during either 2009 or 2010.

3Suns believes that the recent growth in PV can be sustained, and increased too, in the long term. What the market really needs is an increase in the number of financial solution to manage the PV invesment, given that most of the players in the market are still sticking to standardized offers under that point of view.

3Suns is committed to expand the portfolio of option on offer, to help the market unleashing its vast growth potential. As outlined in the Services page, 3Suns is offering creative new ways to co – finance its customers’ PV installations. Beside that, 3Suns is always looking for ways to help its customers to leverage their investment to boost their returns.

In particular, we are very pro - active in the following financial services:

• Debt financing of up to 80% of the total value of the initial investment, through the support of some leading Italian financial institution.
• Draft of Business Plans to present to private investors that can provide both Equity and Debt funds.
• Pooling and management of small shareholders for the construction of bigger, shared PV power plant to supply electricity to a small group of private buildings. Support to the creation of consortium for the shared investment.
• Partnership with insurance agencies that can insure customers against default to increase their credit-worthiness and decrease their borrowing costs, even for projects at a micro – level.
• Co – Investments in highly profitable installations
• Leasing of photovoltaic modules for periods of up to 15 – 20 years. Conversion of leasing into property at a pre – determined price and time.