Financial viability of offshore wind on the Texas Gulf Coast

Offshore wind is already a significant component of the electricity generation mix in Europe, and improvements in technology and cost are enabling increased offshore wind penetration in new markets around the world. Thus far, the US has struggled to materially participate in this industry, with only a single 30 MW offshore project in operation. Navigating a complicated regulatory framework, the lack of a coherent national policy, and facing local opposition, the industry has experienced some spectacular failures in recent years. However, the US now has an opportunity to take advantage of the lessons learned from years of (primarily) European development and combine them with excellent offshore wind resources close to transmission-constrained load centers. By far the leader of the US onshore wind industry, and with a long history of offshore oil and gas development, Texas has some major advantages when it comes to offshore wind. Wind resources in the Gulf of Mexico are more than adequate for economic production. With shallow depths and relatively calm seas, the Texas Gulf Coast is also well suited to offshore wind construction. These factors, coupled with a pro-development state regulatory scheme and extended jurisdiction over submerged lands, suggest that Texas is an ideal candidate for offshore wind development. With no currently active projects in the pipeline, this thesis examines the economic viability of offshore wind development on the Texas Gulf Coast at the project level. Using an ideal location and cost data from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Energy Information Administration (EIA), and industry sources, a hypothetical “test project” was developed and evaluated against three cost estimate cases and ten regulatory scenarios. These inputs were fed into a Discounted Cash Flow model to determine potential competitiveness in the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) market in the ERCOT region. Results indicate that without significant cost reductions or major changes to either market conditions or federal/state incentive schemes, Texas Gulf Coast offshore wind cannot compete with other forms of onshore renewable generation. With ever-decreasing costs, it is not impossible that offshore wind could become viable at some point in the future, but given current conditions, it is not likely that any projects are on the near-term horizon.Energy and Earth Resource

Transactions Costs and the Viability of Rural Financial Intermediaries

In its attempt to examine the transaction cost of banks, this study develops a method of estimating transaction cost for each bank activity. It also explains the differences and the composition cost among commercial private development and rural banks. Results in this paper is hoped to improve the efficient functioning of the formal financial system.financial sector, rural sector, transaction cost, financial intermediaries

Farm debt and financial viability

New Zealand Society of Farm Management Conference proceedings 1971.This bulletin has been produced by the Department of Farm Management and Rural Valuation of Lincoln College in association with the New Zealand Society of Farm Management. It consists of papers given at the Society of Farm Management section of the Annual Conference of the New Zealand Institute of Agriculture Science held at Lincoln College in August 1971. Deepening financial problems in the Sheep Industry have focussed attention on the need for a fuller understanding of the nature of these problems, and the policy measures needed to meet them. These papers make a contribution to this understanding

Financial Data Transparency, International Institutions, and Sovereign Borrowing Costs

Recent events in international finance illustrate the close connection between the viability of a country's major private financial institutions and the sustainability of its sovereign debt. We explore the precise nature of this connection and the ways in which it shapes investors’ expectations of sovereign creditworthiness. We consider how investors use the overall level of information available about the private financial sector—and the potential risks it poses to government finances—when making decisions about investing in sovereign debt. We expect that governments providing more information about the private financial sector will have lower, and less volatile, borrowing costs. In order to test this argument, we create a new Financial Data Transparency (FDT) Index measuring governments’ willingness to release credible financial system data. Using the FDT and a sample of high-income OECD countries, we find that such transparency reduces sovereign borrowing costs. The effects are conditional on the level of public indebtedness. Transparent countries with low debt enjoy lower and less volatile borrowing costs

Balancing Financial Viability and User Affordability: An Assessment of Six WASH Service Delivery Models

This Topic Brief presents assessments of the financial performance of six WSUP-supported WASH service delivery models in Bangladesh, Madagascar, Mozambique and Zambia. Each model has been developed in partnership with locally mandated service providers to facilitate sustainable, at-scale improvements to low-income urban populations

Revenue Strategies and Financial Viability for Emerging Nonprofit Sector in Japan:Commercialization or Diversification?

The issues establishing stable autonomous revenue and securing diverse financial sources stand in opposition for the nonprofit sector, and it is more difficult problem in the emerging nonprofit sector of Japan. However, the nonprofit organizations need to manage both conditions compatibly. We examine the relations of revenue structure and financial viability using the Financial Database of NPO Corporations in Japan. In this paper the size of total expense is used as a proxy variable of the short-term financial viability, and the equity size relative to total revenue is considered as the long-term financial viability. Our empirical results show that it is important to acquire diverse financial sources such as donations and membership fees in order to improve financially viable in the long-term, while increasing commercial revenues work effectively to the short-term financial viability. Thus, the nonprofit organizations in Japan concurrently need to seek two crucial revenue strategies, the commercial revenue expansion for immediate survival and the revenue diversification for future innovation.This work was supported partially by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number (25380486), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Assessing Bank performance and the impact of financial restructuring in a macroeconomic framework : a new application

The authors present a simulation model (applied here to Uruguay and implemented in Javelin) that permits analysis of the interaction between a financial system and the economic environment in which it operates. The model allows the user to compute and project the indicators necessary to monitor the performance of a financial institution and to examine how those indicators respond to economic change. Traditionally, economic analysis in the World Bank has focused on eitherthe real or financial sector, but rarely on the interaction between them. The introduction of the extended Revised Minimum Standard Model, or RMSM-X, reflects the Bank's recognition of the importance of incorporating the financial system into the macroeconomy. Nevertheless, the monetary module in the RMSM-X is too aggregated to allow for any meaningful analysis of the viability of a country's financial system, or any institution in particular. By design, the RMSM-X provides only a generic framework, or platform, that then may be adapted to particular cases. The authors develop a tool that uses a time series that shows developing trend lines. The model requires an adequate level of detail and a consistency of content, interpretation, and presentation of the financial and economic data, plus an adequate grouping of banks to ensure that comparisons are between like entities. The model should be useful to financial analysts who need to plan for and forecast the growth and profits of a financial institution, or a group of institutions, and who are interested in capturing the links with the macroeconomy in a fully consistent framework. The model allows the user to compute and project indicators that are necessary to monitor the performance of a financial institution and to examine how these indicators change in response to changes in the macroenvironment. The model should also be valuable to economists interested in assessing the viability of the financial system, particularly in assessing the impact of financial restructuring. When major financial restructuring is involved, model simulations can help policymakers and supervisors to reassure themselves that bank rehabilitation is worth its costs.Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Economics,Macroeconomic Management

Funds Transfer: Boon or Bane to the Viability of Rural Financial Intermediaries

Institutional credit set up by the government may not necessarily be the major source of funds in the rural areas. In addition, there may be enough funds to support production and to sustain employment if financial resources are not rained. These insights are just few of authors’ findings in this paper. It suggests that addressing the problem of rural financial drain can open up the opportunities to pursue rural development without eroding the national budgetrural sector, financial intermediaries, funds transfer

Fair Value of Real Estate and Utility of Financial Statements of Construction Companies

Some international standards have proposed that the fair value approach should be used to evaluate real estate assets. The choice to use this method or another approach could influence the quality of the financial reports published in response to information demands by company stakeholders. In this study, we will examine whether fair value evaluation, in the real estate context, improves the utility of construction company financial reports. For this purpose, we have addressed a questionnaire to financial directors that concern the relevance, reliability and viability of this valuation criterion. Based on the opinion of the respondents, our results show that the fair value model would improve the usefulness of financial reports to evaluate company solvency, and would also improve the comparability, timeliness and understandability of such reports.