Strategic Planning for Renewable Energy Companies Training Course
| Course code | SD-SP-035 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 5 days |
| Level | Intermediate to Advanced |
| Category | Strategic Planning |
| Delivery | Classroom or live online |
| Language | English |
| Certificate | Certificate of completion |
Course overview
Renewable energy companies must make long-horizon choices while project economics, grid constraints, policy incentives, supply chains and community expectations change faster than conventional planning cycles. Leaders need to decide which markets, technologies, assets and partnerships deserve capital, while preserving the ability to respond to curtailment risk, interconnection delays, price cannibalisation and shifts in offtake demand. This course equips participants to turn those sector pressures into a defensible corporate and portfolio strategy.
Participants learn to build a strategic planning architecture for renewable energy businesses across development, construction, operations and energy-market participation. They assess market attractiveness, segment customers and counterparties, map value-chain positions, set strategic objectives and translate them into investment priorities. The course applies scenario planning, portfolio matrices, project-stage gates, SWOT and PESTLE analysis, stakeholder mapping, risk registers, financial sensitivity analysis and balanced-scorecard measures to wind, solar, storage, hybrid and green hydrogen portfolios.
Teaching combines instructor-led strategy sessions with worked renewable-energy cases, spreadsheet-based scenario exercises and structured peer challenge. Participants develop a strategic plan for a realistic renewable energy company or business unit, including a market thesis, portfolio choices, strategic initiatives, risk responses, KPI dashboard and 12-month implementation roadmap. The final workshop tests each plan against policy, power-price, grid and supply-chain disruption scenarios, producing a practical document that can be adapted for internal planning discussions.
The course is designed for experienced renewable energy professionals moving into portfolio, commercial, development or business leadership roles, as well as managers responsible for aligning projects with enterprise growth and risk appetite.
Course objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Construct a renewable energy strategic planning framework linking corporate ambition, market choices, portfolio priorities and annual execution plans
- Assess target markets using PESTLE analysis, market-attractiveness criteria and policy, grid and offtake evidence
- Develop technology and project portfolio options using portfolio matrices, stage-gate logic and capital-allocation criteria
- Build scenario narratives and quantified sensitivities for power prices, curtailment, interconnection delays, incentives and equipment costs
- Formulate a market-entry and value-chain positioning strategy for renewable generation, storage, hybrid assets or hydrogen projects
- Create a strategic risk register with named owners, leading indicators, mitigations and escalation thresholds
- Design a balanced-scorecard KPI set covering development, commercial, operational, financial and stakeholder performance
- Produce a 12-month renewable energy strategic plan with initiatives, milestones, accountabilities, decision gates and governance cadence
Benefits of attending
For you
- Gain a repeatable method for presenting renewable energy growth choices to investment committees and executive teams
- Build confidence in challenging pipeline assumptions using grid, policy, price and curtailment evidence
- Strengthen credibility as a cross-functional leader who connects development, commercial, finance and operations priorities
- Create a portfolio-level perspective that supports progression into strategy, business development or business unit leadership roles
- Leave with a renewable energy strategic-plan template and decision tools applicable to live planning cycles
For your organisation
- Improve capital allocation by comparing projects and technologies against consistent market, risk and value criteria
- Reduce exposure to stranded development spend through earlier testing of grid, permitting, offtake and policy assumptions
- Align development, commercial, finance and operations teams around shared strategic objectives and decision gates
- Establish measurable strategic KPIs that connect corporate targets to portfolio and project execution
- Create a more resilient response to power-price volatility, incentive changes, supply-chain disruption and stakeholder risk
Target competencies
Who should attend
- Strategy Managers — who must convert market intelligence and growth ambitions into actionable portfolio decisions
- Renewable Energy Development Managers — who need to prioritise project pipelines against grid, permitting and land constraints
- Commercial and Origination Managers — who shape offtake, partnership and market-entry choices
- Portfolio Managers — who allocate capital across operating assets, development projects and emerging technologies
- Business Unit Leaders — who require an evidence-based plan that aligns functions around growth and risk appetite
- Senior Project Managers — who need to connect individual project decisions to corporate strategy and stage-gate governance
Requirements and prerequisites
Participants should have practical experience in renewable energy development, operations, commercial management, finance, policy, or project delivery, and should understand basic project economics such as CAPEX, OPEX, revenue, IRR and NPV. Familiarity with at least one renewable technology, power purchase agreements, grid interconnection or project development stages is expected. Participants should be comfortable reading tables and working with basic spreadsheet models. Advanced financial modelling, electricity-market modelling, coding and prior use of PLEXOS or NREL SAM are not required; guided examples and planning templates are provided.
Training methodology
The instructor uses renewable energy company cases to demonstrate each planning tool before participants apply it to a simulated developer, independent power producer or integrated clean-energy business. Short teaching inputs are followed by market-screening workshops, portfolio debates, scenario modelling and stakeholder role-play. Teams use planning templates, selected outputs from NREL SAM and PLEXOS examples, and Power BI-style KPI views to defend choices under changing conditions. Each participant receives structured feedback while assembling an end-of-course strategic plan and implementation roadmap for a current or representative business challenge.
Course outline
Day 1: Strategic context and renewable energy business models
- Corporate strategy hierarchy from purpose to portfolio and operating plans
- Renewable energy value chains across development, EPC, asset ownership, trading and services
- Business-model choices for independent power producers, developers and integrated energy companies
- PESTLE analysis for energy policy, permitting, grid regulation and market reform
- Strategic implications of decarbonisation targets and electrification demand growth
- Competitive mapping of utilities, developers, infrastructure funds and technology providers
- Strategic ambition, risk appetite and planning assumptions
Workshop: Participants create a strategic context map for a renewable energy company, identifying its business model, external drivers and three priority planning questions.
Day 2: Market selection and portfolio strategy
- Market-attractiveness scoring for renewable energy geographies and customer segments
- Grid capacity, interconnection queues and curtailment as portfolio selection variables
- Technology screening for solar, onshore wind, offshore wind, storage, hybrids and hydrogen
- Portfolio matrices for balancing operating assets, late-stage projects and early development options
- Stage-gate governance and kill criteria for development pipelines
- Capital-allocation criteria using strategic fit, risk-adjusted value and optionality
- Partnership, acquisition and organic-growth pathways
Workshop: Teams score three market and technology options, then produce a ranked portfolio recommendation with explicit investment and exit criteria.
Day 3: Commercial strategy and scenario-based decisions
- Customer segmentation for corporate PPAs, utilities, traders and public-sector buyers
- Offtake strategy choices including merchant exposure, PPAs, contracts for difference and tolling
- Revenue-stack design for storage and hybrid renewable assets
- Power-price cannibalisation and basis-risk considerations in strategic planning
- Scenario planning methodology using critical uncertainties and decision-relevant narratives
- Sensitivity analysis for CAPEX, financing costs, equipment lead times and energy yields
- Using NREL SAM and PLEXOS outputs to inform strategic assumptions
Workshop: Participants build three market scenarios and test a proposed solar-plus-storage investment strategy against price, curtailment and policy changes.
Day 4: Risk, stakeholders and strategic execution
- ISO 31000-aligned strategic risk identification and treatment planning
- Risk registers for permitting, land, biodiversity, community acceptance and supply chains
- Stakeholder mapping for regulators, grid operators, communities, lenders and offtakers
- Strategic responses to interconnection delay and transmission congestion
- Operating-model design for strategy governance and cross-functional decision rights
- Balanced scorecard design for renewable energy growth, delivery and operational performance
- Strategic initiative charters, owners, milestones and resource requirements
Workshop: Participants develop a strategic risk and stakeholder action plan for a delayed renewable portfolio, including owners, triggers and escalation routes.
Day 5: Strategic plan integration and executive communication
- Strategic-plan structure for renewable energy corporate and business-unit planning
- Translating portfolio choices into annual objectives and investment decision gates
- KPI dashboard construction using Microsoft Power BI measures and visual logic
- Roadmap sequencing for development, commercial, grid and capability initiatives
- Board-ready strategic narrative and investment-committee recommendations
- Stress-testing plans against policy reversal, supply disruption and market-price shocks
- Strategy review cadence, learning loops and plan refresh triggers
Workshop: Participants present a completed 12-month renewable energy strategic plan, KPI dashboard and implementation roadmap to a simulated executive review panel.
Tools & standards covered
NREL System Advisor Model (SAM), PLEXOS, Microsoft Power BI, ISO 31000
A typical training day
| 08:30 – 10:30 | First session |
| 10:30 – 10:45 | Refreshment break |
| 10:45 – 12:30 | Second session |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch and networking |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Third session |
| 15:00 – 15:15 | Refreshment break |
| 15:15 – 16:30 | Workshop and daily review |
Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.
What the fee includes
- Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
- Full course workbook and materials
- Exercise files, templates and case studies
- Certificate of completion
- Refreshments and lunch (classroom deliveries)
- Post-course application plan
- Facilitator follow-up on request
- Group rates from five participants
How you can take this course
Classroom
Scheduled sessions in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, Dubai and Cape Town.
Live online
The same facilitator and materials, delivered live for distributed teams and individuals.
In-house
Delivered privately for your team, at your offices or a venue of your choice, tailored to your context. Request a proposal.
Certification
Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.
Frequently asked questions
Upcoming sessions
New dates are being scheduled. Ask us about the next session or an in-house delivery for your team.
Ask about datesGroup of 5+?
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