If you want to sell a solar power plant or make a photovoltaic investment, you are spoilt for choice: similar to the real estate sector, a large number of solar brokers offer their services. However, there are very few service providers specialised in renewable energies who actually have the necessary expertise and appropriate networks to implement transactions quickly and in a targeted manner. In a further analogy to the real estate market, digital platforms have therefore developed in recent years that bring together sellers and buyers of solar parks and wind turbines. The added value of these specialised platforms is clear: by bundling supply and demand in an online marketplace, a large number of market participants can be networked, market transparency increased and transaction costs reduced.
We took a closer look at the competitive environment and evaluated it on the basis of the information published. The following table summarises our results at a glance.
 | Green Dealflow | Milk the Sun | |
| Partially anonymised project offers publicly accessible |   |   | |
| Access to offer details only for registered members | | | |
| Project specific data room | | Not published | |
| Offer and project access restricted to pre-screened sellers and investors | | Not published | Not published |
| Validation of each project proposal before publication | | Not published | Not published |
| No definition of a minimum commission | | Not published | |
| Free access to project documentation for proven investors | | | |
| Transparent price list | | | |
| Amount of the marketplace fee for a 20 MWp project right | 37.500 EUR | Not published | 100.000 EUR |
| Amount of the marketplace fee for an existing 500 kWp PV plant | 2.500 EUR | Not published | 7.500 EUR |
ProjectForum
ProjectForum was launched in 2011 as the first professional online marketplace for photovoltaic projects and solar direct investments from 20 kWp upwards. From the very beginning, the marketplace was designed as a closed portal for proven project developers, general contractors, private plant owners and institutional investors. The platform operators want to create added value for the solar industry by means of direct communication between the parties involved in the transaction and by reducing transaction costs. The transparently communicated and completely success-oriented marketplace fee is charged to the buyer according to the price list after the transaction has been completed. There are no other activation fees or running costs at ProjectForum.
After things had become quieter around ProjectForum since 2016, the market place is online again since September 2020 after a successful relaunch. The limitation of the acting market participants to actual proven owners of projects and operational assets on the one hand and investors acting in their own name on the other hand continues to distinguish the quality standard. This also includes the validation of each offer before its publication by the ProjectForum team – a core component of the marketplace offer. With an aggressive pricing strategy, ProjectForum positions itself as the price and quality leader in a competitive comparison.
Conclusion: Even though the variety of offers is not as high as that of the competitors after the recent relaunch, ProjectForum offers all sellers of solar projects, ready-to-build photovoltaic systems and operational solar power plants the opportunity to directly address a large number of real investors easily and free of charge. The investment limits defined and checked by ProjectForum ensure that only suitable prospective buyers can access a project offer. In the medium term, the free of charge registration is becoming increasingly worthwhile for investors, as the number of offers is constantly increasing. The pricing model is simple and transparent: depending on whether project rights or turnkey or existing PV systems are sold, ProjectForum’s performance-based marketplace fee is half or one third of the fees charged by direct competitors.
Green Dealflow
The Green Dealflow platform from Denmark, founded in 2015, takes a slightly different approach. The portal is aimed primarily at larger project developers, builders and institutional investors of solar and wind farms with a minimum size of 5 MW. At the time of our review, the available offers are mainly focused on pre-developed and ready-to-build project rights for wind and solar parks with planned outputs of 10 to 100 MW. In addition to arranging transactions, Green Dealflow also sees itself as a meeting point for industry participants and a provider of information. For example, the team operates a database on transactions in the renewable energy segment and publishes a monthly report on renewable transactions.
The team behind Green Dealflow claims to have experience in investment and asset management. Access to the Green Dealflow marketplace is free of charge. The price model for the granting of access to individual project offers as well as the amount of the performance-based commission in case of successful brokerage are not publicly available and can therefore not be included in the comparison.
Conclusion: Green Dealflow offers a professionally designed portal for developers of large projects and institutional investors of wind and solar parks from 5 MW upwards. On the one hand, it provides a market overview of the transaction process and on the other hand it is used to offer assets or identify investment opportunities. The pricing model of Green Dealflow is not published and can therefore not be included in the valuation.
Milk the Sun
Since its launch in 2012, the online marketplace for solar power systems operated by Milk the Sun has developed from a pure trading place for PV projects to a portal for the sale and administration of PV systems and for the brokerage of various services related to solar power plants. In addition to a software solution for system management, Milk the Sun also provides its users with offers from service providers for e.g. module cleaning, legal advice, technical reports or solar insurance.
Overall, Milk the Sun is aimed at investors in solar power plants. The projects and systems offered in partially anonymous form via the publicly accessible marketplace have sizes ranging from 20 kWp to several MWp and are mostly located in Germany. The extent to which Milk the Sun qualifies the market participants cannot be determined according to publicly available sources. Pricing is transparent and divided into a service fee for project access and a performance-related commission. Milk the Sun charges a fee of EUR 25 for each individual full access to the information, documents and contact details of a project proposal. Without payment of this upfront fee, prospective buyers can neither review an offer nor contact the vendor. The performance-based commission is due after the conclusion of a transaction and is relatively high: At 15 EUR/kWp, this is three times the value of the competitor ProjectForum for existing PV systems. However, by setting a minimum fee, this brokerage fee can also rise to up to 50 EUR/kWp in the case of smaller systems (e.g. for a turnkey 20 kWp system), which for new systems can represent just under 10% of the total investment costs.
Conclusion: Milk the Sun is an established brokerage portal for solar power plants and related services, especially in Germany. At the time of our analysis, Milk the Sun offers a relatively large variety of existing plants and projects, and the marketplace application is professionally structured. On the basis of the published information, it is not possible to determine whether vendors and prospective buyers have been pre-checked. Therefore it is possible that intermediaries and brokers also use the marketplace. Compared to the competition, the performance-based marketplace fees are high, and prospective buyers also pay an activation fee with every project release.
