Phase 3 -- Project Development

Ch. 15 -- Operator

Solar operator selection

The operator designs, builds, and maintains the system for 15-25 years. The contract is executed within the trust fund through a competitive process with weighted criteria.

Weighted evaluation criteria -- Municipal Playbook, Ch. 15.3. Sortable by weight.
Criterion	Weight	What to evaluate
Proven experience	25%	Similar projects executed in Colombia, especially in communities
Competitive price	20%	COP/Wp installed, including O&M; compare against market reference costs
O&M capability	20%	Local presence, response times, preventive maintenance plan, performance guarantee
Community commitment	15%	Experience working with communities, willingness to train, local employment
Financial soundness	10%	Financial statements, credit history, execution capacity
Warranties	10%	Panels (25 years min.), inverters (10-15 years), labor (2-5 years), performance (90% year 1, 80% year 25)

The Playbook publishes two different weightings -- verify which one you are using

Ch. 15.3 weights as follows: Experience 25% -- Price 20% -- O&M Capability 20% -- Community Commitment 15% -- Financial Soundness 10% -- Warranties 10%.

But the ToR template in Ch. 28 weights differently: Experience 25% -- Technical Proposal 20% -- Price 25% -- O&M Plan and Warranties 15% -- Commitment to Local Employment and Community Training 15%.

Both sum to 100% and both come from the same document, but they are not the same matrix: the ToR version gives more weight to price and merges O&M with warranties. Choose one before publishing the ToR and use it consistently, because changing weights after receiving proposals is grounds for challenge.

Reference operators in Colombia

Those documented by the Playbook (Ch. 15.2 and 30.3). This is not a closed list or a ranking.

Operators documented in the Municipal Playbook. Sortable by company or coverage.
Company	Community experience	Coverage	Documented capacity	Website
Celsia	Bocas del Palo (Jamundi); Sustainable Homes with Comfama	National	303 MW total, 34 farms	celsia.com
ERCO Energia	Commercial and industrial projects; Petalo del Norte	National	Leader in solar commercialization (no figure published)	erco.energy
Solenium	Energy community management	National	Specialized in communities (no figure published)	solenium.co
SunColombia	Implementation in ZNI; Solar Classrooms	National with rural focus	Experience in remote areas (no figure published)	suncolombia.com
Unergy	Solar project investment platform	National	Digital solar crowdfunding platform	unergy.co
EPM	Comunidad Solar La Estrecha (Medellin) -- first grid-connected community	Antioquia and operating regions	Not disclosed	epm.com.co
GEB / Enlaza	491 photovoltaic solutions in La Guajira	Caribbean and operating regions	Experience in rural electrification	Not disclosed

Why this table does not include a calculated score

The Playbook publishes the criteria and their weights, and publishes a list of reference operators, but does not score any operator against any criterion. Assigning scores here would mean fabricating them, and a fabricated ranking on a public website is exactly the kind of data a bidder can challenge. The scoring is produced by the evaluation committee with actual proposals in hand, following the Ch. 15.4 process: ToR → invitation to minimum 3 operators → 15-20 business days for proposals → weighted evaluation → visit to reference projects → negotiation → award by the fiduciary committee → EPC contract and O&M contract signature.

The ready-to-use ToR template is in Tools.

Ch. 17 -- Permits

Permit pathway

Eight processes with six different agencies. The bars show each one's estimated timeline on a 180-day scale.

Permit pathway -- Municipal Playbook, Ch. 17.1. The solid bar is the minimum timeline; the dotted extension, up to the maximum. Scale: 0-180 days. Sortable by maximum timeline.
Permit	Agency	Estimated duration (0-180 days)	Max. (days)	Estimated cost
Land use	Municipal Planning	5-10 days	10	COP $100K-300K
Net metering enrollment	Grid operator	15-30 days	30	No cost
RETIE certification	ONAC-accredited inspection body	15-30 days	30	COP $2-5M
Construction permit	Building authority / Municipal Planning	15-30 days	30	COP $500K-2M
Environmental clearance	CAR / regional environmental authority	30-60 days	60	Variable
AGRC/GDC registration	CREG	30-60 days	60	No cost
Grid connection request	Grid operator	30-90 days per the Playbook -- 3 to 12 months in practice	90	COP $5-50M depending on capacity
Prior consultation (if applicable)	MinInterior (Ministry of the Interior)	60-180 days -- mandatory if the project affects territories of indigenous, Afro-Colombian, or Raizal communities	180	Variable

These bars are durations, not a schedule

The Playbook publishes how long each process takes, but does not publish start dates or dependencies between them. Drawing a Gantt chart with precedences here would mean inventing them. What the Playbook does say: the grid connection request to the grid operator is the most critical and potentially slowest process (Ch. 17.2), and although the table estimates 30-90 days, in Colombian practice the process takes between 3 and 12 months depending on the operator and available capacity. File it first and plan around it, not the other way around.

The Comunidad Solar La Estrecha project, in Medellin, was the first to complete a legalized grid connection with EPM and register the commercial boundaries with XM.

What the municipality can accelerate (Ch. 17.3)

Construction permit -- priority processing for energy community projects -- 15-20 days
Land use -- verify compatibility in POT/EOT and issue certificate -- 5-10 days
Public rooftop assignment -- administrative act authorizing use -- 10-15 days
Road occupancy permit -- if needed for connection works -- 5-10 days

Environmental assessment: good news (Ch. 16.4)

Projects under 10 MW do not require an environmental license (Decreto 2041 of 2014). They only require registration with the Regional Autonomous Corporation. No energy community project comes close to that threshold: the CREG 101 072 regulatory ceiling is 5 MW.

Exceptions: projects in protected areas require clearance from the competent environmental authority; those affecting vegetation require a forestry use permit; and prior consultation is mandatory when the project affects the territories of ethnic communities.

Ch. 18 -- Financial structure

The municipality takes on no debt

The structure is project finance through a trust fund: assets are legally protected, the community participates via Community Participation Certificates, and the municipality does not borrow.

Ch. 18 -- Financial structure

Capital structure

The municipality takes on no debt: the structure is project finance through a trust fund. Move the slider to see how the rest of the stack changes.

FENOGE co-financing 50 - 70%

Result

-- FENOGE -- subsidy / grant (COP)

-- Capital to secure from other sources (COP)

The rebalancing is a convention of this tool, not the Playbook. Ch. 18.3 publishes four tranches as ranges -- FENOGE 50-60%, senior debt 20-30%, community participation 5-10%, institutional equity 10-15% -- but does not define any rule for redistributing capital when FENOGE changes. Here the remainder is split proportionally among the other three tranches, maintaining their relative proportions at the midpoint of their ranges (25 : 7.5 : 12.5). At 55% FENOGE the tool reproduces the Playbook's exact midpoints; outside that, the percentages are from this simulation. The slider goes to 70% because that is the ceiling Ch. 8.3 attributes to FENOGE co-financing, even though the capital stack table only goes to 60%.

Trust fund (Ch. 18.1)

This is the standard mechanism in Colombian infrastructure -- the same one used for 4G highway concessions, airports, and ports. It is administered by a fiduciary regulated by the Financial Superintendency (Bancolombia, Davivienda, or Corficolombiana), and each project hangs from a sub-trust with its own SPV (SAS vehicle company).

Advantages for the municipality: assets are legally protected and separated from any other obligation; the community participates economically via Community Participation Certificates; and the municipality takes on no debt.

Community Participation Certificates (CPCs) (Ch. 18.2)

Denomination: COP $1,000,000 (~USD $235) per certificate
Minimum 1 CPC per member; maximum 10 (COP $10,000,000)
Economic rights: proportional participation in 30% of project revenues
Voting rights: one member, one vote -- regardless of number of CPCs
Transferability: only to other members of the same community
Redemption: after 5 years, at net asset value
Expected return: 5-8% annual after project stabilization
Payment: lump sum or in 6 monthly installments

For low-income households, in-kind contributions (labor, materials, land) or installment payments of up to COP $170,000/month for 6 months are permitted.

Revenue distribution waterfall (Ch. 18.4)

Revenues are distributed in this order of priority: 1. O&M reserve (6 months) -- 2. Senior debt service (Bancoldex/Findeter) -- 3. Concessional debt (KfW/FMO) -- 4. Fiduciary fees -- 5. Venture Builder management fee -- 6. Community participation (30%) -- 7. Institutional return (70%) -- 8. Reserve fund.

The community collects at position 6 of 8. That order matters: in a bad year, the 30% community share is paid after debt and fees.

Ch. 19 -- Construction

Construction schedule

Between 8 and 14 weeks from mobilization to commissioning, depending on size and complexity.

Mobilization -- 1-2 weeks

Equipment transport, camp setup, and security. Quality control: equipment inspection on arrival -- must be Tier 1, undamaged, and with complete spec sheets. Verified jointly by the operator and the community.
Mounting structure -- 2-3 weeks

Installation of bases, rails, and supports. Quality control: before mounting panels, a civil engineer verifies the anchoring conforms to design and can withstand 120 km/h winds.
Panel installation -- 2-4 weeks

Mounting panels on the structures. Playbook specification: monocrystalline 540-580 Wp, efficiency above 21%, BloombergNEF Tier 1, with 25-year performance warranty (90% in year 1, 80% in year 25).
Wiring and inverters -- 1-2 weeks

Electrical connection and inverter installation (10-15 year warranty, RETIE certification). Quality control: before connection, an electrical engineer verifies RETIE compliance, grounding, and protections.
Grid connection -- 1-2 weeks

Connection point, bidirectional meter, and testing. Quality control: RETIE inspection by the ONAC body before energizing -- without an issued RETIE certificate, the system is not energized.
Commissioning and handover -- 1 week

Six formal tests: insulation, grounding (resistance <10 ohms), performance (actual vs. expected generation over 72 continuous hours), grid injection, safety (protections and anti-islanding disconnection), and remote monitoring. Acceptance criterion: performance ≥ 95% of nominal capacity.

What the community must require at formal handover (Ch. 19.4)

Handover minutes signed by the operator, the community, and CleantechHUB -- RETIE certificate -- as-built drawings -- operation and maintenance manuals -- warranty certificates for all equipment -- access to the remote monitoring system -- operator emergency contact list -- basic training for 3-5 community members in system operation and safety.

If any of these are missing, the handover is not complete. The minutes are what activates the warranties.

Project Development