Volts Enabling ordinary people to invest in renewable energy projects
17 snips
Apr 29, 2026 
Mike Silvestrini, co-founder and managing partner of Energia, a platform letting retail investors back international solar projects. He discusses evolving from friends-and-family deals to Reg A public offerings. The conversation covers how investors earn returns from PPAs and battery rentals, building microgrids in emerging markets, managing political and currency risk, and scaling retail capital with low minimums.
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Contract Mix Hedging Reduces Price Volatility
- Energia prefers long-term contracts (often 20 years) that fix or CPI-escalate revenues to reduce exposure to short-term power-market volatility.
- They intentionally mix CPI-escalating and market-indexed contracts to hedge inflation versus energy-price swings.
Repowering Fresno Airport Project And Redistributing Panels
- Mike bought a 17-year-old solar plant in California, repowered it with new panels, and sent reusable panels to Kenyan schools.
- He highlights interconnection points as the enduring valuable asset, not just panels.
Higher Returns Where Institutional Capital Avoids
- Emerging markets can offer higher yields because institutional capital often avoids them, leaving mispriced opportunities where solar economics are strong.
- Energia spends years on market analysis and local teams to underwrite those risks.