What is ProForm?

ProForm is a software tool designed to support a basic assessment of the environmental and financial impacts of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Given the necessary data, ProForm calculates basic financial indicators and avoided emissions of CO₂ and local air pollutants expected from a project.

As a spreadsheet-based tool, ProForm is designed to be simple enough to be easily usable, yet sophisticated enough to provide credible results. A typical application of ProForm would be in preparation of a project proposal that the developers might submit to potential investors, financiers, or a national climate change office. ProForm allows project developers, financial institutions, and other parties to investigate how changes in basic assumptions affect the key parameters of a project.

Types of Applications

ProForm can be used for renewable energy projects that involve either electricity generation or non-electric energy production, as well as for energy efficiency projects that save electricity and/or fossil fuels. ProForm can also assess fuel-switching projects, cogeneration projects, and landfill methane gas capture projects.

Within the above categories, ProForm allows for assessment of:

• Displacement of fossil fuel combustion associated with electricity production, and/or
• Displacement of fossil fuel combustion at the end-use level.

ProForm can be used for a project that involves a single installation, such as an energy efficiency improvement at a factory or an installation of a wind turbine, or for one that involves installation over time of multiple units of a technology, such as a residential lighting efficiency program.

Basic Assessments by ProForm

• Environmental assessment — ProForm calculates emissions of CO₂ and several local air pollutants that may be avoided as a result of a project. It allows the user to construct a baseline that can reflect changes in emissions impacts expected over the lifetime of the project.
• Financial assessment — The financial assessment in ProForm is from the perspective of the sponsor of the project. A basic assessment considers a locally-owned project that sells carbon credits, while an advanced assessment can consider a project that has a foreign equity investor.

Data Requirements

ProForm requires basic performance and cost data for the technology to be installed, the number of units expected to be installed in each year, and data on the baseline technology that will be displaced as a result of the project. For projects that will displace grid electricity, the user can estimate the extent to which various types of electricity generation will be affected. In addition to technology cost data, the financial assessment requires data on costs of any fuel inputs for the project, and of fuel use or electricity generation that will be avoided. ProForm is able to accommodate data on carbon credits, grants, or tax credits that may be associated with a project.

Output from ProForm

The main financial results are the project’s IRR and NPV with and without revenue from carbon credits. By modifying assumptions regarding the value of carbon credits, the user can assess what the financial impact of these credits would be under varying future scenarios.

Download ProForm V4.0 (released Nov. 2004), the ProForm users manual and other related documents
(This is an update from version 3.2, which was released 03/17/03)