Francis Charbonneau
Associate Director
Francis Charbonneau is an Associate Director in RCG’s Vancouver office. He is an experienced consultant, engineer and project manager, and has a proven track record leading multidisciplinary project teams and technical advisory assignments on solar and wind projects globally. Mr Charbonneau has over 15 years experience working on renewables and infrastructure projects across Canada, the United States, and Latin America.
Mr Charbonneau is an expert in the technical and commercial aspects of wind and solar project development and financing, having worked in global renewable energy consultancy servicing international developers, lenders and investors. He has extensive experience managing multiple projects concurrently, in business development, and leading engineering teams across international offices.
Before joining RCG, Mr Charbonneau headed up Canadian project development and engineering services for a major renewable energy consultancy, where he provided technical services and business development of owner’s engineer, front-end engineering and design (FEED) and due diligence services. Mr Charbonneau has held multiple prominent advisory roles in the solar and wind energy market. This includes serving as project manager and consultant on due diligence assignments for lender’s independent engineer, tax equity, merger and acquisition, and refinancing scopes on behalf of debt financiers, tax equity investors, cash equity investors and owners. Additionally, he acted as project manager on owner’s engineer services with scopes including the development of conceptual and preliminary engineering design, engineering procurement construction (EPC) tender package, equipment selection, energy yield assessment, fatal flaws analysis, CAPEX, OPEX and decommissioning cost estimates, utility interconnection requirements, and environmental evaluation. Mr Charbonneau also provided construction monitoring and O&M assessment of projects, and installation of independent wind turbines power performance testing measurements systems.
Mr Charbonneau is a qualified electrical engineer and electrician. He is bilingual in English and French.
Representative Assignments
- Project development and engineering, solar PV
- Project manager for the preliminary development of the first two solar projects in Quebec. This included the development of conceptual and preliminary engineering designs (geotechnical, civil, mechanical, and electrical), equipment selection, energy yield assessment, environmental evaluation, construction cost estimate and the EPC tender technical documentation (design basis, EPC contractor scope of work, acceptance test, construction schedule, and O&M contractor scope).
- Lender’s technical advisor, onshore wind
- Project manager for technical due diligence to support the debt financing of the White Pines wind project in Ontario, Canada. The assignment included a full techno-commercial review of the project prior to financial close. Continued to represent the interest of the lenders throughout the construction period; until a new government implemented a legislation forcing the decommissioning of the previously approved project prior to commercial operation.
- Owner’s engineer, solar PV/battery energy storage
- Project manager for the provision of owners engineering services relating to two integrated solar/ battery energy storage systems projects in Hawaii. The scope of work included performing a fatal flaw analysis, preliminary design, energy yield, and technical support with interconnection requirements and power purchase agreement application.
