Stuart McKenzie Consultancy

Insights

Three Doors, One Thesis: How I Think About Portugal’s Energy Projects Together

Over recent weeks I have written about three energy projects in Portugal. Read individually they might look like three separate ideas. They are not. They are three entry points into the same argument, and the relationship between them is more interesting than any one of them alone….
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One Asset, Several Jobs: Why Storage Changed How I Read an Energy Project

If solar is so cheap now, why are returns not obvious? Because cheapness created its own problem. Solar floods the Iberian grid at the same hours every day, and prices collapse. Storage is the answer the market settled on, and understanding why changes how you read an energy project entirely….
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The Gap Nobody Funds: Where Solar Projects Actually Stall

There is a point in the life of a solar project where the money gets difficult, and it is not the point most people expect. Financing a construction-ready project is straightforward. Getting a project to that stage is not. Here is where solar development actually stalls, and why that gap…
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The Patience Behind a Solar Project: What Santa Marta Says About Long-Horizon Energy

Development on the Santa Marta site in the Algarve began in 2019, and seven years later it is still being advanced. That timescale is the part of energy investment nobody puts on a brochure. Here is what it says about grid position, patience, and why Portugal has become the place…
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What I Actually Work On: Portugal Solar, Golden Visa and Health Projects

People often ask what I actually work on. The honest answer is a small number of projects I know well enough to speak about with confidence. Three Portugal solar and energy strategies, a residency route I introduce directly, and a clinical health business in Edinburgh. Here is what each one…
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The Money Has Made Its Choice: Why De-Risked Solar Is Where Serious Capital Is Going

Over two weeks, three deals on three continents told the same story. The serious money in energy is not chasing panels in a field. It is chasing de-risked, permitted, revenue-contracted solar. Here is why that model matters, what a country without it looks like, and where it connects to the…
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Retiring to Europe After Brexit: Why the Smart Money Reads the Tax Map First

A rapidly growing number of Britons want to retire to Europe, five years after Brexit ended freedom of movement. But the dream rewards those who read the tax map first. Here is how Spain, France, Portugal and Italy compare on eligibility, tax and inheritance, and why Portugal so often comes…
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A Page From the Billionaire Playbook: Why Residency Is Now Risk Management

When billionaires secure a second residency, they are not just choosing where to live. They are applying portfolio thinking to their own lives. Here is why residency has become a form of risk management, and how to approach it with the discipline it deserves….
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What €20 Billion in Saved Gas Tells Us About Energy Security

In four months, Europe’s solar panels saved the continent €20 billion in gas imports, roughly €146 million a day. That single number reframes what energy security now means, and why homegrown, storage-backed generation is where serious long-term capital is looking….
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Europe Is Finally Racing to Fix the Thing That Holds Renewables Back

Europe is building clean power faster than it can use it. In the first quarter of 2026, EU markets recorded 1,223 hours of negative electricity prices. Now the bloc has committed to quadrupling storage by 2030. Here is what that shift means for how serious capital should be positioned….
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