Clean Power

Clean Power encompasses investments in electricity generating assets that produce less carbon and other pollutants and/or particulate byproducts than other available alternatives.  The current mix of electricity generation assets in the US is inadequate, aging, and polluting.  Increasing demand for power coupled with declining supplies of traditional fuels and increasingly stringent environmental regulations ensures that clean power will be a growth industry for decades.  Alternative energy technologies such as solar and wind have matured to the point that they are approaching parity with incumbent generation technology in many locations, exciting advances are being made in emerging technologies such as tidal power, and there are significant opportunities to improve the performance of “dirty” power sources such as coal and nuclear.

Drivers

• Supply Constraints and High Prices – peaking production and increased competition for fossil fuels will constrain incumbent power generation, and result in energy shortfalls and dramatically increased energy prices over the next two decades in the absence of significant technology innovation
• Emissions Regulation – Climate change and pollution are leading to increased regulation of traditional power production; regardless of the mechanism (carbon tax, cap-and-trade, renewable portfolio standard), this regulatory environment will provide added financial incentive for clean power.
• Energy Security – There is a bi-partisan push to reduce the United States’ dependence on uncertain foreign energy supplies and large vulnerable central station power plants.  This movement creates a strong driver for domestic and distributed power generation.
• Technology Development – renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind have matured to the point that they are close to grid parity and obtaining greater scale and adoption – as these technologies proceed down the cost curve and pass grid parity, their adoption will dramatically increase.

Areas of Investment Interest

• Solar – solar thermal, photovoltaic, balance of system (mounting, electronics, storage), integrators, financial structuring, and project finance
• Wind – land assets, turbine technology, off-shore platforms, and project finance
• Industrial Waste Heat Capture – recycling of energy produced as waste from industrial processes
• Hydro – micro/run-of-the-river hydro, project finance
• Tidal/Wave – project finance and new technology
• Nuclear – 3rd generation/pebble bed technology, advanced micro nuclear, services, project finance
• Clean Coal – carbon capture and storage, integrated gasification and combined cycle, more efficient boilers, etc.

Institutional Quality Investment Vehicles

• Venture Capital Funds
• Project Finance/Infrastructure Funds
• Private Equity Funds
• Direct/Co-Investments