Financing clean energy to tackle climate change

  • November 15, 2018
  • /
  • Jon Powers

The International Energy Agency (IEA) published its latest World Energy Outlook this week and the outlook is promising for clean energy. They project clean energy to account for 40% of global energy demand by 2040! Unfortunately, projections simultaneously show a steady increase in CO2 emissions which is “far out of step with [what] scientific knowledge tells us is required to tackle climate change.”

CleanCapital is taking bold steps to make capital investments more efficient to accelerate clean energy technologies that limit global warming. Our team has now acquired nearly $250m of operating solar assets in the United States, with our recent acquisition of a 46.9 MW portfolio of solar assets from ATN International, Inc. subsidiary, Ahana Renewables.

As the electricity market experiences its “most dramatic transformation since its creation more than a century ago”, the report acknowledges the “huge investment requirement” needed to meet these demands. A sentiment echoed by last month’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world will have to invest an average of around $3 trillion a year over the next three decades in transforming its energy supply systems. Accelerating and exceeding these clean energy projections becomes possible as we address many of the inefficiencies inhibiting investments in clean energy markets.

Our team at CleanCapital is leveraging technology to address many of the inefficiencies plaguing the fragmented distributed energy financing market. Pairing our technology with dedicated capital from leading global investors like BlackRock and CarVal streamlines and expedites due diligence, allowing complex deals to close efficiently. This enables new capital to flow more freely throughout the distributed energy markets helping it to scale.

The distributed energy market is key to helping limit warming to 1.5c as outlined by the IPCC. We need more innovations like what we are doing at CleanCapital to help deliver these investment-ready assets and bring the much needed capital to the market.