Climate Investment Newsletter 1/22 - 1/28

Individual Deals and Market Watch

Global corp funding for battery storage surges to USD 17bn 2021 [Renewables Now]

• Battery storage companies across the world have secured USD 17 billion (EUR 15bn) in total corporate funding last year, registering a 159% surge in annual terms, according to a new report by Mercom Capital Group.

Green infrastructure fund raises $741 million for renewable energy and efficiency in India [Impact Alpha]

• The Green Growth Equity Fund will be managed by Mumbai-based EverSource Capital, a joint venture between Indian private equity investor Everstone and BP’s renewable energy arm Lightsource BP.

Prime Capital raises EUR 586m for onshore wind in Scandinavia [Renewables Now]

• German independent asset manager Prime Capital AG has reached the final close of its sustainable infrastructure fund focused on onshore wind projects in Scandinavia with total commitments of EUR 586 million (USD 662.4m).

Cyprus eyes at least EUR 500m from green, sustainability bond sale - report [Renewables Now]

• Cyprus is mulling over options for issuing its first green or sustainability bond in a deal that would bring it at least EUR 500 million (USD 566.5m), an unnamed official at the country’s debt management agency told Reuters.

Sunrun closes USD-425m recourse lending facility [Renewables Now]

• Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN), a US provider of home solar panels and batteries, said that it has arranged a USD-425-million (EUR 381.2m) recourse lending facility, securing better terms to ensure growth of its business.

Amp Energy secures innovative $350 million cross-jurisdictional portfolio financing with a consortium of leading institutional investors [Yahoo]

• Amp Energy ("Amp"), a global Energy Transition Platform and renewable energy developer, announced the closing of an innovative $350 million cross-jurisdictional credit facility with a consortium of leading institutional investors including Brookfield Asset Management, a leading sovereign wealth fund, and Nomura Securities. Brookfield Asset Management and the leading sovereign wealth fund served as the main investors in this transaction. ECP will join the consortium post closing.

Factorial Energy Raises $200 million to accelerate commercialization of its novel solid-state batteries for electric vehicles [Globe News Wire]

• Factorial Energy (Factorial) has raised $200 million as part of a Series D round of funding that was led by Mercedes-Benz (DAI) and Stellantis N.V. (NYSE / MTA / Euronext Paris: STLA). Funding will be used to accelerate commercial production and deployment of Factorial’s solid-state battery technology that is safer and offers up to 50 percent greater driving range than current lithium-ion technology.

Unovis Asset Management closes oversubscribed €146m fund [Vegconomist]

• Alt-protein-focused venture capital firm Unovis Asset Management has closed an oversubscribed €146 million ($166 million) second fund. Participants included Fuji Oil, Credit Suisse, and Invest-NL.

Israel’s Redefine Meat raises $135m for worldwide expansion [Vegconomist]

• Redefine Meat, famed for its 3D-printed plant-based whole cuts, has completed a $135 million financing round – one of the largest financing rounds seen by an alt meat company in Israel.

Macro Commitments

ExxonMobil to invest $15bn in six years on carbon emission reduction opportunities [Polymerupdate]

• Moving in line with a targeted goal to achieve a net-zero emission by 2050, Texas-headquartered multinational oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil is planning to invest more than $15-billion over the next six years on initiatives to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

GM announces record $7B investment in electric vehicle plants [The Hill]

• General Motors is making a $7 billion investment in four new Michigan electric vehicle manufacturing plants in an effort to “be the market leader" in electric vehicles by 2025, CEO Mary Barra announced.

UK’s biggest private pension fund to shift £5bn away from polluters [The Guardian]

• The UK’s biggest private pension fund will shift £5bn of its investment in equities to an index avoiding the worst polluters, in a move that will immediately reduce the carbon emissions associated with the shareholdings by 30%.

Panasonic to invest $700 million to produce Tesla EV battery [Reuters]

• Japan's Panasonic (6752.T) will begin producing its new lithium-ion battery for Tesla (TSLA.O) from as early as 2023, with plans to invest about 80 billion yen ($705 million) in production facilities in Japan, the Nikkei reported.

Spain's Banca March, Kobus Partners start EUR-200m renewables fund [Renewables Now]

• Spanish bank Banca March said on Monday it had joined forces with Madrid-based private equity manager Kobus Partners to launch a EUR-200-million (USD 225.8m) fund specialised in providing unitrance debt to finance the construction of renewables in the euro zone with a focus on Spain and Portugal.

Nordic Solar eyes up to USD 150m in fresh capital in 2022 [Renewables Now]

• Danish company Nordic Solar A/S, a developer and operator of solar power plants, expects to raise up to DKK 1 billion (USD 150m/EUR 134m) this year to support existing and future projects.

EBRD to contribute $130 mln to Egypt's private energy sector green bond issuance, out of total $340 mln [Ahram Online]

• The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will dedicate a total of $130 million for green bond issuance in Egypt’s private energy sector to be the first private green renewables-backed bond issued in the Egyptian market, according to the bank’s website.

UK commits £100m to proposed Sizewell C nuclear plant [Financial Times]

• The British government has moved closer to taking a stake in nuclear power generation for the first time in more than a decade after making an initial £100m investment in the planned Sizewell C power station in Suffolk.

Alexandria Venture Investments commits over $100m to climate change technology related investments in 2021 [Cision]

• Alexandria Venture Investments, the strategic venture capital platform of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an urban office REIT and the first, longest-tenured and pioneering owner, operator and developer uniquely focused on collaborative life science, agtech and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, announced that its commitments to innovative investments focused on developing groundbreaking technologies to mitigate the effects of climate change exceeded $100 million for 2021.

Pathways, Frameworks, Case Studies, Research, Climate Science

Energy transition may shave $75tn off global economy by 2050, Wood Mackenzie says [The National News]

• An accelerated energy transition to mitigate climate risk will have tangible economic implications and may shave $75 trillion off global gross domestic product between 2022 and 2050 as countries push to meet their climate commitments… Wood Mackenzie said in its latest report detailing economic consequences of energy transition.

GFI report warns $27bn investment in plant-based production necessary to fulfill 2030 supply demands [Vegconomist]

• A new GFI report reveals it would take over 800 mega-factories producing 30,000 metric tons of plant-based meat a year in order to satisfy the anticipated global demand by 2030, urging that investment in plant-based production is crucial so that upscaling can realistically take place to anywhere near this degree.

Global spending on energy transition nears a record $1 trillion [Yahoo]

• The world invested $920 billion in clean energy deployment and innovation in 2021, a record high. However, in order to meet the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, this figure must at least triple in the next few years, warns a report out Thursday from BloombergNEF.

Corporations move into plant-based proteins to hedge against the climate risks of meat [Impact Alpha]

• You’ve heard about stranded fossil-fuel assets. Get ready for stranded meat assets. The global food system is responsible for as much as one-third of greenhouse emissions; 14% comes from livestock-based agriculture alone.

GE Renewable Energy's loss deepens to USD 795m in 2021 [Renewables Now]

• Demand at Onshore Wind, the segment’s largest business, is being impacted by uncertainty around the US wind production tax credit (PTC), which expired at year’s end. Delayed investment in US onshore wind equipment on account of the uncertainty saw Renewables’ orders drop 23% year-over-year reported and 21% organically to USD 4.9 billion in the final quarter of the year.

Morrison government announces $1bn pledge for Great Barrier Reef over the next decade [The Guardian]

• A re-elected Coalition would pour $1bn into Great Barrier Reef conservation projects over the next decade, the government says, just months after campaigning to prevent the reef being listed as “in danger” by the world heritage committee.