ENERGY
Bank of America and CrossBoundary Energy | November 10, 2022
CrossBoundary Energy, a leading developer, owner, and operator of commercial and industrial renewable energy projects in Africa, announced in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt at the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference, their intention to explore financing solutions with Bank of America, to rapidly scale its investments in renewable energy solutions for commercial and industrial businesses across Africa. The collaboration serves as an example of a blended finance transaction driving capital flow into Emerging Markets and will support CrossBoundary's delivery of approximately 255MW of solar and wind generation and 50MWh of storage projects.CrossBoundary Energy provides tailored, fully financed renewable energy solutions to its corporate customers, allowing them to avoid upfront capital expenditure and technical risks, while still benefitting from cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable power. CrossBoundary is currently delivering a portfolio of $230 million in projects for more than 30 corporate customers across 14 African countries and is the renewable energy provider of choice for several market-leading companies present in Africa, including Unilever, Diageo, Rio Tinto, Heineken, and AB InBev.
"We are very excited to be able to share this news alongside Bank of America during COP27, hosted on the African continent, given our common goal of bolstering sustainable development in emerging markets. COP27 is an appropriate backdrop to articulate our shared commitment to expand large-scale renewable energy projects in Africa. We are proud to be working with Bank of America, and as well as development finance institutions, to build a more sustainable future in the region."
-Matt Tilleard, co-founder and Managing Partner, CrossBoundary Group
Karen Fang, Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Bank of America said, "Bank of America recognizes the importance of developing renewable energy infrastructure in Africa, where energy is lacking on a consumer level and commercial operations are hampered by outages. We believe emerging markets need the net zero transition as much as developed markets, and as part of our own commitment to achieve net zero before 2050 and our $1.5 trillion sustainable finance commitment by 2030, are ensuring climate finance capital are flowing in a targeted and equitable manner. We look forward to working with CrossBoundary, which has a solid track record in renewable energy deployment in Africa and a robust development pipeline, and hope this example paves the way for more sustainable development in emerging markets."
Bank of America has set tangible sustainable finance goals and made measurable progress in mobilizing and scaling capital deployment to help drive social and environmental change. In 2021, Bank of America set a goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in financing activities, operations and supply chain before 2050. As part of the company's commitment to deploy $1.5 trillion in sustainable finance by 2030, approximately $250 billion of capital was mobilized and deployed aligned with the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals in 2021.
BofA has experience lending and arranging renewable energy financing in a number of regions, including distributed solar financing solutions for residential and commercial and industrial customers in emerging markets. BofA is also recognized as an M&A and capital markets leader across emerging markets.
CrossBoundary Energy
CrossBoundary Energy is a leading developer, owner, and operator of distributed renewable energy solutions for businesses across Africa, providing cheaper and cleaner energy through power purchase and lease agreements. CrossBoundary Energy is currently delivering a portfolio of over US$230M of solar renewable energy assets for clients including Unilever, Diageo, Rio Tinto, Heineken, and AB InBev, and was recently recognized by African Solar Industry Association as "Solar Company of the Year". Learn more at www.crossboundary.com/energy/. CrossBoundary Energy is a member company of the CrossBoundary Group, a mission-driven investment firm committed to unlocking capital for sustainable growth and strong returns in underserved markets. Learn more at www.crossboundary.com.
Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 68 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 3,900 retail financial centers, approximately 16,000 ATMs and award-winning digital banking with approximately 56 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
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STRATEGY AND BEST PRACTICES, TRANSPORTATION
The Mobility House | November 01, 2022
The Mobility House, in collaboration with partners including AlphaStruxure and Schneider Electric, celebrates the completion and energizing of Brookville Smart Energy Bus Depot in Montgomery County, Maryland. This landmark integrated 6.5 MW microgrid and electric bus charging infrastructure project uses onsite solar canopies, natural gas generators, battery storage, microgrid controls and electric bus chargers to support 70 electric buses, a holistic solution that can run independent of the local utility. The Mobility House’s smart charging and energy management system, ChargePilot, coordinates charging with the microgrid by optimizing the buses’ charging schedules based on route blocks and energy demands to ensure vehicle readiness.
Montgomery County has been committed to sustainability leadership and improving resilience after experiencing extreme weather events and recent extended power outages. Brookville Smart Energy Depot aligns with the County’s priorities to reduce emissions from public transportation while strengthening the community and infrastructure assets,” said Michael Yambrach, Interim Chief, Office of Energy and Sustainability, Department of General Services for Montgomery County.
“The transportation infrastructure of tomorrow is up and running today in Montgomery County, We are thrilled to partner with Montgomery County on this holistic solution that delivers improved, cleaner services to County constituents. This benchmark project serves as a national model for municipalities and private fleet owners across the county to efficiently deploy the charging infrastructure and distributed energy resources that the energy transition requires, accelerating the electrification of medium and heavy-duty vehicle fleets. Thanks to a turnkey Energy as a Service approach, we’ve delivered an integrated bus fleet solution with a resilient energy supply and without upfront costs or financial risks for the County. The Mobility House plays an instrumental role as the interface between the microgrid and vehicles, while reducing operating costs to help make this Energy as a Service model a success for the County. At AlphaStruxure we’re grateful for our partnership with Mobility House to successfully deliver this innovative project.”
-Juan Macias, CEO of AlphaStruxure
The 6.5 MW microgrid features 1.6 MW of solar PV, three 633 kW generators and 3 MW of battery storage to support up to 70 electric buses – 50 percent of the Brookville bus fleet. Charging from its onsite power supply gives the County freedom to “island” from the grid, which not only ensures continuous fleet operation in the event of grid failures, but also the limitations of coordinating bus charging schedules around utility time-of-use rates.
The Brookville Smart Energy Bus Depot is a momentous achievement not only for resilient public transportation but also in demonstrating the power of integrated technologies to provide sustainable community resources, said The Mobility House U.S. Managing Director Gregor Hintler. “Managing EV charging within a microgrid is a technological achievement, and we are proud to offer our ChargePilot system as the link between onsite renewable energy generation and EV consumption.
Responsible for ensuring all buses at the Brookville bus depot are charged to meet the next day’s routes, The Mobility House’s ChargePilot system intelligently coordinates with the microgrid’s 4.14 MW charging capacity to source onsite power at the correct times throughout the day and night. ChargePilot also ensures that EV charging responds to load balancing and peak shaving commands from the microgrid controller.
Learn how fleet operators around the world, including one of the largest public transit charging sites in the U.S. and the largest fleets in Europe, leverage The Mobility House’s smart charging and energy management solution by visiting mobilityhouse.com.
About The Mobility House
The Mobility House’s mission is to create an emissions-free energy and mobility future. Since 2009, the company has developed an expansive partner ecosystem to intelligently integrate electric vehicles into the power grid, including electric vehicle charger manufacturers, 1,000+ installation partners, 80+ energy suppliers, and automotive manufacturers ranging from Audi to Tesla. The intelligent Charging and Energy Management system ChargePilot and underlying EV Aggregation Platform enable customers and partners to integrate electric vehicles into the grid for optimized and future proof operations. The Mobility House’s unique vendor-neutral and interoperable technology approach to smart charging and energy management has been successful at over 800 commercial installations around the world. The Mobility House has more than 250 employees across its operations in Munich, Zurich and Belmont, Calif. For more information visit mobilityhouse.com.
About AlphaStruxure
AlphaStruxure is a leading Energy as a Service (EaaS) provider that designs, builds, owns, operates, and maintains tailored energy infrastructure, including microgrids. Unlike other EaaS Internal providers, AlphaStruxure owns its clients’ systems for their lifecycle, making it fully accountable for long-term outcomes on resilience, reliability, greenhouse gas reduction, and cost stability — without the CapEx or complexity. AlphaStruxure’s unique joint-venture model combines Carlyle’s capital backing with Schneider Electric’s 185+ year legacy and its track record as the #1 microgrid technology provider, with over 300 successful projects across North America. As a steadfast innovator in the new energy landscape, AlphaStruxure unlocks ambitious transformations for energy-intensive private and public sector organizations. AlphaStruxure is based in Boston, MA and operates across North America while leveraging global capabilities.
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SOLAR+STORAGE, STRATEGY AND BEST PRACTICES
Quinbrook and Primergy Solar | October 17, 2022
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners (“Quinbrook”), a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on the new infrastructure needed for the energy transition, and its portfolio company Primergy Solar (“Primergy”) announced today the sale of a minority equity stake in its US$1.2 billion Gemini Solar + Storage project outside of Las Vegas to APG, the largest pension asset manager in the Netherlands. APG has agreed to acquire a 49% equity ownership in the project on behalf of its pension fund client ABP.
Earlier this year, Quinbrook and Primergy began seeking equity partners for Gemini, a 690MWac solar plus 1,416 MWh battery energy storage facility. APG was selected by Quinbrook and Primergy following the receipt of multiple offers from a diverse group of prospective investors ranging across the industrial and financial investor landscape. APG is an experienced investor in US renewables and has several direct investments in utility-scale solar and storage assets in the US. Gemini will be APG’s largest single solar + storage investment to date. Once complete and operational in 2023, Gemini is expected to generate enough clean energy to power more than 400,000 homes during peak periods and displace 1.5 million metric tons of CO2 annually.
Gemini is currently the largest solar + storage project under construction in the US and recently closed a record breaking US$1.9 billion tax equity and debt financing led by Bank of America, Truist, KeyBanc, MUFG, and NORD/LB. Truist Securities also advised Quinbrook and Primergy on the transaction.
David Scaysbrook, co-founder and Managing Partner of Quinbrook commented, “We are very excited to welcome APG as a partner to Quinbrook and Primergy as we advance construction of such a milestone project for US clean energy. Given the scale and impact of Gemini, we felt APG was an exemplary partner for us that is differentiated by its sophisticated approach to the Gemini project and to the US renewables market more generally. Our Primergy team will continue to manage the construction and operational phases of Gemini with some exciting milestones coming up as the mammoth Gemini Project takes shape.”
“The size, innovative integration of battery storage and siting on federal lands makes Gemini one of the most sophisticated clean energy projects ever developed. We are thrilled that APG, an experienced US renewables investor, is confident in our team’s capabilities to continue to build, and then to operate and maintain one of the largest solar plants ever constructed. Gemini is one of the first large-scale projects to approach clean energy development in a holistic way that successfully integrates ecosystem management and a commitment to local partnerships as well as delivering numerous other ESG related benefits. Together with Quinbrook, we look forward to partnering with APG in delivering a monumental clean power project for Nevada.”
-Ty Daul, CEO of Primergy Solar
Steven Hason, Managing Director of Americas Real Assets for APG, stated “As a responsible investor, we are always looking for infrastructure investments that bring long-term financial returns for our pension clients and that have positive environmental and social impacts. This transaction represents an ideal opportunity to invest in a state-of-the-art energy project that will provide clean, renewable electricity for Nevada. We look forward to working with our partners who share our long-term investment goals with regard to this critical infrastructure asset.”
About Quinbrook
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners (http://www.quinbrook.com) is a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on renewables, storage and grid support infrastructure needed to drive the energy transition in the US, UK and Australia. Quinbrook is led and managed by a senior team of power industry professionals who have collectively invested c.USD 8.2 billion of equity in energy infrastructure assets since the early 1990s, representing a total enterprise value of c.USD 28.7 billion or 19.5 GW of power supply capacity. Quinbrook has completed a diverse range of direct investments in both utility and distributed scale onshore wind and solar power, battery storage, reserve peaking capacity, biomass, fugitive methane recovery, hydro and flexible energy management solutions in the US, UK, and Australia. Quinbrook is currently developing and constructing some of the largest renewables and storage infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the US, UK, and Australia.
About Primergy
Primergy is a developer, owner and operator focused on both distributed and utility scale solar PV and battery storage projects in North America with portfolios of over 8 GW of solar and battery energy storage projects in development, construction and operations in 17 different states. Primergy features a diverse and talented team with decades of experience in renewables project development, financing, construction and operations. Primergy is a portfolio company of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and represents Quinbrook’s principal solar and solar plus energy storage investment platform in North America.
About APG
APG is the largest pension provider in the Netherlands. With approximately €558 billion in AUM, APG invests on behalf of Dutch pension funds and their 4.8 million participants. In addition to asset management, APG provides executive consultancy, pension administration, pension communication and employer services. APG has a global presence with offices in Heerlen, Amsterdam, Brussels, New York, and Hong Kong, as well as satellite sites in Shanghai and Beijing. APG has been an active infrastructure investor since 2004, investing over €17.0 billion to date. APG's investments include assets within power & utilities, energy, telecommunications, and transport infrastructure. APG's Global Infrastructure team is comprised of 40 investment professionals. For more information, visit: https://apg.nl/en.
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