Empower Energies, a leading renewable energy development and financing company, and Annapolis-based Hannon Armstrong, an investor in climate change solutions, will jointly invest in renewable energy projects in the commercial & industrial (C&I) and municipal, university, school and hospital (MUSH) markets across the United States.
The collaboration unites Hannon Armstrong’s experience in providing long-term financing with Empower Energies’ existing platform for the development and acquisition of C&I-scale solar rooftop, ground-mount solar and canopy projects, as well as energy storage and related distributed generation technologies.
Major Fortune 1000 companies turn to Empower, of Bethesda, to meet their renewable project and programmatic needs, including one of the largest banks in the world, which recently awarded Empower Energies a three-year contract to manage its corporate renewable development and project construction program of up to 100 megawatts of renewable projects across more than 30 sites in the United States.
“We have seen our business expand significantly, particularly with the growing demand for on-site and off-site renewable projects by corporations and institutions committed to achieving 100% renewable energy targets, like the RE100,” said John Clapp, CEO of Empower Energies. “Hannon Armstrong provides us with a world-class financing partner with a long-term commitment to investing on the right side of the climate change line.
“We are pleased to support the Empower Energies team with capital to facilitate a wide variety of solutions sought by C&I customers,” said Hannon Armstrong Chairman & CEO Jeffrey Eckel. “There is a clear and growing demand from companies seeking to harness distributed, clean energy and this investment will further diversify our investment in a market that is making meaningful carbon reductions.”
According to a recent report by Wood Mackenzie, U.S. C&I firms signed agreements facilitating the buildout of more than 10 GW of renewable power generation through 2018, many of which were financed as power purchase agreements. Wood Mackenzie estimates that up to 85 GW of renewable energy demand exists within the Fortune 1000 through 2030.