RENEWABLE ENERGY INVESTMENTS
What You Should Know
Global demand for the transition to sustainable energy is growing, but mapping out how to do this effectively while also promoting global economic growth continues to be a challenge. Measuring the way companies should be investing in renewable energy, both in their own operations, as well as in strategic sustainability initiatives, is becoming the new bottom line.
Renewable energy investments are still a top option for impact investors, no matter where they are on the spectrum. Even with the impact of a global pandemic, the renewable sector is full of confidence in the long-term outlook.
Renewable Energy Investments and Disruptive Technology
Dr. Schindler has been a pioneer in renewable energy investments since the beginning of his career in 1980 as a corporate lawyer. He advised his first client, Ultrasystems Inc. on its IPO (1981), its growth strategy (1980-88) and exit (1988).
Ultrasystems, by acting as the first renewable power project developer in the USA to go public and by achieving a profitable exit, acted as an example to others. In addition, it participated in the growth strategy for developing, designing, engineering, constructing and operating many of the first utility scale renewable power projects in the US in the 1980’s.
Dr. Schindler continued to work with his law clients in this space, and eventually made the leap to creating his own venture firm, SAIL Capital Partners, in order to continue to invest in renewable energy projects. SAIL was a lead or co-lead investor in many path breaking renewable energy and water projects.
After 14 years of impact investing projects, Dr. Schindler learned that there is opportunity for every source of energy to become more efficient by applying disruptive technology and innovation.
Today, he works on projects across the entire spectrum of energy, from solar power to microgrid optimization. Step into the arena of investing in renewable energy by contacting Dr. Schindler on his firm’s website.
Invested Industries
The Future of Renewable Energy Investments
The future of renewable energy has never been more important than it is right now. The issues that we’ve created as a growing global population are slowly starting to consume us. Over production and over consumption, combined with inefficient systems for the distribution of energy, water, and food, are no longer issues that are only “environmental issues.” These issues are at the foundation of global human and animal health, and global economic issues are harming everyone… from the poorest villages to the largest publicly traded companies.
Changes in the Landscape for Impact Investing
Impact investing in general (and renewable energy investing specifically) is no longer an option or a win-lose situation. With the advancements in technology and the increasing demand for companies to have a positive impact on the world, we are finally in a place to leverage sustainability in a way that makes a real impact and a real profit.
If we can improve efficiencies in the use and distribution of energy and reduce the amount of waste we create from all these systems, we can provide a better life for the earth and all of us living on it. Improving efficiencies can also contribute to a healthy global economy.
The Problem
Dr. Schindler learned you can’t tackle the world’s largest sustainability issues in the world’s largest industries like energy, water, and food with just venture capital. Much greater capital is needed to change these large inertial systems.
The Solution
Significant capital, major political support, and the best technological solutions available are required to improve efficiency across the entire spectrum of renewable resources. What the world’s largest industries need is a global transformation, and that transformation is happening right now.
What We're Doing
There are many legal, financial, and business strategies to achieve a win-win situation for sustainability investing and improving efficiencies. That’s why Dr. Schindler’s firm, Transformation, was created: to help companies, financial managers, private banks, and family offices make investments and manage funds that result in greater sustainability for the world and its inhabitants.
Why Invest in Renewable Energy?
Energy created by burning fossil fuels is a leading cause of climate change and has a severe impact on our overall health.
Our need for energy has reached an unprecedented level. According to BBC more than half of our energy comes from fossil fuels extracted from deep within the earth’s crust. Fossil fuels are considered non-renewable and thus unsustainable. In order to achieve a sustainable future, we need to find a way to meet our current demands while protecting the environment and our resources for the future.
Clean energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat.
Renewable energy investments come with many benefits and creates a synergy between generating profit and benefiting the environment.
1. Renewable energy reduces air pollution
According to the WHO, in the year 2016 alone, ambient air pollution was responsible for 4.2 million deaths. Worldwide, ambient air pollution is estimated to cause about 16% of the lung cancer deaths, 25% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths and about 26% of respiratory infection deaths.
Many people aren’t aware of how severe the consequences of air pollution are on our health and overall well-being since it is something that happens gradually and through everyday exposure. Because air pollution can be linked to various medical issues such as an inability to breathe correctly, brain damage, heart attacks and cancer, serious actions must be taken.
Renewable energy sources help to improve air quality and therefore our health, by supplying electricity or heat without combustion. Technologies such as wind power, solar PV power, geothermal energy, heat pumps or solar thermal energy are most effective at cutting air pollutant emission.
2. Renewable energy has become the cheapest source of new power generation
According to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), unsubsidized renewable energy is now most frequently the cheapest source of energy generation.
The report states that the cost of installation and maintenance of renewables, which was an important stumbling block to mass adoption, continues on a downward trajectory.
The IRENA report concludes that:
- Onshore wind and solar PV power are now, frequently, less expensive than any fossil-fuel option, without financial assistance.
- New solar and wind installations will increasingly undercut even the operating-only costs of existing coal-fired plants.
- Low and falling technology costs make renewables the competitive backbone of energy decarbonization – a crucial climate goal.
Renewable energy is the cheapest source of new power generation for more than two thirds of the world and has no fuel costs. It has the ability to reduce the economic burden of energy bills by eliminating expensive fuel charges. In addition, the instability of fossil fuel prices presents a global opportunity to accelerate the shift to clean energy.
It is essential that countries back renewable energy and other low-carbon technology which not only benefit the environment but also can help reboot economies and create new jobs.
3. Investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency could lead to 63 million new jobs by 2050
According to the International Energy Agency, most energy-efficient jobs directly create local employment opportunities within small- and medium-sized businesses.
Renewable Energy World states that under “IRENA’s Transforming Energy Scenario, the number of renewable energy jobs worldwide could more than triple, reaching 42 million jobs by 2050, while energy-efficiency jobs would grow six-fold, employing more than 21 million more people over the next 30 years”.
The decisions world leaders make now will affect the world long after the coronavirus crisis ends.
We believe that the road to a sustainable future requires creative solutions to the world’s biggest environmental and social issues, and we aim to make investments that are not only impactful and work towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, but also provide a return on investment.