Financing Expensive Cleantech Projects In Today's Climate
Kudos to my colleagues at Venture Capital Journal for an illuminating breakfast discussion this morning on how big cleantech projects might get financed in this abysmal economic environment. (Big props especially to Alex Haislip, who organized and moderated the event.) Held at Quadrus, a glass-lined conference center that sits amid a sea of venture capital firms on Sand Hill Road, the breakfast featured three speakers: John Buehler, the managing director of Energy Investors Fund, a project finance company that invests in a range of power-related projects; Ben Kortlang, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers who focuses on growth-stage green-tech investing; and Rohan Singh, a senior VP at the commercial bank HSH Nordbank. Singh structures debt and equity transactions for renewable energy projects. Herewith, to the best of my note-taking, is some of the conversation that took place:
