Silicon Solution Joint Venture, LLC - Energy Highway
Silicon Solution Joint Venture, LLC - Energy Highway
Silicon Solution Joint Venture, LLC - Energy Highway
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US SOLAR – WHITE PAPER 24 May 2012<br />
Figure 13: Assets under management for global fund management industry, 2009 ($trn)<br />
Pension funds<br />
Mutual funds<br />
Insurance funds<br />
20.4<br />
22.9<br />
28.0<br />
Conventional investment<br />
management assets<br />
(institutional investors)<br />
Sovereign wealth funds<br />
Private equity<br />
Hedge funds<br />
Exchange-traded funds<br />
Private wealth<br />
3.8<br />
2.5<br />
1.7<br />
1.0<br />
Non-conventional<br />
(alternative) investment<br />
management assets<br />
39.0<br />
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45<br />
Source: TheCityUK estimates, www.thecityuk.com/assets/Uploads/Fund-management-2010.pdf Notes: as<br />
per TheCityUK, “around one-third of ‘private wealth’ is incorporated in conventional investment<br />
management.”<br />
Bloomberg New <strong>Energy</strong> Finance conducted interviews with 20 investors across 11 investor types,<br />
to understand what might be the potential appetite for solar project investment among these 'new'<br />
potential players. The key questions asked in the interviews are summarised below 3 :<br />
• Involvement in solar to date: what types of investments have you made, or have you<br />
considered making, in solar?<br />
• Interest and involvement in comparable asset classes: what is your level of participation in<br />
asset classes that bear some resemblance to solar project investment?<br />
• Investment profile: what metrics guide your investment selection? What is your investment<br />
horizon (or your fund's lifetime), what are your target returns, and what level of liquidity do you<br />
require? Were you to invest in solar projects, what stage in the project lifecycle would be your<br />
ideal entry point? Do you have a preference for debt vs. equity?<br />
• Assessment of solar investment overall: what is your perception of the riskiness of solar<br />
investments? What barriers have you encountered in pursuing solar investments? Do you<br />
anticipate expanding your investments into solar?<br />
• Policy commentary and recommendations: are there specific regulatory measures which could<br />
make solar project investment more attractive to you?<br />
4.1. Investor descriptions<br />
The responses from these interviews are summarised in Table 3. The characterisation of the<br />
investors in the table is simplified and is not exhaustive. It is also not mutually exclusive: the list<br />
includes, for example, both pension funds and venture capital, but it is not uncommon for pension<br />
funds to invest in venture capital funds. Similarly, the list does not include high net worth<br />
individuals, who could participate as backers behind almost all of these investor types. 4<br />
3 These interviews were conducted under 'Chatham House' rules: we encouraged interviewees to speak<br />
candidly about their investment decision-making with the understanding that there would be no remarks<br />
cited with attribution. Instead, the intention was to solicit responses that captured the 'flavour' of how<br />
different types of investors may approach solar project opportunities.<br />
4 In a recent innovative financing deal, wealthy foreign individuals backed the financing of a Nevada<br />
geothermal plant. Their motivation?: in exchange for the investments, which must be at least $500,000<br />
and create 10 permanent jobs for US workers, investors receive US green cards two years later. A similar<br />
transaction has happened in solar: according to its S-1 filing, solar thermal developer BrightSource<br />
received a similar $90 million loan for its Ivanpah project.<br />
© Bloomberg New <strong>Energy</strong> Finance 2012<br />
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