By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
A hundred million here, a hundred million there, and suddenly you’re talking real money. And that’s the kind of real money that Energy Impact Partners, a utility-backed investment fund, has raised to invest in clean tech.
$681 million, to be exact.
Bloomberg reports that Energy Impact Partners, backed by such utility giants as Southern Company and National Grid, are looking to invest the money in startups that are doing clean tech research, looking for the next big breakthrough.
This is in addition to the the $200 million the fund has already invested in companies like Advanced Microgrid Solutions and includes $150 million from U.S. Small Business Administration loans.
As Bloomberg New Energy Finance notes:
Utilities are trying to capture future industry growth amid stagnant electricity demand and a rise in technologies that give customers more control over their energy use. Utilities disclosed about $6.8 billion in venture capital, private equity and merger and acquisition deals in 2017.
And as Energy Impact Partners’ CEO Hans Kobler told Bloomberg:
We are helping them future-proof their business. This is a difficult landscape and as utilities prepare for that, they need to look for what’s coming down the pike and we serve as their eyes and ears for them.
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, clean tech startups need the money and aren’t going to be too particular where the money comes from to fund their breakthrough technology. On the other hand, it feels a little bit like the original electric car movement, doesn’t it? This fund invests in new and exciting clean tech technologies and keeps the utilities informed about what competition they will be facing down the road. This gives them the opportunity to prevent the technology from ever coming to light or to head it off by tangling it in regulations at the state level.
Now I know that would never happen because as we all know, utilities are as pure as the driven snow. But just in case this was the case, that kind of conflict of interest seems like a difficult one to navigate for Energy Impact Partners.
I’m honestly torn – what do the rest of you think?