Clean Energy Projects Get a $65M Boost

By Anca Gagiuc

Carbon Lighthouse, a clean energy services company, and Generate Capital, a financier, owner and operator of distributed energy and resource infrastructure, have closed on a $64 million project finance fund to support the growth of Carbon Lighthouse’s clean energy and efficiency business. This marks Carbon Lighthouse’s third and largest project financing to date.

Based in San Francisco, Carbon Lighthouse has worked in more than 500 buildings across the U.S., from Hawaii to New York, and has eliminated the equivalent of six power plants, with nine more currently under contract. By 2020, Carbon Lighthouse aims to cut the equivalent of 50 power plants, with a plan to eliminate 50 more every year after that.

“This project finance fund enables us to continue providing services to clients with zero out-of-pocket costs, reducing risk even further for our clients,” Brenden Millstein, co-founder & CEO of Carbon Lighthouse, said in prepared remarks. “This allows us to expand our services at an even quicker pace and wider scale, while achieving more and more impact as we move full speed ahead into 2019.”

Sustained growth

As per Navigant Research, the global market for energy efficient building technologies is expected to grow to $360.6 billion by 2026. Carbon Lighthouse’s Efficiency Production approach can save building owners $0.4 to $0.6 per square foot, boosting net profit by $5 to $10 square foot when the building is sold. Thus, a 10-million-square-foot portfolio can gain $50 million to $100 million in new, bankable profit.

“Carbon Lighthouse has cracked one of the most challenging but crucial markets for cutting carbon emissions from the built environment: Commercial real estate,” added San Franciso-based Generate Capital’s president & co-founder, who previously founded SunEdison. “They have proven that energy efficiency savings can be turned into lease revenue that is widely recognized as good REIT income, which has been the largest hurdle to attracting the attention of property owners, hotels and other building owners. We’re excited to help them scale this unique approach to cutting carbon in a lucrative way.”

Carbon Lighthouse also announced a $7.5 million follow-on equity investment to its $27 million strategic growth round closed earlier this year. The additional investment came from CEAS Investments, which is run by Mike Wohl, who invests on behalf of a large single-family office in South Florida.

Image courtesy of Carbon Lighthouse