Claremont Energy

We invest in what we know well: energy generation projects. Claremont team members have provided millions of dollars worth of consulting services to power sector entities including Fortune 500 companies, government regulatory agencies, multilateral development banks, and commercial banks. Team members have helped raise billions of dollars of capital for power plant investments in a variety of international settings. We also have access to specialized data resources and modeling tools.

Our mission is to use our expertise in energy and finance to initiate, develop, and invest in utility-scale clean power projects such as small hydro, cogeneration, biomass, and wind. Our focus on clean technologies is due primarily to the following factors:

First, these projects are often too small (1 to 50 MW) to attract the attention of potential competitors such as investment banks and large power sector private equity firms, leaving the field open to boutique private equity firms such as Claremont.
Second, green power projects are relatively low risk, with energy sales occurring under long-term contracts with high-quality counterparties, and with little technological or dispatch risk.
Third, green projects often possess considerable upside potential. For example, upside may come in the form of the ability to generate at low variable cost in a high energy price environment, in the form of Carbon Emissions Reduction credits provided through the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (for Latin America and the Caribbean), or through PPA or fuel supply contract re-negotiation (especially for "Qualifying Facilities").

We choose to focus on investments in the Americas because this is the part of the world that we, as a team, know best. The team's power sector experience in the United States is extensive. In addition, all of us are either fluent or proficient in Spanish and have worked extensively in Latin America. For example, Jeff Caplan has lived and practiced law in Argentina; Slav Gatchev has helped raise debt financing for several large power projects in Latin America and the Caribbean; and Eric Shumway has worked throughout Latin America on power sector engagements, in addition to running the Mexico City office of London Economics for three years.