Some of the largest renewable energy investors are still bullish about the US market despite antagonism from the Trump administration.
Private equity giant Brookfield on Wednesday spent $6.5 billion, alongside Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, to acquire the Canadian renewable energy company Boralex, which has a 4-gigawatt pipeline of projects under development globally, including many in the US.
Meanwhile, Sandhya Ganapathy, CEO of EDP Renewables North America, told Semafor at CERAWeek that the company plans to increase the US share of its global capex from 45% to 60% in the next few years, representing $5 billion in new project investments. Much of that is driven by data centers. “I’ve been doing this for more than 15 years, and I’ve never seen demand this good,” she said. “It’s a fantastic time to be on the generation side in spite of all of the policy challenges and the backlash that we have.”
The biggest obstacles now, she said, are slow permitting and an underdeveloped grid. That view was shared in a separate interview with Andrew Flanagan, CEO of RWE Americas, which said last week it will plow $20 billion into new renewables and gas projects in the US. “The US is still a great market,” Flanagan told Semafor. “We take a long-term view, and we can’t overreact to the short-term variability in policy.”