To secure for Masdar a leading position in the future energy economy, Utilities and Asset Management uses various investment models to build a portfolio of renewable energy operating assets and to make strategic investments in companies with promising technology and IP.

One of its first such investment vehicles was the Masdar Clean Tech Fund, a $250 million venture capital fund launched in partnership with Credit Suisse, Consensus Business Group and Siemens in November 2006. The Masdar Clean Tech Fund deployed its capital in 2007 and 2008 taking strategic equity stakes in companies such as Segway, Halosource, Europlasma, Sulfurcell, Heliovolt, SIC Processing and EnerTech Environmental.

The unit’s strategy is to develop renewable energy projects with in-country partners. Torresol Energy, a joint venture between Masdar and Spanish engineering group Sener, already has three solar power plants in Spain with an approximate combined value of €800 million, one of which will be a CSP Central Tower Receiver System. This technology will feature the first-ever commercial deployment of projects across the Sunbelt countries by 2012.

Masdar invested €120 million in WinWinD, a manufacturer active in the design, development and assembly of technologically advanced 1 and 3 MW wind turbines. This investment signals Masdar’s strategy to lead in all forms of renewable energy. It allows us to move rapidly into the worldwide wind market enabling it to diversify its renewable energy asset portfolio. With a string of projects already under development, buying into a turbine manufacturer underpins our strategy of investing in all aspects of the renewable energy value chain.

Masdar entered into the London Array offshore wind farm project through joint venture agreement with E.ON, which currently owns half of the landmark project. DONG Energy owns the other half. The wind farm would be located in one of the three strategic areas the UK government has identified for offshore wind farm development. When fully operational, it would make a substantial contribution the UK Government’s renewable energy target of providing 10% of the UK’s electricity from renewable sources by 2010.

The Utilities team is positioned as Renewable Energy power project developer, in bridging the gap between the equipment manufacturers that lack project development capital and local utilities that lack the Renewable Energy economics, knowledge and know-how. The team is committed to making direct investments in projects in all areas of renewable energy and sustainability. The unit is currently focused on Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), Photovoltaic (PV), Wind and Waste-to-Energy.

Independently of Torresol Energy, Masdar is developing CSP plants in Abu Dhabi, and the unit’s flagship project, SHAMS 1 (“sun” in Arabic), is a 100 MW CSP plant in Madinat Zayed, Abu Dhabi; using parabolic trough technology. The project will be the first of many CSP plants in Abu Dhabi that will feed green power into the Abu Dhabi grid. Masdar is also planning a range of wind and waste-to-energy projects in Abu Dhabi.

An integrated hydrogen power generation project offers Abu Dhabi the opportunity to become a world leader in clean-power generation and carbon sequestration through the construction and operation of a 500 MW hydrogen-fired power plant. Utilising advanced technology that makes hydrogen power commercially viable today through spillover advantages for the existing oil and gas industries, this project has the potential to stimulate the development of other hydrogen-related fields such as clean transport and fuel cells. 

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