Morning Brief: Biden’s energy transition team, BlackRock CEO backs mandatory climate reporting

Also in the brief: The Solar Foundation and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council are merging, Trump administration removes scientist in charge of assessing climate change, Cypress Creek closed a seven-year, $200 million debt financing, and solar-powered butter.

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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden names members of energy transition team:

  • Arun Majumdar, team lead, is founding director of ARPA-E and has been mentioned as a potential candidate for Secretary of Energy.
  • Jonathan Elkind of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy served at the DOE under the Obama administration on climate and energy programs.
  • Noah Deich of nonprofit Carbon180 has been active in the carbon capture, utilization and storage space. This suggests we’ll be hearing a lot more about carbon capture in the next four years
  • Brad Markell, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and chair of the AFL-CIO energy task force. Source: S&P Global, pv magazine

BlackRock CEO backs mandatory climate reporting, urges U.S. action: Larry Fink, chief executive of the world’s largest asset manager, said he backed the UK’s move to make reporting corporate risk related to climate change mandatory, and urged the U.S. to follow suit.“We welcome the UK Chancellor’s announcement yesterday (of) mandatory TCFD reporting,” Fink said, referring to the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, which will be required from large companies and financial institutions by 2025. “The United States, for its part, should move faster so we can achieve greater global coordination.” Source: Reuters

Trump administration removes scientist in charge of assessing climate change: Michael Kuperberg was told he would no longer oversee the National Climate Assessment. The job is expected to go to a climate-change skeptic, according to people familiar with the changes. Source: NYT

The Solar Foundation and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) are merging into a single, expanded nonprofit dedicated to the rapid adoption of clean energy. The Solar Foundation is a national nonprofit dedicated to accelerating adoption of solar energy and related technologies. IREC has been trusted for its independent clean energy expertise for nearly 40 years, while tackling regulatory, workforce, and economic barriers. IREC

Cypress Creek Renewables closed a seven-year, $200 million debt financing for the holding company that owns its 1.6 GW portfolio of operating solar energy projects comprised of more than 200 solar and storage projects across 13 states. Rebecca Cranna, COO and CFO for Cypress Creek said: “This new debt facility…provides us with the flexibility to own assets where we see strategic value”

C2 Energy Capital, an investor in renewable energy and storage assets, announced that Land O’Lakes has subscribed to three of its completed community solar garden projects in Minnesota. The community solar projects total over 4 MW in size and are installed with SolarEdge optimizers. Source: C2 Energy Capital

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