Crossing the Valley of Dearth

RenewableEnergyWorld.com
By Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest
April 11, 2012

For bio-based industry, beyond the Valley of Death lies the Valley of Dearth, a shortfall in capital necessary to finance global deployment at scale. A global OPIC can bring institutional investors to the rescue, say top capital strategists in New York.

Michael Eckhart, the Global Head of Environmental Finance & Sustainability for Citigroup, doesn't hang around much on the conference circuit. In fact, the busy financier himself can't remember the last time he spent three days as a conference delegate, just taking in information. So when he came to ABLC last week, I took a chair and started making notes, fast.

You see, in project financings of $1B and up, Citigroup did all of them last year. When it comes to large-scale project debt financing of the type that bioenergy is turning to for at-scale deployments, they are not the elephant in the room. They are the room in the room.

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