Energy company chooses Portland as its North American headquarters - Portland Business Journal:

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Element Power focuses on utility-scale solar and wind energy projects acroswsNorth America. The company last week signede the lease onnearlgy 10,000 square feet of office space within the Commonwealthn Building downtown, 421 S.W. Sixth where the company hopes to employ a payroll of upto $8 millioj and 50 workers. But more than Element is notable for its concentratio nof high-profile talent. The company is the producrt of HudsonClean Energy, a N.J.-based private equity fund creater in 2007 by the team that ran Goldma n Sachs’ clean energy investment grou p and turned Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy into the third-largest renewabld energy company in the U.S.
Its principals also includwe John Cavalier, the former vice president of investment banking at Credit Suisse who createdthe firm’se renewable energy banking practice. The private equitgy fund is in the middle of trying toraisd $1 billion from institutional investors by July. And according to at leasrt one report, it may surpass that goal. Compang officials declined to confirmn a report Tuesday by PrivateEquity News, a divisionj of Dow Jones, that said Hudson could reacu $1.5 billion when it closes its firstg institutional fund this summer.
Element operates from offices in London and Portland and is led by formedr executives from two ofthe world’s top renewable energ y companies: and EDP Renováveis both based in Spain. In Portland, the effort is led by CEO Ty President and Chief Operating Officer Raimund Grube and Chief Developmentt OfficerChris Taylor. Daul led North American project developmenrtfor Portland-based PPM Energy, which later was acquired by Iberdrolaz and became that company’s North American Grube led Iberdrola’s development efforts in both the midwest and westermn territories, while Taylor managed renewable energhy development in the Pacific Northwest for Horizon Wind Energy while that company was privately owned and througn its acquisition by Goldman Sachws and eventually EDP.
“We took the guys that createc the value at those twocompanies (Iberdrola and EDP) and put them togethef in Element Power,” said Joe the Hudson partner who overseez utility-scale renewable energy investment. “Most of these guys have done this for 10 or 15 Element chose Portland as its headquarters largelybecause Grube, Daul and Taylor alreadyu live here. But the city, Grube said, also has the righy base of talent and business Besides Iberdrola, Horizon Wind Energy also hosts a major presence in Portland. Denmark-based , the world’s leading manufacturef of wind turbines, has plans to expand its Nortjh American headquartersin Portland.
And German solar panel manufacturer AG hostNorth America’s largest solar energy manufacturingv plant in Hillsboro. The growing proliferationj of renewable energy companies converging upon Portland helpds promotethe city’s reputatiojn as the nation’s leader in cleanb energy development. “Once you get an anchor tenant or two here then it attractsothert people. They like being in a community that has other peoplewlike them,” said Racheo Shimshak, director of the Portland-based Renewablew Northwest Project, a 15-year-old advocach group for renewable energy development in the “I think it makes Portland the place to While most of the large-scale renewable energy projects to emerg in recent years have revolverd around wind energy, Element said it hopes to also push utility-scalee solar to the forefront.
“(Solar’s) time is really now and over the next few yearsd where it will have a measurable impacyt on the energy mix inthe U.S.,” Grube said. The companyh will work to develop projects based upon the needs of its electricutilityg customers. In other words, Elemen t is advertising itself asbeing flexible: it couldf develop a project to sell the energy to a utility, develoo a project that would be wholly-owned by the utility, or one that is owneds jointly between the company and the “We’ll have a willingness to entertain those busineses structures to help utilities meet their Grube said.
Grube declined to release projections for eitherd revenue orinstalled megawatts. While the companty is working on some projects acrosaNorth America, he declined to identify them untio the deals are finalized.