Generate Capital Cuts Staff Amid Downturn in Climate Finance
(Bloomberg) -- Generate Capital PBC, an investment firm that has raised more than $14 billion since 2014 to bankroll largely US-based sustainable projects, has cut staff as the withdrawal of US policy support upends the clean energy investing landscape.
The majority of job cuts were in administrative and corporate operation positions, said Tina Wadhwa, a spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Generate. Dozens of people were impacted, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company declined to comment on the number of layoffs and said it currently employs 200.
Last month, Generate brought in David Crane, an industry veteran who served at the Energy Department under former President Joe Biden, to replace co-founder and former CEO Scott Jacobs. In a Sept. 25 post on the firm’s site, Crane said that Generate “made mistakes rooted in the euphoria of the early 2020s” — a period when federal incentives and low interest rates led a boom in clean energy financing. Deviating from the company’s “operational roots” led to “poor performance in one component of our investment portfolio,” Crane wrote.
One of Generate’s investments is in Pine Gate Renewables, a developer and operator of solar and energy storage projects that is weighing a possible restructuring in bankruptcy court. The investment accounts for about 3% to 5% of Generate’s total assets under management, according to people familiar with the matter. Generate declined to comment on the specifics of the investment.
Crane wrote in his post that the firm will move forward by focusing on projects and operating them as well as its credit business. In addition to renewable energy projects, Generate has also invested in areas including waste management and industrial decarbonization. Crane said in an interview that the company remains in a strong liquidity position.
US clean energy investors have been trying to find stable footing following a flurry of policy moves by President Donald Trump’s administration. Those include the withdrawal of billions of dollars handed out during the Biden administration, phasing out of clean energy credits, and halting and delaying permits for renewable energy projects.
Investments in renewable energy fell by $20.5 billion in the US for the first half of the year, according to BloombergNEF. That’s a 36% dip compared to the second half of 2024. Roughly $22 billion in clean energy projects and factories were canceled in the first half of the year as well, according to a report from the nonpartisan group E2.
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