Former CEO of Ørsted's onshore business division Declan Flanagan has launched a new global renewable energy investment platform, Bluestar Energy Capital that's powered by an initial $100 million capital to invest in greenfield project development platforms.
Headquartered in Chicago, the new company will have Flanagan as its controlling shareholder with remaining investors being S2G Ventures and Great Bay Renewables. Bluestar's strategy involves developing either wholly-owned or controlled subsidiaries to run regional platforms in the US, Australia and Europe.
"The Company's initial focus is exclusively on project development capital and the Company will evaluate various options for construction and operating capital in due course," stated Bluestar.
For the North American market, it has established regional development platform Nova Clean Energy that's pursuing greenfield opportunities in wind, solar and storage projects as well as via merger and acquisitions (M&A) activities. It is led by Head of Development Jenn Goodwillie who worked with Flanagan at Ørsted Onshore.
For Australia, Bluestar Energy Australia (BEA) has already built a 'meaningful' pipeline focused on wind power with plans to further add solar and storage.
"A huge amount of capital is seeking a role in the energy transition, but a scarcity remains of the right kind of capital for new development platforms and new projects. Our vision is to be one of the largest global investors of early-stage development capital," said Bluestar CEO Flanagan.
He added, "We have structured Bluestar as a portfolio of distinct regional platforms based on the conviction that successful project development is a very local business. Success is about empowering regional leadership while bringing global scale and an owner's attention to detail in managing project and market risk."
Other former Ørsted Onshore colleagues have joined Declan at Bluestar with Dennis Meany as president and board member, Dylan Reeves as head of project delivery, Cortney Zaret as head of Accounting and Administration, and Joe Condo as General Counsel.
Flanagan's position at Danish renewable energy company Ørsted was taken over by Neil O'Donovan in September 2021 (see Neil O'Donovan Ørsted Onshore's CEO).