• Investors are more open to natural gas, coal after a primarily renewables focus
• Sponsors, strategics circling energy assets, investing in utilities, funding facilities

While investors and LPs viewed assets like coal and natural gas as deal breakers a couple of years ago, the electrical sources have become an increasingly necessary investment as renewables can’t meet data centres’ power needs.

The US government’s current view on renewables has also contributed to a shift in energy investors’ attitudes toward a former renewable-only approach. Sponsors are becoming more flexible on which energy assets they will include in their portfolios, including an increased openness to regulated utilities, another formerly less popular asset.

Carlos Martinez, Mergermarket’s energy editor in the Americas, joins Dealcast host Julie-Anna Needham to discuss the energy landscape, including:

• Which sponsors are investing in a wider range of energy assets, like BlackRock’s recent agreement to purchase utility company AES for USD 38bn
• Why the changing approach to utilities investments may spark state-level policy pushback in the US
• Why more renewable energy-focused investors may begin to look toward opportunities in Canada
• How strategics are circling energy investments by funding plants and entering into power purchase agreements

All this and more in this week’s Dealcast.