Modern Energy has invested $30 million into the launch and multi-year deployment of Industrial Sun, an Austin-based utility-scale solar developer.
“Modern’s experience developing, aggregating, and marketing assets across multiple technologies and regulatory regimes, along with their track record for building novel development platforms from inception to scale, was important to us in looking for a partner,” says Dan Seif, Industrial Sun’s co-founder. “Modern understands the challenges associated with development. We are confident their world-class operations team will contribute to our success in this competitive environment.”
Industrial Sun is already engaged in project development activities, including contracting optimal locations for assets, securing necessary permits, de-risking projects through engineering studies, navigating the interconnection process and securing power offtake agreements. Modern provides Industrial Sun with commercial, operational and capital markets support, as it does with its other portfolio development companies.
“This partnership is based on a shared cultural alignment and a long-term orientation, which we believe are necessary to achieve a significant impact on the energy transition,” states Jazib Hasan of Modern Energy. “Today, many developers find themselves with a large and eager universe of buyers ready to purchase and operate portfolios but limited capital to help them build their operation. We act as a bridge between early-stage and operational assets.”
Kirk Bedell and Jazib Hasan led the transaction for Modern Energy. Before joining Modern, Bedell spent a decade building clean energy development businesses across the United States – most recently, he established and led the distributed generation development business at Brookfield Asset Management and formerly built and led commercial strategy for General Electric’s distributed solar development business, which Blackrock acquired in 2019.
Before Modern, Hasan raised and invested capital in energy, infrastructure, renewables, and commodities – most recently at Citibank as its head of commodities structured finance and credit solutions. Prior to that, Hasan held similar executive roles at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Shell Energy North America and Deutsche Bank.
